Peter Diamond - 09 - The Secret Hangman (25 page)

40

‘Y
ou could have warned me she was coming,’ he said in the car.

Leaman said, ‘She was too quick. You were standing right outside her office.’

‘Well, you could have reminded me that phones are banned.’

‘Yep.’ Leaman, like Halliwell before him, had read the signs. The boss was stretched to breaking point. It wasn’t wise to prolong the exchange.

They were driving down Entry Hill towards Bear Flat and for once the place they were going was on the same side of town. Home Workouts, Harry Lang’s agency, operated from a private house. With luck, the dragon who ran it would be at home. After the run-in with the ward sister, Diamond was relishing a situation where he wouldn’t be in the wrong.

There were lights in the house in Kipling Avenue.

His ring was answered, but the chain remained on the door. ‘If this is a business call, you’ll have to come back tomorrow,’ the mouth in the gap said. ‘It’s out of hours now.’

‘We’re the police,’ he said, pushing his ID forward, ‘and we work all hours. May we come in?’

‘What’s it about?’

‘One of your people, Harry Lang.’

‘That’s business.’

‘Madam, if you want a ride to the police station, say so. If you want the special treatment, shut the door in my face and I’ll batter it down and collect you. If not, open up and we’ll talk in the comfort of your own home.’

‘Don’t you threaten me,’ the mouth said.

‘Threaten? I’ve got your welfare in mind. In fact, I’ll give you a safety warning. Stand well back.’

‘I’ve done nothing illegal.’

‘Then prove it by cooperating.’

They heard the chain being unfastened.

This one punches above her weight, Diamond thought when he saw her. She was no more than the height of his elbows, pencil slim and with pinched flesh that spoke of questionable nutrition. The only things of substance were the thick lenses in her glasses. He guessed she was in her fifties. The long blonde hair looked all wrong for the face.

The striplighting flickered, functioned and showed the front room. Filing cabinets, desk with computer, stationery cupboard. She flapped her hand at the chair in front of the desk and Diamond sat in it. Leaman would have to lean against one of the cabinets. As for the little lady, she appeared to grow as she positioned herself on the other side of the desk. Either she used a couple of cushions or the chair was mounted on a dais.

Her name, they learned, was Daphne De La Fleur and that was the only frivolous thing about her. ‘Can we get to the point?’

They hadn’t even started. Diamond threw her an easy one. ‘I expect you enquire into the background of the trainers you take on?’

‘Of course.’

‘What does that involve? References, experience?’

‘Certainly, but all that is confidential.’

‘What do they have to supply? Proof of identity?’

‘That’s a standard requirement.’

‘What – a passport?’

‘Or a birth certificate.’

‘A passport if they come from abroad?’

She folded her arms. ‘I don’t like the drift of this. What exactly are you investigating?’

‘It’s all right,’ Diamond said. ‘We’re nothing to do with immigration. I spoke to you before and you know it’s Harry Lang who interests us.’

An extra degree of disapproval crept in. ‘That was you being heavy-handed on the phone, was it? I know of nothing to Harry’s discredit. He’s good at his job and popular with the clients. I’m sure he had nothing to do with that ghastly murder in the park.’

‘Where’s he from originally?’

‘South London, I believe.’

‘The accent isn’t south London. It’s East European.’

‘Perhaps his parents were from there.’

‘Quite likely. But if he was born and brought up in London he’d have a London accent.’

‘I’ve seen his birth certificate.’

‘So have I,’ Diamond said. ‘Did you check his passport as well?’

‘As a British subject, he doesn’t have to produce one.’

‘You mean you ask no questions.’ He put this as a statement and he could see she didn’t like it. ‘How many others get jobs here by producing freshly copied birth certificates?’

She took a noisy breath. ‘If you’re suggesting I knowingly employ illegal aliens, you’re very much mistaken.’

‘You’re missing the point,’ he said. ‘I told you we’re not immigration officers. We’re investigating several murders. Harry Lang is under suspicion because he was one of the last to see Mrs Jocelyn Steel alive, last Friday afternoon. She was strangled some time between then and Sunday morning, when the body was discovered. We called to interview Lang today and he took off at a rate of knots, right through a neighbour’s house and up the street to his car, ending up in an underground quarry at Combe Down. The roof fell in.’

‘Oh, no.’ She reached up and grasped her neck. ‘Is he . . . ?’

‘In intensive care and too far gone to question.’

‘Poor man. That’s dreadful.’

‘We’re here because you know him better than anyone.’

‘I wouldn’t say so,’ she said, guarded again.

‘You could be right. Some of his rich lady clients may have a more, em, intimate knowledge. Furnish me with the names and addresses and I’ll send my officers round.’

The colour drained from her face. ‘I can’t allow that. These are valued clients. Respectable people.’

‘And Lang is the main suspect in a murder case.’ He ran his finger over the address cards in the rotary holder on her desk. ‘What are your valued clients going to say when they find out?’

She reached for the Rolodex and returned it to her side of the desk.

‘It’s up to you,’ he said without letting up. ‘I want the reason why he ran. Is it because he’s a serial killer, or because he’s working here illegally under a false identity?’

She held his gaze for a moment and then the defiance oozed away. She looked down at her fingers and, of all things, laid the blame on the Community of Europe. ‘It’s so difficult keeping up with everything now. I’m not saying his birth certificate is wrong, but if it turned out he was from one of the new countries it wouldn’t matter, would it?’

Leaman, logical as usual, said, ‘It would to us. It would mean he had another reason for leaving in a hurry.’

Diamond had seen the loophole Miss De La Fleur had created and was willing to see how she used it. ‘True. Do you have a suspicion, Miss De La Fleur?’

She sighed and adjusted her glasses. ‘One of the clients told me she thought Harry was from Kosovo. I didn’t know what to think. Those poor people suffered dreadfully in the war. I didn’t question him about it because it was only hearsay. If that’s a crime, I hold up my hand.’

‘Kosovo?’

She enquired on a rising note of expectation, ‘Is that part of the enlarged community?’

‘I don’t think so. Are there any other foreigners on your books?’

She said in a prim tone that gave away more than she intended, ‘Not to my knowledge.’

He’d done enough skirting round the truth. He went into hard policeman mode. ‘I want the details of each of your trainers – full names, addresses, contact numbers. The same for the people they visit.’

‘Now?’

‘A printout. Your schedule as well, listing all the home visits.’

‘This will destroy my business,’ she said.

‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Musclemen on tap, for home visits? Any clients you lose you’ll soon recoup with the extra publicity.’

An outraged sound came from the back of her throat, but she knew he wasn’t playing. While she busied herself with the computer he took out his new phone and tried to get a number. He gave it a shake.

Leaman said, ‘Try switching it on.’

‘Nothing gets past you.’ He made a call to Keith Halliwell. ‘Are the crime scene people still at Lang’s flat?’

‘Finished, guv.’

‘And?’

‘Too early to know.’

‘Did they pick up those letters?’

‘Yes. Do you want them translated?’

‘Do I want them translated? No, I’ll use my pocket dictionary. Get with it, Keith. First I’d like to know what language they’re in. Try Kosovan.’

‘Albanian.’

‘What?’

‘Kosovan is not a language. Most Kosovans speak Albanian.’

‘I was pulling your chain, professor. What else came to light?’

‘They lifted masses of prints,’ Halliwell said. ‘That could be a problem. He has more callers than a cat on heat.’

‘Any recorded messages on his phone?’

‘There’s no landline here. He must use a mobile.’

‘We didn’t find one on him.’

‘And there wasn’t one here.’

‘In his car, maybe.’

‘Sorry, but no. The car is with forensics. They bagged up everything and gave me a list.’

‘Must have slung it. ‘ Diamond looked at the clock on the wall. ‘OK. We’re leaving any minute now. It’s overtime for everyone on the team. Are they all about?’

‘Apart from Ingeborg. She’s on her way back. She kept trying to call you from Midford. Was your phone switched on?’

He felt a small stab of guilt from which he recovered at once. ‘A mobile doesn’t work underground, dumbo.’

41

‘L
et’s face it, we’re too late for Martin Steel,’ John Leaman said to the rest of CID, now gathered in the incident room. ‘Going by what happened to the others, he’ll have been strangled already. He’ll be strung up overnight in some public place for the first hapless berk who comes by to discover tomorrow morning. We’ve failed him.’

‘John, that’s a load of bull,’ Halliwell said. ‘The men aren’t strangled first. Danny Geaves was hanged, and hanged at night. There’s still a chance to save this guy.’

‘Well, I could be wrong, but I know this much. The boss was down a mine all afternoon while I was above ground watching some kids kick a ball around. I’m a senior detective. I could have been better employed.’

Someone muttered in a passable imitation of Brando, ‘I could have been a contender.’

Halliwell said, ‘The boss caught up with Harry Lang.’

‘Top result!’ Leaman said with sarcasm.

‘What’s your problem with that?’

‘Turns out he’s an illegal immigrant and that’s why he scarpered when we raided the flat.’

‘So he’s an illegal. He’s still in the frame, isn’t he?’ Halliwell said. ‘Jocelyn Steel’s personal trainer and one of the last to see her alive. Has the boss given up on him?’

‘He should.’

‘Am I missing something here?’

‘Did any of the other female victims have personal trainers?’ Paul Gilbert asked, trying to be constructive.

‘Come on,’ Leaman said in the jeering tone you would only use with a rookie. ‘Delia Williamson had two kids and was working evenings as a waitress. She didn’t need to find ways of exercising. And Christine Twining had a demanding job with Marks and Spencer. Her brother-in-law told us a lunchtime walk in the park was the only exercise she got.’

‘I wouldn’t count Lang out of it until we get some forensic results,’ Halliwell said.

‘You think there’s more to him?’ Gilbert said.

‘A twenty-grand car, for starters. Where did he get that money when he’s living in community housing?’

‘Ask him when his head clears,’ Leaman said. ‘It doesn’t help us. There isn’t a profit motive in these killings.’

‘What is the motive?’ Gilbert asked.

‘If we knew that, we’d be making an arrest,’ Halliwell said.

‘We’re chasing a nutter,’ Leaman said. ‘We can forget about motive.’

Unseen by Leaman, Diamond had come in with Ingeborg at his side. ‘What’s your plan, John? Call in a shrink?’

‘It might be no bad thing.’

Halliwell rolled his eyes and looked towards Diamond. ‘Guv, I don’t know how much you heard. The thinking seems to be that Martin Steel is as good as dead already and we ought to be second-guessing where to find his body.’

‘Anyone who thinks like that had better leave now,’ Diamond said.

No one moved. No one blinked.

‘To business, then,’ Diamond said. ‘I saw Georgina earlier. Every park in the city is under surveillance tonight.’

Leaman said, ‘Bridges?’

‘What?’

‘Danny Geaves was hanged from a bridge.’

‘The plod are all over the city.’

‘You know what’ll happen? Tomorrow morning the cells will be full of rough sleepers and courting couples.’

Nobody smiled. Leaman had lost his audience.

‘What about Lang?’ Leaman said. ‘Is he in the clear?’

Diamond sidestepped that one. ‘He’s no threat to anyone where he is now. But there is a development.’ He turned to Ingeborg.

‘Tell them what you just told me.’

It was obvious to all that team spirit had sunk to a low point. Not an easy situation for Ingeborg, noted for her desire to please the boss and achieve early promotion. Her good looks simply added to the feeling that she started with an advantage. And no one would forget that she had been an investigative journalist. From their faces her colleagues might have been watching Lucrezia Borgia at a wine-tasting.

‘It may be nothing,’ she said. ‘The boss asked me to go through the filing cabinet in the Steels’ house. I was looking at some of the invoices. The fitness room was added about eighteen months ago. They installed the exercise machines and had a jacuzzi fitted.’

‘Who by?’ Halliwell said.

‘Give it a Whirl.’

‘Jesus!’

‘Nice work,’ Leaman said.

Some of the team hadn’t yet picked up the reference.

Ingeborg said, ‘Give it a Whirl is Dalton Monnington’s firm. Monnington – remember? The sales rep who dined at Tosi’s restaurant and tried to make a date with Delia Williamson.’

Leaman was not yet convinced. ‘But we went all the way to Wimbledon to interview him. The tests on his car were negative. The CCTV footage at the hotel didn’t pick him up.’

‘Doesn’t mean he’s in the clear,’ Diamond said. ‘He slipped out of the frame at a time when we were thinking Danny Geaves was Delia’s killer.’

‘He’s linked to two out of our three incidents,’ Halliwell said. ‘Let’s pull him in.’

‘Is there any connection with the other couple, the Twinings?’ Leaman asked.

‘We don’t know yet,’ Ingeborg said. ‘We haven’t had time to check. The Twinings were in the money. No reason why they shouldn’t have had a jacuzzi.’

‘We can find out,’ Diamond said. ‘Remind me where they lived.’

‘Hinton Charterhouse. John Twining was an architect and he designed it himself. All mod cons. It would be surprising if they didn’t have a pool at the very least.’

‘Check it out, Inge,’ Diamond said.

‘Now?’

‘Get the present owners on the phone.’

She looked bemused. ‘Do we know who they are?’

‘Initiative test,’ Diamond said and turned to Halliwell. ‘I want a check on Monnington’s present whereabouts. Is he back home in Wimbledon or on the road? Get onto Wimbledon CID and ask them to visit the house.’

The incident room was recharged. The mood was up now. Phones were in use, files being retrieved. Dalton Monnington was hot again.

Ingeborg swiftly tracked down the current owners of Longsword Lodge, where the Twinings had lived. They told her that the property included a swimming pool, built when the Twinings had lived there, but no jacuzzi.

‘Back to square one,’ Leaman said.

‘It doesn’t mean there was no contact,’ Ingeborg said. She was flushed with excitement and wasn’t giving up. ‘Monnington could have been to the place and tried to sell them one. A big, modern house is the sort he would target. If they chose not to buy he would still have met them.’

Paul Gilbert said, ‘If they refused to buy, he’d have even more reason to kill them.’

‘Buy one of my jacuzzis or else,’ Leaman said with a curl of the lip. ‘If that was the motive, there’d be dead couples all over the West Country.’

‘Back off, John,’ Diamond said. ‘This is the best lead we’ve had. Ingeborg, go on the internet and see what you can discover about Give it a Whirl. We may need to contact someone tonight.’ Like Ingeborg, he wasn’t discouraged. Investigations don’t often pan out so obviously. Her point was a good one. Monnington may well have met the Twinings as a would-be salesman.

A call came in from a Wimbledon police mobile patrol. They were at Monnington’s house and he wasn’t at home. His partner Angie Collier had told them he’d left three days ago. The couple had argued because she’d smelt perfume on the pyjamas he’d given her to wash. She’d accused him of having affairs when he was supposed to be on business trips.

‘Does she have any idea where he was heading?’ Diamond asked.

‘Hold on and I’ll ask.’ There was a pause and then: ‘She says to hell for all she cares.’

‘Great.’ Diamond turned to his team. ‘So it’s not impossible that he’s here with us in Aquae Sulis. Inge, how are you doing?’

She had found the Give it a Whirl phone number and was trying to get through.

‘You won’t get anyone. It’s after office hours,’ Diamond said. ‘Try the Bath Hilton. These reps are creatures of habit.’

Leaman shook his head. ‘He’s not going to have Martin Steel locked in a hotel bedroom.’

‘Yes, but he needs a base. Steel could be trussed up in the boot of his car.’

Ingeborg was through to the Hilton. They told her Monnington was a regular guest, but he wasn’t in residence now and hadn’t made a reservation.

‘Nice try,’ Leaman said, meaning she’d wasted her time.

‘Do we have his mobile number?’ Halliwell asked.

‘Good suggestion. . . . No.’

‘His partner will have it.’

The sergeant in the Wimbledon police car was not overjoyed at being asked to return to Angie Collier.

Ten more minutes passed.

Wimbledon came on the line again with the number. Before disconnecting, the sergeant asked with heavy sarcasm if there was any other service they could perform for their colleagues in Bath.

Diamond tapped in Monnington’s number and put on the amplifier for everyone to listen.

‘Hi,’ a bright voice said to the whole of CID, ‘who wants me?’

Definitely Monnington, but a more bobbish Monnington than they’d encountered the last time.

‘Depends what you have to offer,’ Diamond said. ‘Where are you?’

‘Bath, my friend. The city, not the soap and water.’

‘Where exactly in Bath?’

‘Tosi’s restaurant, for an early supper.’

Creatures of habit. Diamond eyeballed the sceptic on his team.