Douglas said, ‘Every time. Even when it’s uncomfortable for other people.’
Halliwell said to Ingeborg, ‘You took his statement. Did he say anything about speaking to Harry last night?’
Her gaze slipped away to the musicians pounding out a fortissimo passage in great sobs of sound, and then came back to Diamond. ‘All right, guv. I agree with you. Anthony is in the clear.’
There would have been a pause for thought if thought was possible in a maelstrom.
When the volume decreased a little, Halliwell said, ‘That leaves the least likely.’
‘Mel?’ Ingeborg said, mystified. ‘He’s only just joined them. Anyway, he’s not violent. He’s a normal, well-adjusted guy.’
‘We all know how you feel about Mel,’ Halliwell said.
‘That’s below the belt. If you remember, I commented after first meeting him that he thinks he’s God’s gift to women.’
‘So we’ve got that clear,’ Diamond said to get some order in the ranks. ‘Shall we examine the case for Mel being the killer? You say he only just joined them, Inge, and that’s true. However, we discovered he was in Vienna performing with the London Symphony Orchestra in 2008, in the month Emi was killed. Coincidence, or evidence of guilt?’
‘Pure chance. There’s nothing to connect him with Emi or the Staccati at that time,’ Ingeborg said.
‘But he does act like God’s gift,’ Halliwell couldn’t resist quoting her. ‘From all we hear, he shags anything that moves — his landlady’s daughter and probably his landlady as well. We know what Emi’s profession was and we know she was a musician herself. He could have coupled with her. We can’t rule it out.’
‘What — strangled her and dumped her in the canal? Mel?’ Ingeborg said with scorn.
Diamond said, ‘There’s a story about Mel that may have some bearing on this.’ He turned to Ingeborg. ‘About his viola being stolen outside the Festival Hall. You were there with me. You heard him tell it.’
‘I know. A really mean trick on somebody’s part,’ she said, ‘but I don’t see the relevance, guv.’
‘Can you recall the details? You and I heard it, but Keith hasn’t and it may be new to Douglas.’
In a slightly mystified voice Ingeborg started repeating the tale. ‘He was on his way home from a concert at the Festival Hall one night and this student stopped him and asked for his autograph.’
‘Stop there,’ Diamond said. ‘You’ve missed the point. She was from the Far East.’
‘Why does that matter?’ She put her hand to her mouth. ‘Oh. He’s got a thing about Asian women. He was tricked by this one and never forgot it.’
‘Finish the story.’
For the benefit of the others, she told it to the end. ‘It didn’t strike me as important at the time,’ she added. ‘I suppose it could have turned his mind.’
‘Let’s move on,’ Diamond said. ‘Mel joins the quartet. They recruit him. He doesn’t go looking for the job. But here in Bath he’s as likely as anyone else to have met Mari at the concert she attended.’
‘He claimed to have no memory of her,’ Halliwell said.
‘He would, wouldn’t he?’ Diamond said. ‘I don’t see that as significant. He could have fixed to meet her later, on some pretext like a walk along the towpath.’
‘And strangled her because she reminded him of the girl who set him up for the mugging?’ Ingeborg said. ‘It still seems far-fetched.’
‘Unless you can think of a better motive.’
Halliwell returned to the point he’d made already. ‘He’s a letch. These women came onto him and he responded.’
‘You mean a murdering letch,’ Diamond said. ‘In other words, a psychopath.’
‘We don’t know if either victim was killed as part of a sex act, but they could have been. The bodies were too far gone to show any signs.’
‘They were dressed,’ Ingeborg said, contemptuous of Halliwell’s theory.
‘Doesn’t mean nothing happened,’ Halliwell said.
Diamond wanted to move on. The sixteen-minute fugue was at least two-thirds through. ‘I’m willing to look at that. But what would have caused Mel to shoot Harry, a totally different kind of killing?’
‘We agree Harry knew too much for the murderer to allow him to live,’ Halliwell said.
‘Or was too curious and likely to find out the truth,’ Ingeborg chimed in. ‘Harry had visited Mel earlier the same night. Something he said caused Mel to panic. He knew where to find him. It was obvious Harry would try and see Anthony next.’
‘What’s all this? Are you warming up to the idea of Mel as the killer?’ Diamond said to her, faintly amused at the U-turn.
‘He knew Harry was carrying the gun. He may have thought he could fake a suicide.’
‘Hang on a minute,’ Diamond said. ‘Let’s inject some reality into this. The reason Harry called on Mel last night is that he felt safe with him. He’d get the updated story from him. If he’d thought for a moment that Mel was the killer he wouldn’t have gone near him. They had their conversation and he left in peace. And even supposing Mel is the murderer, how would Harry know? At the time Emi was murdered, Harry wasn’t around. He was in bed in his hotel room. We all agree Emi had sex with him and left the hotel alone after midnight. And as for Mari, if Mel had some kind of date with her in Green Park, we don’t even know if Harry was in the country by then. The first time he was spotted was less than a week ago. Mel had no reason to kill Harry. Mel is innocent.’
A crescendo from the Staccati appeared to salute this conclusion.
There was another short period when nothing was spoken and the control room was filled only with the dissonant wail of the strings.
‘We’ve eliminated them all,’ Ingeborg said.
‘Except one.’
The fifth and final part of the Grosse Fuge restores sanity. It picks up and develops the transparent, tuneful theme that was briefly employed in the second part. It is recognizable Beethoven, a coda in pianissimo that pacifies and pleases.
‘To quote a smarter sleuth than any of us,’ Diamond said, ‘ “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” ’
30
‘If you mean who I think you do,’ Ingeborg said in a voice that was calm, but challenging, ‘women are not stranglers. It’s not a woman’s crime.’
‘Have you seen her hands?’ Diamond said.
Everyone looked to where Cat was still pressing the strings with strength and mobility, extracting trills from the cello that matched anything the three men were producing. Fleshy they may have been, but they were long-fingered, workmanlike hands. Given a slender neck to grip, they could have ended a life, no question.
‘Both female victims were petite,’ Diamond reminded them.
Ingeborg tried reasoning with him. ‘You don’t want to go down this route, guv. She’s a caring person. She keeps the men from getting quarrelsome. She’s quick, witty, takes the heat out of any argument.’
‘Why on earth would she want to kill anyone?’ Halliwell said, finally finding a common cause with Ingeborg.
‘All will be revealed,’ Diamond said. ‘I’m pulling her in for questioning.’
The Grosse Fuge came to its serene conclusion, a sense that a mountainous journey had been completed and the travellers were safe. The quartet lifted their bows and lowered them. Relieved smiles all round.
‘Terrific,’ the voice of the producer penetrated the studio. ‘I don’t think you’ll better that.’
Ivan gave a nod. ‘Shall we settle for it?’ he asked the others.