Peter Diamond - 09 - The Secret Hangman

by Peter Lovesey

  ‘No idea. You know what it is, literally a sham. You’re meant to see it from down in the city and think it’s a real castle when all it is is a facade. As an architect he may have been making some sort of point.’

  ‘What sort of point, Mr Twining?’

  ‘About his life being empty.’

  ‘Vacuous,’ Leaman said.

  Twining frowned and said, ‘What did you say?’

  ‘Never mind,’ Diamond said with a glare at Leaman.

  But Twining didn’t take offence. He’d launched into yet another theory. ‘Some time after it happened I heard the old story of why Sham Castle was put there.’

  ‘As a trompe l’oeil ?’ Leaman said.

  ‘Come again,’ Diamond said. His sidekick might need a kick if he carried on like this.

  ‘An eye-catcher, anyway.’

  ‘That’s only part of the story,’ Harold Twining said. ‘Ralph Allen, the quarry owner who provided the stone for Regency Bath, had it built on the skyline so he could see it from his town house. Everyone knows that much. But local tradition has it that he had the thing built for another reason – this was in the seventeen-hundreds, remember – to conceal a dead highwayman hung in chains on a gibbet. By law the corpse was left dangling there as a warning. Ralph Allen thought it was gross, but he couldn’t change the law, so he did the next best thing and screened it off with his so-called castle.’

  ‘Is that well known?’ Diamond asked.

  ‘Not to me until I heard about it from some Job’s comforter.

  My brother may have known the story.’

  ‘And decided to go up there out of some sense of history?’

  ‘Or affinity with the highwayman?’ Leaman said, and got another glare from his boss.

  Twining shrugged. ‘Your guess is as good as mine.’

  Diamond didn’t want to leave it there. ‘Most people who take their own lives do it in private. I get the impression from all you’ve said that your brother and his wife kept to themselves.’

  ‘True. If you want to be a success you don’t have much time for other people unless you’re making money out of them.’

  ‘They didn’t do drugs?’

  ‘What’s that got to do with it?’ Harold Twining then proceeded to answer his own question. ‘Oh, I see. You think they might have been out of their skulls when they did it? Well, it didn’t show up in their blood. Nothing was found in the post-mortem or we’d have heard about it at the inquest.’

  ‘Do you recall who the pathologist was?’

  ‘No, except he seemed to know the coroner. It’s an old-boy network, the coroner’s court. Pathologists, expert witnesses. They go through the motions while the family sits there listening in horror.’

  ‘How well did you know your sister-in-law?’

  Harold Twining hesitated, as if playing the question over to himself. ‘Tolerably well.’

  ‘Then you’ll probably know if she had friends of her own, apart from her husband.’

  ‘I get you now,’ he said. ‘For a moment I thought you were suggesting I had a fling with her. You want to know if she got in with the wrong crowd. No, like I told you, Chrissie was a career woman. She didn’t have time to join a coven. I’m sure the old black magic is rampant in Bath, but that’s another false trail. We Twinings are a dull old lot.’

  There wasn’t much more to be got from this obnoxious man. They didn’t stand him another drink. Before leaving, Leaman said, ‘By the way, you were telling a joke when we came in.’

  ‘What was that? I’ve forgotten.’

  ‘I think the punchline was, “Don’t laugh. You’re next.” But what was the joke?’

  ‘That one? It’s the one about the Irish guy whose wife discovers him holding a pistol to his head. Get it?’

  19

  ‘For simplicity’s sake, if a certain person should come in,’ Diamond said, ‘we’re discussing the ram raid. Understood?’

  It was Friday morning and he had called his senior detectives – Halliwell and Leaman – to his office. They knew who the ‘certain person’ was. They also knew the topic he was refusing to abandon.

  ‘This double hanging.’

  ‘The Twinings,’ Halliwell said.

  ‘You’ve been keeping up, then?’

  ‘Can’t say I know a lot.’ But his tone said plenty. It told Diamond he was piqued at being sidelined on the ram raid while Leaman seemed to be taking over as number two on the team ‘There isn’t a lot. Married couple found in Bath two years ago.

  Made no big impact at the time. Ingeborg picked it up.’

  ‘She’s a bright kid.’

  ‘I know, but I don’t want to talk about Ingeborg. I want your thoughts on what appears to be going on. There’s enough in common with the deaths of Williamson and Geaves to persuade me that the incidents are related.’

  ‘Seems a possibility,’ Halliwell said with a shrug.

  ‘I’d put it stronger than that. In each case, the woman dies first, the man goes missing for a day or so and then his body is found. Each of these hangings was in the open, in a place people were sure to notice. Public parks, the railway viaduct and Sham Castle. Most people choosing to hang themselves do it at home or at work, not in a public place. No suicide notes were left. The ages of the victims were similar.’

  ‘And it happened on our patch,’ Leaman said.

  Diamond gave him a sharp look, suspicious that he was being sarcastic. ‘I thought that was self-evident.’

  ‘But statistically significant,’ Leaman said. ‘If the Twinings had been found in South Shields, we wouldn’t be sitting here talking about them.’

  ‘True,’ he said without gratitude. ‘Let’s get to why we’re here. Do we agree that the post-mortem evidence on Delia Williamson points to murder?’

  ‘Are you thinking the Twining woman may have gone the same way?’ Halliwell said.

  ‘If she did, it’s less obvious.’ He picked up a file. ‘These are the autopsy reports on the Twinings. There’s no suggestion that Christine Twining was strangled first, no ligature mark other than the inverted ‘V’ pattern you get with a hanging.’

  ‘Who was the pathologist, guv?’

  ‘A Dr Shinwari. Anyone know him? I don’t.’

  There was no response.

  ‘His report comes across as careful and thorough. I can’t believe he would have missed a double set of marks like those found on Delia Williamson.’

  ‘So we take it that Christine Twining died by hanging?’

  ‘That was Dr Shinwari’s conclusion.’

  ‘And the husband went the same way?’

  ‘Yes. And Dr Shinwari did both autopsies.’

  Halliwell said in a mystified tone, ‘Where does this take us, guv? You’re leaving me behind.’

  Diamond raised his palms, appealing for patience. He would explain if they would listen. ‘It’s easy to assume Christine Twining hanged herself. That’s what the coroner decided. But with hindsight – with the knowledge we have that Delia Williamson was murdered – we can make another hypothesis. We can ask ourselves the question you put a moment ago: was Christine Twining murdered, too?’

  Now it was Leaman who was frowning. ‘The cases aren’t the same. You just said there weren’t any secondary marks.’

  Diamond sighed. He was being sniped at from both sides.

  ‘Agreed. I’m not suggesting both women went the same way. We’ll come to that. I’m saying it’s worth investigating whether Christine’s wasn’t a voluntary hanging.’

  Halliwell screwed up his face in distaste. ‘The husband strung her up? Nasty.’

  It was as if Diamond himself had offended by imagining such a gruesome act. But he wasn’t going to retract. ‘We believe Danny Geaves killed Delia, so why shouldn’t John Twining have murdered Christine?’

  ‘There’s no evidence.’

  ‘Oh, come on. We’re working backwards here. I just listed all the circumstantial evidence linking the incidents.’

  ‘Yes,
but . . .’ Leaman’s protest ended in a sigh. Diamond wasn’t doing enough to persuade his senior men.

  ‘Look at it this way. Twining did the thing as it was intended, hanged his wife and later hanged himself. Danny Geaves botched it. He planned to do the same, only Delia put up a fight. Instead of hanging her he was forced to strangle her. Then he faked the hanging.’

  ‘I’m not sure I follow you,’ Halliwell said. ‘You’re suggesting both women were murdered and the men committed suicide?’

  ‘That’s right. But John Twining was more efficient and the murder was passed off as suicide.’

  ‘It’s a whopping great assumption, guv. Is there anything in the autopsy report to back it up?’

  ‘There wouldn’t be.’

  Halliwell shifted in his chair, unwilling to concede. ‘I was trained to understand murder in terms of motive, means and opportunity. What’s the motive here? You spoke to John Twining’s brother. Did he know of any problems between the couple?’

  In his head Diamond played over the question and answer from that session in the George. He’d remarked that in the photo they’d seemed happy with one another. ‘I never saw a sign that they weren’t,’ was the reply.

  ‘Not really,’ he was forced to admit, ‘but he couldn’t understand why they were suicidal.’

  ‘They hadn’t separated, or anything?’

  ‘No. That’s a clear difference from Geaves and his partner. Delia had found a new man and it’s understandable if Danny harboured a grudge.’

  ‘I don’t want to be awkward,’ Halliwell said, ‘but I think you’ve got to find a motive before you cast John Twining as a wife-murderer.’

  Diamond was silent, forced to recognise the truth of what Halliwell was saying. There was more work to be done.

  Then Leaman said, ‘Even if your theory is right, why should Danny Geaves want to try the same thing two years later?’

  ‘That’s the next big question,’ Diamond said. ‘All right, fellows. You’ve given me plenty to think on.’

  After they’d closed the door, he brooded on the matter. Halliwell and Leaman were good detectives and he hadn’t persuaded them. They were reluctant even to speculate.

  He picked up the phone. ‘How do I get hold of a certain pathologist, Dr Manzoor Shinwari, who did the autopsies on a couple of suicides two years back?’

  He was asked to wait. They would call him back.

  When the call came, it wasn’t what he wanted to hear. Dr Shinwari had returned to Pakistan eighteen months ago and there was no contact address.

  20

  One thing you could say for Peter Diamond: nothing would grind him down. Dr Shinwari might have left the country, but there was always Jim Middleton. Why hadn’t Jim been in touch? He’d had ample time to read those reports.

  His mobile number was on the back of an envelope.

  ‘Damn you,’ Jim said. ‘I should have turned the bloody thing off. I’m in Starbucks, enjoying a quiet moment here.’

  ‘Well, I’m not. I’m working,’ Diamond said. ‘Are you alone?’

  ‘At this minute, yes, but one of my friends could arrive any time.’

  ‘So we can talk. What did you think of those autopsy reports?’

  ‘Look, this is hardly the place.’

  ‘Do you want speak from the toilet?’

  ‘I draw the line at that.’

  ‘I wouldn’t worry, anyway. I’ve overheard some amazing conversations in coffee shops. What have you got to tell me?’

  Jim must have sensed that the man was unstoppable. He started to open up. ‘I have to say there isn’t much to quibble over. He seems to have done a workmanlike job in both cases. Not everyone provides the kind of detail Bertram Sealy gives you.’

  This wasn’t what Diamond had hoped to hear. ‘You agree with his conclusions, then?’

  ‘Can’t fault him.’ Jim paused, probably to look round and see who might be listening, then lowered his voice. ‘There’s no question the woman was murdered, strangled first and strung up later. And the man was hanged from the railway bridge, just as Sealy suggests.’

  ‘You say there isn’t much to quibble over. Is there anything?’

  There was another hesitation. ‘Almost every autopsy has its points of interest.’

  ‘And you found some?’

  ‘You gave me both reports to read, so I had the advantage of an overview. Sealy dealt with each case in isolation. Quite properly.’

  This was all too cagey for Diamond. ‘I gave you both reports for a reason, Jim. I want that overview.’

  ‘I know. And what I say to you, Peter, is that any pathologist worthy of the name treats each autopsy as a separate event, and that’s what Sealy has done. It’s not a good principle to go into the dissection room with ideas of what you might expect to find.’

  ‘Point taken. What have you got for me?’

  ‘In no way is this a criticism of a colleague.’

  ‘You’ve made that very clear. You’re simply suggesting lines of inquiry.’

  Jim sounded happier with that. ‘Right. You’re the SIO and your job is different from his. He presents you with his findings and you weigh them with all the other evidence you have. You’re dealing with both incidents, aren’t you?’

  ‘I was until I got told to wrap up the case.’

  ‘You saw both bodies in situ?’

  Now Diamond hesitated, reminded of his own refusal to climb into the cherry picker at the viaduct. He could at least claim he’d been at the scene and viewed the suspended body from below. ‘I did.’

  ‘Did you get close up?’

  ‘Close enough. At the second incident they cut the man down and I saw him on a stretcher.’

  ‘The cord was still in place?’

  ‘Yes, they cut it and left it knotted round the neck, if that’s what you’re asking.’

  ‘Notice anything special about that second corpse?’

  He tried picturing it in his mind, unzipping the body bag. His overriding concern at the time had been to identify the body as Danny Geaves. ‘I give up. What should I have spotted?’

  ‘Did you look at the knot?’

  ‘The knot?’

  ‘That’s what I said.’

  ‘I’m trying to remember. You’d better help me.’

  ‘He used a slip knot. That’s of interest because it wasn’t a slip knot in the first incident. The woman was suspended from a loop with a fixed knot. You got the characteristic mark on the neck rising to a peak at the knot. That was why it was apparent that she’d been strangled previously with a ligature.’

  ‘Two sets of marks.’

  ‘Exactly. Hold on. I think someone is coming to this table.’

  Diamond found himself listening to a commentary on movements in the coffee shop.

  ‘No, they’re going past. They’ve seen me using the mobile. Wait, they’re coming back, I think. It’s all right, they just wanted to borrow a chair. Do you know what I mean by a slip knot? It’s a running noose, as distinct from a fixed one. When a slip knot is used, and the cord takes the weight of the body, the noose tightens. The ligature mark is different. It runs right round the neck. Follow me?’

  ‘Because there’s no slack?’

  ‘Correct.’

  ‘Why would he use a different knot the second time?’

  ‘This is where the pathologist shuts up and lets the detective take over. Our job isn’t to answer questions like that. We report what we find. Bertram Sealy has done that.’

  Diamond closed his eyes, concentrating hard. He knew Jim Middleton was hinting at something without wanting to compromise a professional colleague. ‘Can we look at this another way? If he’d used a slip knot when he suspended the woman from the swing, it could have covered the mark of the strangling, and we wouldn’t have known she was murdered.’

  ‘That’s if the rope was tight all the way round the neck and covered the original ligature mark.’

  ‘So how can we be sure the second death was a genuine ha
nging?’

  ‘The vertebrae were broken in the mid-cervical section of the spine. That’s what you expect from a hanging involving a drop. A judicial hanging will produce the same result.’

  ‘So the point of interest, as you put it, is the knot. Was there any need for a slip knot?’

  ‘Whatever knot he used, the outcome would have been the same.’

  ‘A quick death?’

  ‘Very.’

  ‘I’ll need to think about this some more.’

  ‘That’s up to you. And sod you, Peter Diamond. My coffee’s gone cold.’

  And the shop had probably emptied, too.

  Halliwell came in after lunch looking as if he’d won the lottery. There was a breakthrough on the ram raid. An informant had fingered a pair of villains called Romney and Jacob who were well advanced on plans for a second raid.

  ‘Is this reliable, Keith?’

  ‘It sounds kosher to me.’

  ‘Who’s the grass?’

  ‘A new guy, name of Gary Jackman. He’s got a record for doing up stolen vehicles. Moved into the area last Christmas. He figures that if he puts new plates on a four-by-four that’s going to be driven into a shopfront there’s a fair chance something will go wrong.’

  ‘Such as the front plate falling off?’

  ‘Right, and if we don’t get him, the villains will, for messing up.’

  ‘Who did they use last time?’

  ‘Nobody. They nicked the vehicle the same night from outside the technical college. This time they want to limit the uncertainty so they knocked off a Range Rover last weekend and asked Jackman to give it a new identity. He’s not happy.’

  ‘Yes, but what does he want from us?’

  ‘A blind eye to his activities.’

  ‘What, for ever more? That’s ridiculous. We can trade leniency, but not carte blanche.’

  ‘We’ll make that clear, then.’

  ‘See that he goes on the register. Every meeting and transaction. Who’s handling him for us?’

  ‘Our new boy. Paul Gilbert.’

  ‘Gilbert made the contact?’ This was worrying, the most junior member of CID.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Good lad. What’s the plan?’