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:
‘Not necessarily. I’ll get one of the dog-handlers to subdue the brute.’
As if in defiance, there was growling from the other side.
They returned to the entrance hall and told Halliwell about their experience.
Inside ten minutes, the Dobermann was caged and brought downstairs.
‘Are you game to resume the tour?’ Diamond asked.
Ingeborg stepped through the shower and said, ‘Shit.’
The gunroom had been cleared of every weapon, every piece of ammunition. The cupboards and racks remained, but there was nothing left to incriminate Nathan.
‘Now we know what kept them busy for an hour this morning,’ Diamond said when he’d followed her in.
‘The place was stacked to the ceiling,’ she said. ‘What did they do with everything?’
‘Lugged it all downstairs and loaded up the limo in the garage,’ he said. ‘That’s why they didn’t drive off immediately with Paul in the boot of the other car. They knew you were certain to be back shortly.’
‘I’m an idiot. I should have collected the two Webleys when I had the chance. I didn’t want my prints all over them.’
‘Don’t beat yourself up over it. You were trying to escape. And the law wouldn’t look kindly on evidence seized undercover.’
She was incensed and it showed in her voice. ‘Where would he take all those guns? He can’t fly out of the country with them.’
‘He’ll have a safe address somewhere near, a lockup maybe. The guns are his source of wealth and also his biggest risk. He would always have had an emergency plan for them.’ He rapped the inner wall with his knuckles. ‘This isn’t a plywood partition. It’s brick. Whoever built it did a good job.’
‘Oh my God.’ Ingeborg clapped her hand to her forehead. ‘There’s something I didn’t tell you when I reported on what happened last night. I heard it from Lee when we got back to my flat this morning. The sound studio and gym, which you haven’t yet seen, were built by Wefers Construction.’
‘Bernie?’ He gave a low whistle.
‘He came here in person. He knows Nathan. And it wouldn’t surprise me if he installed this gunroom as well. They go back some way, apparently.’
Diamond took this in, frowned and made the considerable mental effort to shift his attention from the current emergency to the case that had started all this. ‘Bernie and Nathan? Who would have thought it?’
‘I meant to tell you sooner. It got overtaken by all this.’
‘It’s okay,’ he said, still making the connection and trying to see how it played.
Ingeborg filled him in more fully. ‘I asked Lee about each of the main suspects. I think she’s in a little bubble of her own. She didn’t know about Gildersleeve being killed and she hadn’t heard of Dr. Poke or Monica, but when I mentioned Bernie, she knew him straight away as someone who came here and discussed the specifications for the studio and the gym.’
‘Monica hasn’t been here?’
‘Not to Lee’s knowledge, anyway.’
‘But Bernie has definitely done business with Nathan?’ He was still absorbing, still calculating.
‘I got the impression they were thick as thieves.’
He leaned back against Bernie’s solidly constructed wall and gave his verdict. ‘This takes us into uncharted waters. If Bernie is a regular here and very likely built the gunroom, he wouldn’t think twice about borrowing a handgun. We know he threatened Gildersleeve at the time of the divorce. It’s not looking good for Bernie. Your undercover mission has really paid off.’
‘I still wish I’d picked up those bloody Webleys. One of them is almost certainly the murder weapon.’
‘Let’s not assume anything,’ he said.
‘Did you look at the list I brought back?’ she asked, hardly listening. ‘That could clinch it.’
‘Personally, no. I haven’t had time. Someone in the office is going through it looking for initials we can recognise, but they may be in code.’
‘Is Nathan as careful as that?’
‘I don’t know. You’ve met the man. I haven’t yet. Going by his actions, I’d say he’s a smart operator.’
They returned downstairs and inspected Lee Li’s purpose-built annexe, the sound studio and the gym. ‘I’m sure he genuinely loves her, to provide all this,’ Ingeborg said.
Romantic deeds didn’t feature in Diamond’s take on Nathan. ‘He didn’t stop his bodyguards shooting at her when you were escaping in the Aston Martin.’
‘They wouldn’t have seen her. I told her to keep her head down.’
The search of the building continued. The entrance hall was being used as the headquarters and Halliwell was presiding. Little of interest had been found so far. Of Diamond’s wish-list, only the logbooks of the Daimlers and the Aston Martin had been found. The registration numbers had already been obtained from the Police National Computer.
‘No news of sightings, I suppose?’ Diamond asked.
‘I’d tell you, wouldn’t I?’ Halliwell said. ‘But the crime scene team have started work under the tree.’
‘I won’t hold my breath.’
Diamond took off the ripped jacket and slung it over a chair.
‘That’s blood on your shirt,’ Ingeborg said.
‘Nothing serious.’
‘You should get some antiseptic on it.’
‘Don’t fuss.’
‘You saved my life. I have a right to fuss. I’ll get the first aid kit from the car and don’t try and stop me.’
In five minutes he was shirtless and being fussed.
‘Do you mind if I ask something?’ Ingeborg said.
‘Ask away.’
‘Why did you send Paul Gilbert here?’
‘I didn’t.
I couldn’t understand why your car was left on the dockside. Georgina got wind of it and wanted action, so I gave Paul an outing. In no time he was hot on your trail.’
‘But we agreed that I wouldn’t report in.’
‘Absolutely.’
She changed abruptly from caring nurse to counsel for the prosecution. ‘You couldn’t let me get on with it, so you sent Paul to check?’
‘Are you listening Inge? It wasn’t like that at all.
He took it on himself to put the house under surveillance. The first I knew of it was when he started texting me. I finally get a phone call late last evening and he’s up the tree with the dog in attendance.’
‘What a mess. What did you do?’
‘I was angry. I told him to use his initiative and get the hell out of there.’ He made a movement of his shoulders that could have been taken for a shudder. ‘If I could turn the clock back, I would.’
Ingeborg nodded, more accepting now. ‘You know he lives with his mother. Should we let her know?’
‘As yet, we don’t know for certain ourselves.’
‘If he’s not been home since yesterday morning, she’ll be worried.’
‘Don’t you think he would have phoned her?’
‘To say he was on a job? I suppose.’
‘If there’s bad news to pass on, I’d rather be certain about it,’ he said. ‘And I won’t do it over the phone.’
Late in the afternoon, with no more news and nothing to show for the search, he released the armed response team and they got in the buses and returned to Bath. But in the grounds, the CSI team continued the painstaking examination of the area under the oak. Nothing new of any significance had been found.
Even the Dobermann had given up barking and was asleep in the caged area behind the house where it was kept.
As time passed, Diamond was thinking increasingly about Paul Gilbert’s mother. Maybe Ingeborg was right and they should contact her soon.
Then Halliwell took a phone message from Bristol Central. A corpse had been sighted in the River Avon.