The Summons pd-3

by Peter Lovesey

  By a barred window he happened to notice cut into the wall several initials and dates, D.P.D., RN GUARD, 1940 was one. It was not totally inconceivable that this was his own Uncle Don, who had served in the navy during the war. Most of the carvings were made by navy guards, a reminder that the building had been taken over by the Admiralty at the outbreak of war and remained in the hands of the Ministry of Defense until 1989. The Empire hadn’t functioned as a hotel for over half a century.

  Progressing along the passage to a stretch white with pigeon droppings, he examined the double doors leading to the Empire’s cellars. The doors were sturdy enough, but one of the bolts securing them had been forced from the wood. A single padlock remained. This, he guessed, was a likely point of entry for Mounrjoy. Whilst looking at the padlock to see if anyone had tampered with it he was surprised by a voice at his shoulder saying, “What do you think you’re doing, squire?”

  Turning, he found himself in the presence of a large, young, bearded constable in uniform.

  Chastened, Diamond said, “You don’t know me? I’m Peter Diamond.”

  “Are you now?”

  “I just got here with Inspector-sorry, Chief Inspector- Wigfull.”

  It was a consolation to discover that the name of his successor didn’t make much more impression than his own. “In what capacity, sir?”

  Difficult to answer. “A, em, negotiator. I’m here to negotiate with the kidnapper.”

  “Well, I’m here to keep the public away from this part of the building, sir.”

  “Keep it up, then.” He thought of adding that guarding the doors was a long tradition; only the constable didn’t look as if he had a sense of history. So Diamond moved back up the ramp and into the yard at the rear of the Guildhall where the mayor and other VIPs parked their cars. His thoughts were still with those navy guardsmen. They would be in their mid-seventies now, at least-if they had survived. Was that scraping on the wall the only mark in life they had ever made? In the services in wartime their destiny was out of their control. They might have gone down with the Ark Royal, as Uncle Don had. But Peter Diamond in 1994 was a free agent, thank God. He’d given up all that nonsense about duty and rank and yes, sir, no, sir. Hadn’t he? Deep down, did he want to enlist again?

  Better focus on the present problem, he decided, and face the logic of this siege: as soon as Mountjoy was recaptured or shot, the reinvestigation of the Britt Strand murder would be terminated. None of the top brass wanted the original verdict overturned. Avon and Somerset had avoided all the bad publicity that other forces had reaped in recent years through unsafe verdicts and evidence of corruption. They would be mightily relieved to pack him off to London and forget about him. He’d always known it would be so.

  Recalling the start, when he had been press-ganged into this bizarre assignment, he thanked his stars that he’d had the sense to realize that he had scope for bargaining, and insisted on a genuine investigation. He’d felt deprived for too long of the work he did best. He hadn’t gone into it expecting to uncover a miscarriage of justice-least of all in a case he’d handled himself. Yet now that flaws in the original investigation were revealed, he was personally committed to discovering the truth. If in the process he exposed his own mistakes the first time around, so what? To his knowledge, he’d never once sent down an innocent man. Until, possibly, now. It was one thing to make a mistake; quite another to cover it up. If he was going to live with himself in future, he had to reveal the truth about the death of Britt Strand.

  He needed more time. How long, he didn’t know.

  Hold on, mate, he thought suddenly, audaciously. I do know. I need indefinite time. I must have my old job back, nothing less. I must have it for Steph and for myself. I’m a detective, tried and tested, a good sleuth, not infallible, but better than John Wigfull will ever be. I was never cut out to be an artists’ model, or a supermarket-trolley man, or a barman, or a Father Christmas. I catch villains. That’s what I do best. And I can do it again. I have a unique opportunity to get what I want.

  My job back.

  He had come right around the hotel to the Orange Grove again. He felt resolute, positive, ready to take on the high command. There was only one drawback: the high command had vanished. Nobody was standing on the roundabout.

  He walked over to one of the police cars and spoke to a sergeant he knew. “Any idea what happened to Commander Warrilow and the others?”

  “They decided to pull back, Mr. Diamond, out of the line of fire.”

  “For heaven’s sake, he’s only got a small handgun. He’s not likely to hit anyone from there!”

  “You’ll find them up the street, sir.” He pointed and said with a touch of embarrassment, “On Bog Island.”

  And where better to spout opinions, Diamond observed to himself, than on the triangle of pavement given its local name because of the underground public toilets once sited there?

  Bog Island was a further hundred yards or so from the hotel. He set off at the double.

  The Chief Constable had already arrived. The four faces turned to look at him and the message they conveyed was not friendly. They could not have looked more disapproving if he had personally supplied Mountjoy with the gun. Farr-Jones remarked, “I’m not surprised you’re the last to arrive.”

  Wigfull, the creep, hadn’t passed on the news that he was already on the scene.

  “I was checking the rear of the building,” Diamond informed them. “Just making sure there’s an officer there-and there is. Haven’t had time to look at the Parade Gardens. There’s a way into the cellars under the road. I presume you’ve covered it,” he said directly to Warrilow, whose face was quick to register a satisfying doubt.

  “Have you?” Farr-Jones asked.

  Warrilow stood back and passed a hand around his chin, as though checking when he had last shaved. “I’m not entirely sure, sir. I delegated this to the inspector I am using, Inspector Belshaw. No doubt he will have posted his men strategically. He’s one of yours, of course.”

  “I wouldn’t count on Belshaw,” Diamond said, pressing his advantage. “He’s a Bristol man. Not many locals know that way into the hotel.”

  “Better check,” Farr-Jones instructed Warrilow, who gave Diamond a murderous glare and went off to deal with the matter. Then there was a question for Diamond, “Is there a way in from Parade Gardens?”

  “In theory, yes. You could get in from the colonnade overlooking the weir. But you’d have to break through armor-plate doors. It will take him four or five minutes to check.”

  “Hm. I understand your motive, Mr. Diamond, only I wouldn’t want you to think I support it. Now that we’re family, so to speak,” the Chief Constable smoothly went on to say, “you had better explain why the devil you didn’t inform us last night that the man is armed.”

  He gave the explanation he’d given to Wigfull, adding, mainly to get support from Tott, “God help Samantha when the shooting starts.”

  Farr-Jones said, “You’re not seriously suggesting that we handle this without issuing firearms?”

  “I’m suggesting that some idiot with a telescopic rifle could cause a tragedy. Mountjoy has a small handgun, an automatic. We’re not in much danger down here. Samantha’s the one I fear for. I think we should play this in a way that doesn’t panic Mountjoy. Nothing provocative. No threats and certainly no shooting.”

  Tott gave an affirmative grunt and nodded his head.

  Farr-Jones wasn’t convinced yet. “In the last analysis, if the man has a weapon, he can hold it to Samantha’s head and walk out of there. He can make idiots of us all.”

  “Rather that than blow her brains out,” said Diamond.

  Tott shut his eyes.

  Diamond went on, “It’s looking increasingly likely that Mountjoy didn’t commit murder in 1990. He’s a desperate man trying to establish his innocence.”

  “At the point of a gun?” said Farr-Jones.

  “Yes, he’s an idiot,” Diamond admitted. “The po
int is that he won’t use that gun unless someone else fires first. He’s exhausted, under extreme stress, yet he knows that his world collapses altogether if he shoots anyone. If I can prove beyond doubt that someone other than Mountjoy murdered Britt Strand, we can end this siege without bloodshed.”

  “Can you?”

  Diamond wanted to sound positive. “I’m getting close. I know enough already to believe in Mountjoy’s innocence. Proving it is mote difficult.”

  “Would you be willing to talk to the man-negotiate if necessary?”

  “I have, more than once. He wants something more tangible than my good will. If I get the proof I’m looking for, yes, I’ll be willing to talk to him again. Without it, there’s no point. He’s not going to surrender on some vague promise that I’ll keep beavering away.”

  “No more than we can hold off,” said Farr-Jones. “You’re going to have to produce the rabbit out of the hat, Mr. Diamond, and produce it fast.”

  There was a silence, deliberate on Diamond’s part, while he picked his words. What was said now would amount to one of the most crucial statements he would ever make. “Chief Constable, I must remind you that I’m a civilian. I’m under no obligation to do anything. I can walk away now, straight up Pierrepont Street to the station and get on the next train to London.”

  “You wouldn’t do that?” said Farr-Jones, meaning it to sound like a statement, and not succeeding.

  Tott said huskily, “You can’t. My daughter’s up there with a gunman. You can’t abandon her.”

  Without betraying the least compassion, Diamond remarked, “It will get resolved without my help, one way or another.”

  “No!” said Tott, grabbing his arm.

  Farr-Jones said more shrewdly, “This is a negotiating position, isn’t it? What are your terms?”

  Diamond kept them waiting, as if taking a long view of the mountain of choice that was before him. “First, we stand off. No shooting. No storming the building. Nothing that panics Mount joy.”

  “For how long?”

  He glanced at his watch. “Until midnight. That gives me almost twelve hours.”

  “Twelve hours!” said Tott in desperation.

  It wasn’t in Diamond’s plan to bring comfort to the Assistant Chief Constable. “This must be given in the form of an order to Commander Warrilow.”

  Farr-Jones took a deep, audible breath. “Very well-if you undertake to talk Mountjoy down and secure Samantha’s release. I appreciate that you need time to get the evidence to satisfy the man.”

  “And there’s another condition,” said Diamond. “I must be reinstated.”

  After a pause while he took in the sense of what had been suggested, Farr-Jones said, “That’s not on.”

  Ignoring him, Diamond added, “As head of the Murder Squad.”

  “Impossible.”

  “Why?”

  “You were dismissed.”

  “No, Chief Constable, I resigned on a matter of principle. I made my protest. Now you need me back.”

  “It isn’t a question of need -” said Farr-Jones.

  “Fine,” said Diamond nonchalantly, “I’ll be off, then.” He raised his trilby.

  “Wait.” There was an awkward silence, whilst Farr-Jones grappled with the implications. “We’re up to strength in senior posts. I might be able to speak to the chairman of the Police Authority. It’s fraught with problems. If we took you back, Lord knows what the press would make of it when this Mountjoy business hits the headlines. It’s going to look as if we’re rewarding you for mishandling the case in the first place.”

  “They’ll have a field day,” Diamond cheerfully concurred.

  “If I said I would give it serious consideration…”

  “… I would say you’re on your own, gentlemen. I think the next train leaves at 1:27.” He started to turn away and spotted that John Wigfull’s face had drained of color.

  “All right,” Farr-Jones decided. “You can have what you’re asking for, Diamond. You bring this siege to a peaceful end by-midnight and you can have your job back. I guarantee it.”

  Diamond held out his hand for Farr-Jones to grip.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  “About Una Moon…” said Julie as she drove the Escort west of the city, past the golf course on the Weston Road.

  “Yes?” But it was “Yes?” in a faraway tone. Peter Diamond, seated beside her, was preoccupied.

  She pressed on. “You asked me to check her form on the PNC, remember? Well, she’s been bound over a couple of times for possession of cannabis. Once for obstruction. Nothing more serious than that. Are you listening, Mr. Diamond?”

  “Mm.”

  “As for the others,” she went on, “Jake Pinkerton and Marcus Martin had clean sheets and so did Prue Shorter. I still haven’t discovered G.B.’s real name.”

  She was so certain that he hadn’t taken in a word of it that she added, “And I also checked up on Mr. Farr-Jones. He was convicted of stealing underwear from clotheslines.”

  “Ah.” No more reaction than that.

  She glanced his way and added, “He asked for fifteen similar offenses to be taken into consideration.”

  Diamond managed a response. “Good.”

  “Good?”

  “Now we know where he got the shorts he wears for the synchronized swimming.”

  After a moment to take it in, she giggled. His sense of humor took some getting used to. “You were listening.”

  “I heard every word.”

  Like hell you did, she thought. She said as if bringing it up for the first time, “So would you like to know what the PNC has on Una Moon?”

  “Of course! And all the others.”

  This time it seemed that the information penetrated, because when she had finished, he said, “I don’t know how I’m going to fit it in, but I’ve got to see Miss Moon myself.”

  She took the sharp left turn into Combe Park, where the hospital entrance was. They were responding to a message from the constable on duty at the RUH: Winston Billington had recovered consciousness and was considered to be capable of making a statement.

  Diamond asked what time it was.

  He could have got it from the clock on the dashboard as she did, but Julie didn’t mention this. “One-thirty, almost.”

  “Too late for lunch.”

  “I never have much, anyway.”

  “Just as well. We have ten and a half hours to nail the killer, Julie.”

  They found the patient sitting up, in conversation with a woman in a dark red quilted coat.

  “Who’s the visitor?” Diamond muttered to the constable on duty in the corner.

  “His sister.”

  “Did they say he could have visitors?”

  “They didn’t say he couldn’t, sir. She just walked in.”

  He rolled his eyes upward. “What do you think your job is, then-watching the nurses?”

  As soon as he approached the bed the woman got up from the chair, blushing scarlet. She was wearing a perfume that more than canceled out the hospital smells. She must have been in her mid-forties, with dark, dyed hair and a small, pretty, round face of a type that had been commonplace in the fifties, but you didn’t see so often now.

  “Pardon me,” Diamond said, “but we’re from the police.”

  “Of course.” She leaned over Billington, said, “I’ll come again, Win. Take care, love,” and planted a kiss on his forehead that left a lipstick mark.

  In stepping aside to let her pass, Diamond backed into a screen and had to steady it. In the confusion he murmured to Julie, “Follow her.” Then he gave his total attention to the patient. Billington’s head was bandaged, yet he was no longer linked to a ventilator or a drip feed. The bed had been raised a few turns to bring him up from the horizontal. Was this frail figure with watery eyes the killer who had bluffed his way through the police investigation four years ago, the bottom fancier with sex on the brain and a steady supply of Milk Tray to help achieve it? “Re
member me, sir? Peter Diamond, Bath CID. We met some years ago. Are you ready to tell me what happened?”

  Billington said something inaudible.

  “Can you speak up?”

  “… very hazy.”

  “I’m not surprised. You were out cold for a day. Can you recall anything at all?”

  “… don’t see how I can help.”

  The phrase triggered a memory. Four years ago in court Billington had been more articulate, yet the essential message had been similar: he was a decent citizen anxious to cooperate, only puzzled as to his part in the proceedings. Diamond reflected cynically that the same air of innocence probably worked a treat in selling saucy greetings cards.

  “What happened, Mr. Billington?”

  “My wife…”

  “Yes?”

  “… spoken to you?” Hazy he might be, but he was smart enough to test the water first.

  “She has.”

  “We had a falling-out. She tell you that?”

  “I’d like to hear your version, sir.”

  “… got rather out of hand this time. She must have struck me. Couldn’t say what she used.”

  “A bag of coins, she told us.”

  “Just coins?”

  “A solid mass of them can weigh quite heavy. Enough to do serious damage.”

  “Mm. Awfully sore.”

  “You’re lucky to be alive. What was the cause of this falling-out?”

  He pondered this for a considerable time. “Something she imagined.”

  Diamond looked at the lipstick imprint on Billington’s forehead. “You didn’t provoke her?”

  “All in her mind.”

  “You can’t say for certain why your wife attacked you?”

  “Don’t wish…”

  “Yes?”

  “Don’t wish to press charges. Sort this out in our own way.”

  “It was a serious assault, sir. She damn near killed you.”

  “Poor old me.”

  You’ll feel even worse when you know what she’s accusing you of, thought Diamond. “Mrs. Billington told us that the reason for her anger went back four years, to the time the Swedish woman was murdered in your house.”