Peter Diamond - 09 - The Secret Hangman

by Peter Lovesey

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘It’s me being overconcerned, I expect. I wish he’d get a proper job, a career, I mean.’

  ‘What’s a proper job? The civil service? They get laid off in thousands by each new government. Jerry went through college for what he’s doing. And he must have worked damned hard to get clients and keep them. If I’m any judge, he’s got life worked out. And all those evenings at the hospital show he has a social conscience.’

  ‘He has that all right. Church every Sunday, which is more than I manage.’

  ‘So will he disapprove of me being here?’

  ‘Don’t worry. I’ve disappointed him plenty of times and we’re still talking.’ She put her hand to her mouth and gave a nervous laugh. ‘Oh, dear, that sounds as if I’ve had a string of lovers and I didn’t mean that. I disappoint Jerry in other ways like spending too much on clothes. He gives me the occasional text to think about. “Consider the lilies of the field . . .” et cetera. It’s a hoot, isn’t it, getting told how to behave by your son?’

  ‘’Specially if you carry on in your own sweet way.’

  ‘Exactly.’

  He looked at the time. ‘I’d better report in. They haven’t been able to reach me since yesterday.’

  ‘Don’t you carry a mobile?’

  ‘Me?’ He just laughed.

  ‘What’s funny about that?’

  ‘I’m out of the age of the dinosaurs.’

  ‘But you’re a senior policeman.’

  ‘Yeah. Superintendent Flintstone.’

  ‘You ought to overcome that. They’re really useful. Essential almost.’

  ‘I can’t disagree with you after all that’s happened, but they strike me as the end of civilisation as I know it, all those idiots walking along the street with their hands to their ears broadcasting to all and sundry.’

  ‘Peter, that’s not the point. Mobiles have their advantages.’

  ‘I haven’t discovered any yet.’

  ‘Like being in contact.’

  ‘I don’t always want to be in contact. Last night I didn’t want to be in contact. When your phone went this morning I was bricking it in case my colleagues had traced me to your house.’

  ‘They hadn’t.’

  He nodded and smiled. ‘That’s why I don’t use a mobile.’

  ‘You don’t see it, do you?’ she said with amusement. ‘When someone calls you on a mobile they don’t know where you are. If you want to stay over with me another time – as I hope you will – you can make calls and take calls and they’ll assume you’re speaking from home. For a man with a complicated private life it’s the indispensable aid.’

  The man with a complicated private life cradled his chin as if deep in thought. ‘There’s a flaw somewhere, but you’re very persuasive. And I had better go into work. They’ll be cockahoop to find out how I got on at the theatre.’

  ‘I could tell them,’ Paloma said. ‘You’re almost as good a drama critic as you are in bed.’

  ‘I’m not sure how to take that.’

  ‘It’s a compliment. When can I see you again?’

  ‘One day next week?’

  ‘Early next week – yes?’

  23

  Against all his expectation, no one asked how his theatre visit had gone. Frustrating. He’d have told them loftily to buy the evening edition of the Chronicle. All he got was the usual ‘Morning, guv’.

  Better apply himself to the main job. On the pad on his desk he’d written KNOTS? as a reminder of what he’d heard from Jim Middleton. But he didn’t need reminding. The slip knot employed by Danny Geaves to hang himself was a puzzle. All the evidence suggested that Danny strangled his ex-partner Delia before stringing her up on the swing to give the appearance of a hanging. He’d used a conventional noose for her. So why use a different knot to hang himself?

  Danny’s curious behaviour couldn’t be considered in isolation. The Twining couple had employed a noose. Ingeborg was right about the Twinings. There were enough points in common to make it a racing certainty that there was a link with the deaths of Delia and Danny.

  ‘The obvious explanation for the deaths of the Twinings is a suicide pact,’ he said to Halliwell and Leaman, freshly updated on the mystery of the slip knot. ‘They became convinced that they must die. Let’s leave aside the reason for the moment. The Twinings did it as planned, or nearly so. They hanged themselves in the conventional way except that the man delayed his suicide by a couple of days.’

  ‘Just like Danny,’ Leaman said.

  ‘But there’s a difference.’

  ‘Danny murdered her,’ Halliwell said.

  ‘Apparently, yes, but I had something else in mind.’

  ‘They were no longer a couple,’ Leaman said. ‘She’d found a new partner, so they wouldn’t have made a pact.’

  ‘You’ve got it. Now try this for size. Danny – like the Twinings – has this death wish and for some reason believes Delia should go with him. She agrees to meet him without realising what is being planned. She resists and he strangles her. Quick change of plan. It was supposed to be a hanging, so he fakes it. Three days later – just like John Twining – he hangs himself.’

  ‘Using a slip knot,’ Halliwell said. ‘Why use a different knot?’

  ‘He should have used the slip knot on Delia,’ Leaman said. ‘Then we might not have found out she was strangled.’

  Diamond was thinking back to the morning he’d led the party up that steep climb in Bathford. ‘When we found the cave where he was sleeping rough there were fragments of a newspaper in the ashes of that fire.’

  ‘The Mail,’ Halliwell said.

  ‘For the day before he died.’

  Neither of them had twigged.

  Diamond said, ‘I gave a press conference the day before that and the nationals all carried the story. That issue of the Mail told Danny we were treating Delia’s death as murder.’

  ‘Are you thinking he read the report and decided to top himself, guv?’

  ‘Come off it, Keith. I’m more subtle than that, aren’t I? Danny was a man with a mission, to stage a double suicide, just as Twining did. He already planned to top himself. What really upset him was reading in the paper that we’d worked out that Delia was murdered.’

  ‘He’d messed up,’ Leaman said.

  ‘Precisely. And why had he messed up? Because the original ligature mark, the strangling mark, showed on her neck. If he’d used a slip knot to suspend the body from the swing he would very likely have got away with it. So what was his thinking at this point? He was about to hang himself anyway, so why not confuse everyone by using a slip knot? Then we might assume he, too, was killed in the same way as Delia, strangled first and then suspended from the viaduct to make it look like a hanging.’

  ‘What would that achieve?’ Halliwell said. ‘I thought this was all about making it look like suicide.’

  Leaman said, ‘You’ve lost me, guv.’

  ‘Too subtle,’ Halliwell said with a faint grin.

  ‘Fair enough,’ Diamond said. He’d begun doubting himself even as he outlined the theory. ‘But there is an explanation. Got to be. OK, let’s deal with what we do know. Danny strangled Delia and there’s some kind of link with the Twining couple. We must put more effort into finding that link. Did they all belong to some weird sect? Did they meet?’

  ‘The Twinings didn’t have many friends,’ Leaman said. ‘The brother said they were too busy with their careers. What was it? If you want to be a success in life you don’t have much to do with other people unless you’re making money out of them.’

  ‘That brother’s a cynic,’ Diamond said. ‘John Twining was an architect, so he must have had clients. And his wife Christine had a top job with M&S. She would have met plenty of people through her job.’

  ‘Not the likes of Danny and Delia,’ Halliwell said. ‘He was on the social and she was bringing up two kids.’

  ‘I went to see Delia’s mother, Amanda,’ Diamond said
. ‘She seemed to think Danny worked from home on the computer and got some kind of income. He was interested in wildlife, bats in particular.’

  ‘A world away from the Twinings,’ Leaman said.

  Diamond sighed. ‘Yes, and Amanda told me he didn’t have many friends.’

  ‘The landlord at Freshford said the same. Danny was a loner.’

  ‘There must be a link and it’s the key to everything,’ Diamond insisted. ‘We’re going to have to dig back two or three years to when the Twinings were alive and Danny and Delia lived together. That’s the critical time. I’ll talk to Amanda again. I doubt if we’ll get much more out of Harold Twining, but Amanda must remember something.’

  With that decided, he turned to the plan to intercept the ram raid on Sunday night. The swoop was still on. The two robbers, Romney and Jacob, were picking up the converted Land Rover from Jackman on Sunday morning. It would be fitted with a bug and monitored right up to the moment of the raid.

  ‘Do we know the shop?’ he asked.

  ‘You want it on a plate, guv,’ Halliwell said. ‘No, they’re keeping that to themselves.’

  ‘But you reckon we can pursue the Land Rover without giving ourselves away?’

  ‘That’s the object. And we’ll have response cars out on the streets in force.’

  ‘Good. This man Jackman, the snitch. What have you promised him?’

  ‘Like we said, leniency.’

  ‘That can mean anything from a blind eye to a word in the judge’s ear. He does up stolen vehicles as an occupation, right?’

  ‘Yes, and we figure he could be useful in the future.’

  ‘Only up to a point. When the word gets around that he’s linked to a number of failed raids, the bad boys will drop him. They may drop him literally.’

  ‘C’est la vie.’

  ‘You said DC Gilbert is the handler?’

  ‘Paul Gilbert, yes. He made the first contact in some pub Jackman uses.’

  ‘Gilbert is still very new in the job. Is he aware of the risk?’

  ‘Seems to be.’

  ‘I’ll have a word with him myself. Can you send him in?’

  Gilbert did look worryingly young. Quite how he’d gained Jackman’s confidence in a pub, Diamond couldn’t fathom. Until he spoke. Then he came across with a streetwise manner that explained a lot.

  ‘Yes, guv,’ he said, ‘I met Gary Jackman in the cellar bar of the Porter. Do you know it? No, I guess you wouldn’t. It’s for twenty-somethings like me. George Street. Live music most nights and the comedy club Sundays. One of my drinking mates knows Gary and told me he was dodgy but great company and we got talking and it moved on from there. A couple more weeks and a lot of lager and he was ready to do the biz.’

  ‘He knows you’re in CID?’

  ‘Bit of a shock when I told him, but he soon saw the possibilities.’

  ‘He does up hot cars, is that right?’

  ‘Basically, yes. The front is a repair shop out at Winsley and some of the business is legit. He’s good, and the word gets round.’

  ‘This ram raid on Sunday. You’re convinced it’s going to happen?’

  ‘Gary’s certain of it.’

  ‘So why is he shopping these guys?’

  ‘They’re going to cock up. They’re too ambitious.’

  ‘Let’s hope he’s right.’ Diamond switched to the real point of this briefing while trying to sound as cool as his young colleague.

  ‘Look, I happen to know of a car that went missing last night, a blue Nissan Pathfinder, almost new. I reckon it might just find its way into Jackman’s repair shop. You could tip him off that it wouldn’t be wise to work on it. The smart move would be to let us know as soon as he hears of it.’

  ‘Is there a link?’

  ‘No. It’s something else I’m taking an interest in.’

  Gilbert nodded. ‘’Nuff said, boss.’

  24

  ‘If you were planning this raid,’ Diamond said, ‘what time would you go for?’

  Keith Halliwell hesitated, wary of hypothetical questions from his boss. ‘The early hours, I reckon.’

  ‘Say two to three?’

  ‘Probably.’

  ‘And when would you pick up the vehicle?’

  ‘Is that important?’

  ‘Just that I’m getting edgy. What is it now – eleven twenty? – and there’s been no word.’

  ‘They don’t need the Range Rover until late, gov. They could pick it up ten minutes before they go.’

  ‘That would cut it fine.’

  ‘Eleven, then.’

  They were sitting in the canteen at Manvers Street, but not because supper was available. At this late hour the staff were no longer on duty. If anyone wanted a hot pie they would be disappointed. Drinks were on tap, but only from an old machine that made the coffee taste of chocolate and the tea of dishwater. The advantage of being downstairs was that their transport was conveniently close. And it was better than sitting in an office.

  At some point in the night the team on watch at Winsley – where the informer Jackman had his repair yard – would radio in, and Operation Fleece, as Halliwell had named it, would take off. The stolen Range Rover with its new colour and new plates – and its homing device – would be tracked by four vehicles at strategic points across the city.

  DC Gilbert had been honoured with the Winsley surveillance, using an unmarked car fitted with radio communications. There was no sense in having everyone out there. Better to let Gilbert and his driver report on the pick-up and have the other teams close in as the bugged car moved towards the shop.

  ‘Fancy a game of snooker?’ Halliwell said.

  ‘No.’

  ‘It helps to pass the time.’

  ‘I think I’ll look into the CAD room again, call up young Gilbert and make sure he’s awake.’

  ‘He’d better be. I’ll come with you.’ Nothing more was said, but there was a clear understanding that this was Halliwell’s op. He didn’t want Diamond muscling in and taking the glory.

  The Computer-Aided Dispatch room was the communications base, in use round the clock. Unknown to Halliwell, Diamond had been in there already to see how the bugged vehicle would be tracked.

  He asked an operator to contact DC Gilbert.

  The response from Winsley was immediate. ‘Sierra One.’

  Halliwell grabbed the microphone. ‘SIO speaking. What’s the scene, Sierra One?’

  ‘Same as before, sir. Clear view of the four-by-four standing in the lane outside the yard. No one is about. Not yet, anyway.’

  ‘And where are you?’

  ‘Also in the lane, five vehicles back and in shadow.’

  ‘You’ll give nothing away when they come? You don’t need to keep them in sight once they’ve picked up the vehicle.’

  ‘You told me, guv. We’ve been over it.’

  ‘Several times. I know,’ Halliwell said. ‘Stay with it, Sierra One. Over and out.’ He spread his hands as he turned back to Diamond. ‘It’s like baking a cake. You have to give it time.’

  The mention of cake made him think of his secret admirer. He was trying to forget her. ‘It’s bread,’ he said.

  ‘What’s that, guv?’

  ‘When you make bread you give it time to rise.’

  Back in the canteen, Halliwell tried another diversionary tactic. ‘I may have thought of a possible connection between the Twining couple and Danny and Delia. When did Delia get the job as a waitress?’

  Diamond perked up. There was only so much you could say about an impending ram raid. ‘At Tosi’s, do you mean? Do you know, I don’t think we found out. What’s the point here?’

  ‘Could she have been working there when the Twinings were alive? They were the kind of people who’d use restaurants.’

  ‘It’s possible, I guess. But even if it’s true, you don’t discuss suicide pacts with the woman who serves your meal.’

  ‘Right.’ Halliwell nodded. ‘It wouldn’t do much for the appe
tite.’

  Diamond pondered for a while. Halliwell might have hit on something. ‘Her mother told me she was working as a waitress for some time, certainly when she was living with Danny. She was in other places before she worked at Tosi’s.’

  ‘Worth checking?’

  ‘Another job for Ingeborg. Why isn’t she part of this op?’

  ‘Special dispensation,’ Halliwell said. ‘A date.’

  The old blood pressure threatened, and Diamond made himself count to ten and see if it still mattered – a method his doctor had recommended.

  It didn’t matter.

  The alert finally came from Winsley at twenty past midnight. ‘Two suspects in a white van,’ Gilbert radioed in. ‘Can’t see the registration. One got out and went straight to the stolen vehicle. The van has driven off.’

  ‘Not the Range Rover?’

  ‘Not yet. Wait – he’s moving out. We’ll go with him.’

  ‘Not too close.’

  ‘Trust me.’

  ‘I’m trusting you to keep your distance.’

  Diamond asked Halliwell if the bug was active, and it was. No reason to rush until they had a sense of where the ram vehicle was heading. They walked to their car and got in and made radio contact with the other teams. Everyone was awake. They tuned to Gilbert’s radio wavelength.

  ‘Heading west towards the city,’ Gilbert reported. ‘I can see the tail-lights of the van up ahead. They’re in no hurry.’

  The van would be the getaway vehicle – for the getaway that wouldn’t be allowed to happen.

  ‘Crossing the river now and heading up to the aqueduct.’

  Diamond knew the route well enough, but he had a map out and was following the progress by torchlight. Seeing it on paper and being reminded of the distances was reassuring. The ram-raiders were moving in his direction and he wanted to make sure they were properly received. Three armed response vehicles in addition to his own were ready to swoop.

  ‘Would you believe it? They’ve stopped at the traffic lights,’ Gilbert said. ‘We’ve pulled in to the side and dowsed our lights. These are law-abiding villains. OK, we’re all on the move again. Doing a dog-leg and up over Brassknocker by the look of it.’