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:
He’d come to another decision. He picked up the phone and spoke to Bristol police about organising a search of Leigh Woods at first light next morning, using dogs.
‘It’s a big area,’ the inspector said. ‘Forest terrain.’
‘I know. I cycled through it this morning. You’ll need everyone you can spare, and more.’
‘Are we looking for a corpse?’
‘Unhappily, yes.’
‘Will you be there to supervise?’
‘Sorry. I’m needed here, but someone from Bath will definitely join you.’
He sank into his chair and reflected on twenty-four hours he wished to God he could re-run. This time yesterday he had been receiving texts from Paul Gilbert. He’d forever blame himself for consigning the young DC to his fate.
Don’t dwell on it, he told himself. If nothing else, you have a duty to put the investigation to bed. That won’t be redemption, but it’s the least you can do if the boy’s death isn’t to be completely wasted.
What have you learned from the whole debacle?
He’d pinned too much hope on the log sheets from the gunroom. The best they could provide would be information for other investigations. Another disappointment was the removal of the gun hoard to some new hiding place. Difficult to track down now that Nathan was dead. No doubt the criminal world would find a way of bringing the weapons back into use.
The bodyguards, too, would disappear into the underworld. He had no great hopes of detaining them. Lowlifes like that were adept in merging with the background and leaving no trace.
The one breakthrough was learning of Bernie’s involvement with Nathan. The boorish property developer had become the prime suspect in the shooting of Gildersleeve. The case against him had strengthened markedly in spite of the fact that under questioning he’d claimed to have an alibi — on the day of the auction he’d been at one of his homes in Maidenhead or London. He wasn’t even sure which one, and it was just his word.
Diamond called Wefers Construction and got a recorded message saying that the office was closed. Easy to forget that the rest of the world worked to civilised hours like nine to five.
Plenty was still going on in the incident room. He shouted for Keith.
Halliwell put his head round the door. ‘Guv?’
‘Do we have Bernie’s mobile number?’
‘I’ll get it.’
Bernie’s recorded voice said, ‘I’m out of the country right now. Leave a message and I’ll get back to you.’
‘Out of the country?’ Diamond said. ‘Has he done a runner?’
‘I doubt if he’d record a message if he had,’ Halliwell said.
He scratched his head. ‘What was the name of his PA?’
‘Colleen.’
‘She must keep a diary of his appointments. I’ll phone her in the morning, find out where she thinks he was on the day of the shooting. And I’ll have another go at Monica. I need more background on her ex.’
‘She’s got her second husband’s funeral tomorrow.’
‘Where? Reading?’
‘The crematorium at eleven thirty.’
‘We must be there. We can make it, can’t we?’
‘You mean you and me?’ Halliwell said. ‘If you remember, I’ll be at Bristol mortuary.’
‘How come you get all the luck? It will have to be John Leaman, then. Not my first choice of companion at a funeral.’
Halliwell gave him a look that was not overburdened with sympathy and left for home soon after, and the CID room entered ticking-over mode, with just two DCs and a sergeant on duty.
Diamond remained in his office until ten thirty waiting for the news that refused to come. When fatigue finally hit him and he signed off, it was with instructions that he should be phoned at home as soon as a report came in of an unidentified body.
Somewhere between Membury services and junction 14 on the M4 next morning, John Leaman made his first intelligent remark of the day: ‘There’s a toll on the Clifton suspension bridge. Does it have cameras?’
‘It must do, for security,’ Diamond said and then sat forward so abruptly that the safety belt tightened across his chest. ‘Good point. It’s the obvious route out of Leigh Woods. Nathan ended up on the bridge for sure.’
‘He ended up in the river,’ Leaman said with his dogged logic.
‘Okay.’ Diamond took out his mobile. ‘But there should be footage of the limos at the bridge. I’m calling Manvers Street now to get those cameras checked.’
After the call was made and the instructions issued, Leaman said, ‘So what was the sequence of events after the two Daimlers drove away from the house yesterday morning?’
‘Another good question,’ Diamond said, and meant it. With so much else on his mind, he hadn’t looked at Nathan’s actions in a systematic way. ‘Whatever opinion we have about the man, he was well organised. He’ll have moved his precious guns to a safe place first. A lock-up is the most likely. Leigh Woods isn’t noted for them, but across the bridge near the docks there are storage facilities in plenty. The place is stiff with old warehouses and lock-ups. He’ll always have had some place in mind. That would be his first stop, definitely.’
‘You don’t think he’d trust his men to unload the stuff later?’
‘He was too controlling.’
‘Then would he also want to supervise the disposing of Paul’s body?’
Diamond composed himself, resolved to accept the gruesome reality as impassively as Leaman spoke of it. ‘I believe so.’
‘Difficult. It would have been almost daylight by then and people were about.’
‘They could have shoved him into a lock-up with the guns. They back the limo up to the entrance and no one sees.’
Leaman nodded. ‘There is another possibility.’
‘What’s that?’
‘They dropped him off the bridge.’
‘Before Nathan jumped? Difficult. There are cars crossing the bridge all the time and sometimes pedestrians. I’ve seen how high the barrier is. You’d have a job heaving a body over it without being seen.’
‘Agreed.’
‘Besides,’ Diamond added, now thinking as coolly as his ultra-cool companion, ‘I’m pretty certain Nathan was alone when he climbed up and jumped. You don’t commit suicide in front of your staff. He told his men to drive away and get the cars off the road before the hunt started. Then he made his own way to the bridge and put an end to himself.’
‘You must be right, guv,’ Leaman said after weighing what had been suggested. ‘It makes more sense.’
A mile or two more along the motorway, Diamond got through to Colleen. ‘At last! Am I really speaking to a human being and not a cassette?’
‘Who is this?’ Colleen said.
He introduced himself and asked where her boss was. It turned out that Bernie had a meeting in Paris to discuss a building project and would return on Eurostar in the evening and stay overnight at his London address.
‘So I can see him tomorrow.’
‘He’s extremely busy,’ Colleen said.
‘And now he’s going to be busier still.’
After running through Bernie’s appointments they agreed that the best location would be Melksham, where a new shopping precinct was to be officially opened by the mayor at eleven.
‘Excellent,’ Diamond said. ‘If the mayor is attending, there’ll be champagne with salmon and cucumber sandwiches.’
When they left the motorway at Reading, Leaman seemed to have a good grasp of the direction, so Diamond didn’t offer help with the navigation. Once before he’d asked this cerebral DI why he didn’t use a sat-nav and had been told he preferred to memorise the route. Around Reading’s maze of roads, this was a formidable challenge. Unerringly they cruised through to Caversham, north of the town, and All Hallows Road where, appropriately, the crematorium sits.