The Stone Wife
- Автор: Ловси Питер
- Серия: Peter Diamond #14
- Год: 2014
- Язык: английский
- Год: Sphere
- ISBN: 978-0-7515-5405-2
- Жанр: Полицейские детективы
Электронная книга - «The Stone Wife». Краткое содержание книги:
The team listened keenly when Diamond reported on his meeting with Monica Gildersleeve. The only surprise to him was the way Ingeborg reacted. He would have put money on her empathising strongly with the poor woman’s ordeal. Instead she remained as calm as if he’d been reading out the latest crime figures. He didn’t mind too much. Excesses of emotion never went down well with the team. Perhaps it was the way he’d told it, he reflected. Hearing the victim herself would have shocked them more.
John Leaman was the first to comment.
‘I don’t get it.’
‘Don’t get what?’ Diamond asked him.
‘If this was a deliberate, planned murder, what’s the point of doing it in such a public place?’
‘It’s smart. Everyone assumes the victim was killed in the course of a robbery that went wrong. That’s what we’ve been thinking up to now. Maybe it’s what we were meant to think.’
Leaman shook his head. ‘That’s too Byzantine for me.’
Looks were exchanged, but no one asked.
‘Plenty of people knew the sale was coming,’ Diamond went on. ‘It was well publicised, in the paper and online. Gildersleeve wasn’t exactly silent about going there and bidding up for the carving. Anyone who knew about him and his interest in Chaucer could predict how he’d behave if he was thwarted. The auction was a very good cover for a killing.’
‘Except the killing wasn’t all that efficient,’ Leaman said. ‘He died from a stomach wound rather than several bullets to the head, like you’d expect from an assassination squad.’
Diamond shook his head and glanced round the room. ‘Did anyone hear me say the gunmen were hot shots? Plainly they weren’t.’
Paul Gilbert took some heat out of the exchange. ‘They don’t get much practice here in sleepy old Zummerzet.’
Smiles all round.
Diamond wasn’t letting Leaman undermine him. ‘The thinking behind it may have been intelligent even though the execution was poor. That’s all I’m saying.’
Then Keith Halliwell tried to move the discussion on. ‘It’s progress. We’re talking about suspects now. Real people. I never had much confidence in the British Museum as the killer.’
‘They have a high body count,’ Paul Gilbert said, on a roll with his homely wit.
‘What do you mean?’
‘All those mummies.’
Halliwell rolled his eyes. ‘Get the names on the board, John. Let’s get some background on these villains.’
But Leaman refused to back off. ‘I don’t think we should get carried away by what this woman said. Any rational assessment points to an armed robbery that went wrong.’
Diamond relented a bit. ‘You’re right about that, John, and it’s still the main line of enquiry. These other suspects are side issues for the present, but we won’t discount them.’
Ingeborg said, ‘It sounds as if Monica Gildersleeve impressed you, guv.’
He hesitated, sensing disapproval behind the remark. ‘I believe she was speaking the truth.’
‘It’s just that she’s got us all thinking about Wefers and Poke. Is that why she asked to see you — to finger them as suspects?’
‘It’s one interpretation. What’s your point here?’
‘Shouldn’t we ask ourselves why?’
‘Her husband was shot. She’s entitled to an opinion.’
‘And the two people she named are her ex and the guy who wanted her husband’s job.’
‘Go on. I’m listening.’
‘What’s her agenda? That’s my point. Can’t she accept that her husband of six months got killed making a fool of himself over a lump of limestone? He’d been telling all and sundry how much he wanted the thing. It must have really got to her, him going on like that.’
‘She didn’t say so.’
‘What’s more, he was willing to pay twenty-four grand.’
‘I doubt whether money came into it. She’s a rich woman.’
‘He died trying to hold onto the Wife of Bath, not the wife he’d recently married.’
The words Monica Gildersleeve had used came back to him: I was starting to wonder if he preferred her to me. He nodded. ‘I follow what you’re saying, Inge. It must be really tough for her to take.’
‘Well, it may explain why she favours another explanation.’
‘Okay. In matters like this it’s helpful to get the woman’s angle.’
Her eyes narrowed and she said in a low voice, ‘Don’t patronise me.’
From nowhere, he’d got a putdown from the brightest of his team, the one he still hoped would volunteer to go undercover. He didn’t fully understand how it had happened. He’d tried to give her credit for speaking out.
He had another try. ‘I was about to say we mustn’t get deflected. It would be useful to find out more about the stone before it got into the auction, and I’m thinking of making a trip to Bridgwater tomorrow. We could take in North Petherton as well. Feel like a break from this lot?’
‘Are you speaking to me?’ she said in the same disenchanted voice.
‘I thought I was.’
She hesitated. ‘I’d rather not, if you don’t mind. I’d like to be closer to home tomorrow. Personal reasons.’
There wasn’t much arguing with that. ‘Fair enough.’
Leaman spoke up. ‘I’ll go with you, guv. I’m getting interested in the history of North Petherton since I started researching online.’
‘Thanks,’ Diamond said without any gratitude. ‘I’ll enjoy your company.’ His mind wasn’t really on Bridgwater or North Petherton. He turned back to Ingeborg. ‘Can we have a chat in my office?’
She was more relaxed when alone with him. She smiled when he warned her not to trip over the Wife of Bath.
‘It’s easily done,’ he added. ‘I ought to push her into a corner out of the way.’
‘She might not appreciate that. You may not have noticed, but women like to know precisely what’s going on.’
He smiled. ‘You and I seemed to be on different wavelengths out there. I didn’t set out to upset you.’
‘No problem. I’m a little edgy, that’s all.’
‘Something I said?’
She exhaled like a smoker, using the pause to choose the right words. ‘All this stuff about suspects and deliberate murder got to me, guv. I spent a lot of the past twenty-four hours thinking over what you said about going undercover and my mind was made up. I was going to speak to you as soon as you were alone. So it came as a shock to hear you talking about these new theories fed to you by Monica Gildersleeve.’
‘That wasn’t my intention.’
‘I know, but it seemed to show you don’t have total confidence in the scenario we’ve been pursuing up to now.’
‘You’ve known me a long time, Inge,’ he said. ‘Keeping an open mind is the only way forward. In this job, it’s essential. We don’t know everything, so we have to stay receptive.’
‘I understand that.’
‘But…?’
‘But if I’m going to put my career and maybe my life on the line by associating with known criminals, I want to know it’s for solid reasons. I want to be certain I’m not on a wild goose chase.’
His mouth had gone dry. Now that she was on the point of volunteering, he was becoming unsettled instead of relieved. ‘Nothing is certain, Inge. I’d be dishonest if I promised you it was. The only solid fact we have is that three armed robbers held up the auction and shot the professor. None of our theories, however over the top, can alter that. I don’t know how we’re going to make progress without tracing the gunmen. This isn’t the kind of stuff you get from talking to snouts in a pub.’