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:
‘We wouldn’t be doing that,’ Diamond said as if he, too, thought it was an appalling liberty. ‘It’s just a matter of knowing who was where on a particular date last month. Where do you keep it — somewhere within reach?’
Sinclair flexed his legs and tucked his heels in.
‘Under your seat?’ Diamond said.
‘I can’t show you.’
‘I know exactly how you feel, but we have a duty here, and there’s an offence known as obstruction.’
Sinclair was tight-lipped for a few seconds as the words sank in. Then he exhaled sharply, leaned forward and felt under his seat. ‘You won’t tell him?’
‘Percy, it’s entirely between ourselves.’
With definite misgivings, a battered notebook was handed over.
Diamond opened it at random and quickly got a sense of what the columns represented. He turned several pages in rising anticipation. ‘All the flights are logged here?’
‘Every one.’
His finger went down the left column and up again. But there was crushing disappointment here. ‘That trip you mentioned to Bristol and Bath was all of four weeks ago.’
‘Sorry. It seemed like less.’
‘Nothing more recent? I’m interested in the week beginning the twelfth.’
‘Whatever is written there is correct,’ Sinclair said.
‘According to this, you didn’t fly anywhere on the fifteenth.’
‘There are days when I’m not needed. He tells me in advance, so I can take time off if it’s due to me. We’re often away at weekends and I make up my rest days when I can.’
Diamond exchanged a look with Halliwell. The fifteenth had been the day of the auction.
‘Does he ever travel by other means?’
‘Short trips, around London.’
‘But if he wanted to visit Bath, he’d ask you to fly him there?’
Sinclair nodded. ‘He isn’t one for spending hours in a train or car.’
‘On the sixteenth, you flew to Norwich.’
‘Yes, he’s got a big building project there. Do you want to know where we stayed?’
‘Doesn’t matter,’ Diamond said in a mood of resignation. A promising line of enquiry had led nowhere. ‘Did you ever fly his ex-wife Monica anywhere?’
‘Monica?’ He blinked several times. ‘There were trips when she joined us. She’d visit friends or go shopping. That was way back last year. There was a serious falling out.’ He stared back at Diamond. He’d finally made the connection. ‘Is this about her new husband getting shot?’
Diamond nodded.
‘Tragic.’
‘Indeed. Did you ever meet him?’
‘The professor? No.’ Sinclair made it obvious he wanted to end this conversation, shifting in his seat and glancing left and right as if deciding whether to open the door and leap out.
‘I expect you heard about him from Bernie. He talks to you on these flights, doesn’t he?’
‘Not much. There’s nothing more I can tell you.’
‘That’s okay,’ Diamond said smoothly. ‘You’ve been really helpful. I’ll mention it to Bernie when I speak to him.’
‘Christ, no, don’t do that. He won’t be pleased at all. I could lose my job.’
‘Has he got something to hide, then?’
‘No, no — don’t get that idea.’
‘Have you got something to hide?’ More than just a hunch, the possibility had surfaced in Diamond’s mind when Sinclair had reacted so sharply to the mention of Monica. ‘Did you know about the affair before Bernie found out? A little secret between you and Monica? I’ve met her, by the way, and she talked very freely. I feel sorry for her.’
‘Me, too.’ He was less guarded now. ‘There was one time while Bernie was away in America, and a rail strike was on. I flew her to Reading, to the university there, and it didn’t go into the log. She asked me to keep it to myself. We were there overnight. I stayed with friends in Caversham. I guessed what she was up to, but I thought it was fair game. Bernie has girlfriends all over.’
‘That emerged in the divorce court,’ Diamond said.
‘I’m not criticising. He treats me fairly. If that’s how he wants to lead his life, so be it. But I have a lot of sympathy for Monica.’
‘Has he ever spoken to you about the professor being shot?’
‘Not a word. None of my business.’
‘Of course not.’ Diamond looked out at the demonstration. Most of the protesters had given up. A police van had arrived and the reinforcements were chatting amicably among themselves. He turned to Halliwell. ‘Don’t get too comfortable. You and I had better move, or Percy will have some explaining to do when Bernie comes back from his business meeting.’
17
‘So how shall we play this?’ Ingeborg asked.
She was seated with Nathan in the rear of his black limousine, trusted enough to travel without one of the minders beside her. Another car was following with at least four heavies inside.
‘Leave it to me,’ Nathan said.
‘That isn’t good enough. I need to know what to expect.’
Pressured, he took a deep, impatient breath and said without looking her way, ‘Me and my back-up will be out of sight when you meet Lily. Be natural with her and keep talking. We’ll take over when the time is right.’
‘No shooting?’
‘Christ no, I don’t want her getting hurt.’
‘Or me, I hope.’
‘You’re one of us. You have as much interest in reeling her in as I do — almost.’
Ingeborg doubted whether Lee would appreciate being ‘reeled in.’ The runaway pop star might ultimately forgive Nathan, whose actions really did seem to be driven by his heart, but she was certain to feel betrayed by Ingeborg. This assignment had already been stripped of any glamour it had at the beginning. Going undercover, even in a worthy cause, is a dirty, demeaning trade.
And there was no way to pull out now.
Precisely what had prompted Lee’s bid for freedom was uncertain. She had said on the phone that her life had been getting impossible for reasons she wouldn’t go into. She was with a friend. The first thought had to be that the friend was male, younger than Nathan, more attractive and less demanding. The regime in the Leigh Woods mansion must have been pretty repressive for any young woman, least of all one getting empowered by fame in the music business. She may have needed Nathan’s backing at the start of her career and now decided she was successful enough to go it alone.
Whatever the outcome of this afternoon’s adventure, it was a game changer. Posing as a journalist would get more difficult, if not impossible, when Lee turned angry and refused to cooperate.
Time for a rethink.
The obvious way forward was to work on Nathan. ‘Prove you’re on side,’ he’d said earlier, and now he’d called Ingeborg ‘one of us.’ By building on his confidence, she need no longer rely on Lee as her ticket into the Hazael household.
Using people like this was alien to her nature, but it had to be done.
‘Will you help me with Lee?’ she asked Nathan. ‘She’s going to feel I haven’t been honest with her.’
‘Sure. I’ll talk her round. She’ll be pleased we went to all this trouble to bring her back. I’m not a total beginner with women. You all enjoy the chase.’
Dream on, she thought.
‘We’ll put you down in the Grove, south of the square,’ Nathan continued, with a switch to a managerial tone. ‘You walk up Grove Avenue and there you are. Do what she said, go to the middle, where the statue is, and talk to her. She’ll want to come to some arrangement about this thing you’re doing for the Sunday paper. Fall in with whatever she says. Put her mind at ease, okay? Don’t say a single word about me. And don’t ask who she’s with or what her plans are. When she’s ready to leave, you say goodbye, walk back to the Grove where we dropped you and wait for the car. Is that clear?’