Peter Diamond - 09 - The Secret Hangman (26 page)

42

S
even in the evening and Bath was empty. Only later, when the pubs spilled out and the clubbers appeared would it look like a real city. Halliwell drove his boss at speed through the streets and reached George Street before the response car they’d asked for. But the back-up wasn’t needed. Monnington was no longer there. Tosi’s had no customers when they arrived. On a table at the far end a half-finished bottle of red stood between two oval dinner plates.

The substantial owner, Giuseppe Tosi, explained in his less-than-substantial English, ‘Mr Monnington? He go. Mobile, yes, brr, brr, and he go quick. See?’ He indicated the table.

‘Which way?’ Diamond asked.

‘
Scusi?
’

This would have tried a patient man and Diamond wasn’t that. He stabbed his forefinger left, towards Gay Street, and held out his hands, Italian fashion.

Tosi nodded emphatically.

Diamond tried again. ‘On foot?’

‘Foot?’

Diamond lifted his leg and tapped the sole of his shoe.

Tosi took this as an Englishman’s attempt to learn Italian. ‘
Si.
Piede
. Like football, eh?’

‘So he walked away?’ Diamond said, wiggling his fingers.

‘No, no.’ Tosi could do sign language as well. He stretched his forefinger and thumb as wide as they would go. ‘The
signora
, she have the
tacco a spillo
.’

‘You’ve lost me.’

‘Stiletto shoes,
capisce
? Walk? No way.’

‘Are you saying there was a lady with him?’

Tosi frowned. ‘Lady?’

In desperation Diamond remembered the waiter who spoke passable English. ‘Is Luigi here?’ Before getting a response he said to Halliwell, ‘See if the waiter’s out back.’

Luigi was brought from the kitchen and confirmed that Monnington had been in with a woman guest. The couple had left in a hurry after receiving the call on the mobile. They’d got into a taxi ten minutes ago.

‘Did you see them go?’ Diamond asked.

‘Sure.’

‘Which taxi firm?’

‘Abbey Radio.’

Halliwell called Abbey and hung on while they put out a message. The driver confirmed from his cab that he’d picked up a couple in George Street and dropped them off at a private house on Widcombe Hill.

‘What number?’

‘He didn’t get the number. They told him when they got there.’

‘Oh, great.’

‘Opposite a bus-stop about halfway up. A big house with stone griffins on the gateposts.’

‘Stone what?’

‘It’s a mythical beast.’

‘Never mind.’ They got in and drove off.

‘It’ll be easier than looking for a house number,’ Diamond said, trying to be positive, and he was right. The gate with the griffins came up on their right. Even better, a car he recognised as Monnington’s black Mondeo was on the drive.

There were lights behind the curtains of the tall Victorian villa. Halliwell radioed their position and said they were going in. The back-up team was being informed, they were told.

A delay in answering made the two policemen uneasy. Then the door was opened by a dark-haired woman in a low-cut black dress with spaghetti straps.

Diamond held up his ID and asked to see Dalton Monnington.

She looked apprehensive, but invited them in.

In the large, luxurious living room, Monnington, shoeless and in shirtsleeves, with tie loosened, was lounging on a sofa watching a DVD of some Johnny Depp film. He reached for the remote and touched the mute button.

‘Kill it,’ Diamond said. ‘I want your total concentration.’

Monnington switched off and then made his protest. ‘You’re hounding me. It’s a bloody imposition.’

‘We questioned you once in your own home. That’s no imposition,’ Diamond said.

‘This is someone else’s home.’

‘And you disappeared to it double-quick when I called you at the restaurant. We could have spoken there.’

‘I’m entitled to a private life.’

‘Or two, or three?’ Diamond said.

‘What do you mean by that?’

‘Car keys, please.’

‘What?’

‘We need to search your car.’

‘Again? What is it with you? You’ve been over my car. There’s nothing in there but brochures.’ He sighed and put his hand in his pocket.

Diamond passed the keys to Halliwell and indicated with a tilt of the head that the search had high priority.

‘And get your shoes on,’ he told Monnington. ‘We’re taking you in for questioning.’

Monnington’s woman friend watched in mute amazement as her date was escorted to the police car that had just arrived on her drive. Diamond remained with her, leaving the two uniformed officers to take the suspect in. There was a job to do, and it required the lady’s cooperation. She was Charlotte Brown, she said nervously when asked, known to everyone as Lottie. She’d met Dalton Monnington only last month when he’d asked to sit at her table at a busy time in the Retro Café in York Street. They’d clicked at once. This was their second evening together – or should have been.

‘I hardly know him at all,’ she said, and then realised how this could be taken and added, ‘It’s not what it sounds like. I don’t sit in cafés looking for men.’

‘You can relax, Lottie,’ Diamond said. ‘He’s the suspect, not you. We don’t know for sure, but between you and me, you may have had a lucky escape. Where was he staying?’

She reddened. ‘Isn’t that obvious?’

Halliwell returned from outside, eyes gleaming. ‘You’d better come and look at this, guv.’

‘Hang on a bit. When did he arrive?’ Diamond asked Lottie Brown. ‘Today?’

‘This afternoon, about four thirty. He called me this morning and said he was visiting Bath and I offered to, em, put him up.’ She was a serial blusher.

‘So did he have an overnight bag?’

More embarrassment. ‘It’s upstairs.’

‘Mind if I look?’

‘I suppose.’

Halliwell was practically jumping up and down in his eagerness to tell Diamond what he’d found. On the way upstairs he said in a low tone, ‘I think we’ve nailed him.’

Monnington’s leather holdall was on a chair in Lottie Brown’s bedroom. Inside Diamond found a laptop among the clothes. He handed it to Halliwell. ‘I want our whizz-kid Clive to look at this.’

Lottie was getting uneasy. ‘Don’t you need a search warrant, or something?’

‘No, my dear. It’s your house and you invited us in. You’re not going to make our job more difficult, are you? Is that the door to the en-suite?’ He opened it and looked in. ‘He’s made use of it already, I see.’ A battery-powered razor was on the shelf over the hand basin. ‘Unless this is yours?’

‘No, that’s Dalton’s.’

‘And the washbag?’ He passed it to Halliwell.

‘That’s his, too. I don’t think you should help yourself to his things.’

‘He won’t need them here tonight. Let’s go downstairs again.’

In the living room, he asked if anything about Monnington had struck her as strange.

She was still unwilling to concede much. ‘I suppose I was surprised when we had to leave the restaurant in such a hurry.’

‘Did he say why?’

‘It was something to do with the phone call. Someone was being a nuisance, he said, and we’d better not stay.’

‘That was me,’ Diamond said. ‘The ultimate pain in the butt. Before he got the call was he acting normally?’

‘I thought so. He was being nice.’ Her look suggested that present company could take lessons from Monnington.

‘Did he talk about himself at all? His work?’

‘He told me all about that the first time. He’s a sales rep and he comes through Bath every month. What do they call those things? Jacuzzis. He said he could get me one at a knockdown price if I wanted, but he wasn’t pushing or anything.’

‘To sum up, then, there was nothing to cause you any concern in what he was saying?’

She shook her head. ‘What’s he supposed to have done?’

Out on the drive, Halliwell opened the boot of the Mondeo with the air of a conjurer producing the rabbit. ‘How about that?’

Diamond was prepared for something special, but nothing so special as this. His heart thumped against his ribcage.

‘The same, isn’t it?’ Halliwell asked.

After a long hesitation he found words. ‘Looks like it to me.’

‘What do you reckon? Twenty-five feet?’

‘Thirty, more like.’

‘Enough, anyway.’

They were looking at two lengths of white plastic cord, loosely coiled. The last time they’d seen anything like that, it was tight round Jocelyn Steel’s neck and she was hanging from it.

43

O
f all his colleagues, Diamond least wanted to see Georgina when he returned. At this time in the evening she should have been off the premises, singing her socks off in some rehearsal hall. Instead she stood with a commanding view of the staff car park at the back of the nick. The bust that wouldn’t be ignored was straining the silver buttons again. No way could anyone slide past and pretend she wasn’t there.

‘You’ve got things to tell me, Peter,’ she boomed.

‘Not really, ma’am,’ he said. ‘It’s a bit premature.’

‘But you arrested a man for the murders. They brought him in twenty minutes ago.’

‘On suspicion.’

‘He’s the killer, though?’

‘Put it this way. I want the truth out of this scumbag before it’s too late.’

‘No violence, Peter.’

‘We haven’t found Martin Steel. His chance of survival is running out minute by minute.’

‘I’m serious about that.’

‘I thought it was one of your choir nights tonight.’

‘It is, but I’ve sacrificed it. What have you got on this man?’

‘Can I tell you later? There’s a heap of work to be done, people to see, things to check.’

‘Be mysterious, then,’ she said, pink with annoyance. ‘Personally, I’ve always believed in holding nothing back.’ Her chest swelled even more.

Diamond averted his eyes.

‘Things have been happening here,’ Georgina went on. ‘I’ll walk upstairs with you and fill you in.’

‘If you like.’

She made just enough space in the doorway for him to ease past without physical contact. For a moment they were toe to toe and he had a memory of the ladies’ invitation waltz at Jim Middleton’s tea dance with little Annie steering him with her thighs. With practice he might take to ballroom dancing. Maybe Georgina saw the look in his eye because she set off along the lower corridor as if pursued by a bear. He had to wait for the stairs at the end before she spoke again. ‘This afternoon it was all Harry Lang.’

‘At this stage I’m ruling no one out.’

‘And he ended up in hospital.’

‘His own fault, ma’am. Has he recovered consciousness?’

‘Allow me to finish, Peter. You’re like a coiled spring. He’s still too confused to interview, but the doctors are optimistic. Quite properly – and I give credit when it’s due – you ordered forensic tests on the Ballance Street flat and they are still going on. I can tell you that the early results are promising.’

‘Oh?’ She’d surprised him. He’d been on autopilot up to now. The evidence against Monnington had pushed Harry Lang way down the list of priorities. Now a sliver of doubt pierced his thinking.

‘Yes,’ she said in a throwaway voice, ‘the fingerprint team gave me a call. They lifted a mass of prints from the living room and kitchen area and some of these have been compared with the national database. They found three good matches.’

‘Anyone I know?’ Diamond said, trying to sound cool about it.

‘Two of them are cousins, little more than juveniles.’

‘From Kosovo?’

‘I don’t think so. They sound quite British to me. Craig Curly and Hugh Short.’

‘Or Short and Curly?’

Georgina clicked her tongue and let out a sharp, angry breath. ‘I hadn’t thought of that. I suppose they could be made-up names.’

He thought so, too. He wouldn’t mind betting they were also known as Romney and Jacob, those woolly extras in Operation Fleece. Someone in this scam had a twisted sense of humour. ‘You said there was a third?’

‘Gary Jackman, who runs a car repair business. He did a six-month stretch for changing the plates on stolen cars.’

Young Paul Gilbert’s unreliable informer. Georgina had wandered into a minefield. How much did she know? ‘He’s known to us already. Pondlife.’

‘The point is, Peter, it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to tell us that Ballance Street was being used to plan robberies. We haven’t yet discovered Harry Lang’s true identity, but we now know why he took flight when you arrived with a squad car.’

‘You’re thinking these are the ram-raiders?’

‘It adds up, doesn’t it? Lang clearly has a source of money. He owns a good car. You don’t expect a council-house tenant to be driving a brand new Subaru.’

‘Ill-gotten gains?’

She nodded. ‘I’m not against immigration. It brings this country many talented and decent people, but you’re going to get some crooks as well. Lang could be the ringleader. We can’t be certain until we question him. Meanwhile Gary Jackman will do for starters.’

He swallowed hard. ‘You want to question Jackman?’

‘He’s waiting downstairs.’

‘What – have we pulled him in?’

‘On my authority. Don’t look so alarmed, Peter. I’m not taking over. Which of you is running the ram-raid inquiry now?’

He had to think. ‘DI Halliwell, ma’am. He’s been helping me this afternoon, seeing that not much was happening on the ram-raid front.’ Halliwell knew Jackman was on the payroll. He’d handle this with kid gloves.

Georgina drew herself up again. ‘Tell Mr Halliwell that when he can drag himself away from other duties he has the little matter of an interview to conduct.’ She swaggered off like the gunslinger who has just cleaned up the town.

Clive the computer man was at work in the incident room when Diamond looked in. Halliwell had already handed him Dalton Monnington’s laptop.

‘Have you cracked the password?’ Diamond asked.

‘Working on it. What exactly am I looking for, Mr D?’

‘If I knew the answer to that, I wouldn’t have brought you in. A list of his clients would be good.’ He called across to Halliwell, ‘Did you fetch the plastic cords from Monnington’s car?’

Halliwell held up an evidence bag.

‘Good. What we want now is the cord used to hang Jocelyn Steel. Should be in the evidence store. We compare them, of course, and if they’re similar we look at the ends and see how they were cut. If we’re really lucky they join like two halves of a loaf and bingo, we’ve got him.’

‘I’ll see to it, guv.’

‘No, you won’t.’

Halliwell frowned. He wanted to be in at the kill. Deserved it.

‘Give it to DC Gilbert. I’m afraid the ACC has other plans for you.’

So it was John Leaman who joined Diamond in interview room one and cautioned Monnington.

The amorous sales rep was sitting with arms folded. His mouth was set in an inverted U-shape, defiance writ large. ‘I want my solicitor and I want to speak to him in private.’

‘Noted,’ Diamond said. ‘The custody clock has started. Let’s get this under way.’

‘Didn’t you hear? It can’t start without my solicitor.’

‘Sorry, my friend. You’re entitled to ask for your brief, and I’m entitled to delay him for up to thirty-six hours.’

A glare. He didn’t know if Diamond was bluffing. He was in no position to find out.

‘Police and Criminal Evidence Act. I’ll confirm that in writing if you wish. At this stage I’m giving you a chance to earn some goodwill. Where can we find Martin Steel?’

‘No comment.’

‘Don’t be awkward, Dalton. This is one life you can save. Where’s he being kept?’

‘I want my solicitor.’

‘I told you. You must wait.’

‘In that case, so must you.’

‘Is Steel dead already?’

‘No comment.’

‘Because if he isn’t and you cooperate, we can make this whole experience less uncomfortable. Do you smoke?’

Monnington shook his head.

‘Coffee? Clears the brain.’

Another shake of the head.

‘You see, this thirty-six hours allows us time to check the evidence. We’ve got DNA from your comb. We’re looking at your laptop. The plastic cord from your car boot is being minutely examined. It’s all over for you really.’

Monnington didn’t look unduly worried.

Inside, Diamond was seething. He turned to Leaman. ‘We’ve got a silent one, John. No point in running the tapes when nobody is speaking. Why don’t you turn them off for a bit?’ This was meant to alarm Monnington, and did, the more so when Diamond stood up and took off his jacket.

‘No,’ Monnington said. ‘Leave them running.’

‘Why? Have you got something to say?’

‘I’m protecting my rights.’

‘Stuff your rights,’ Diamond said, coming round the table.

‘What about the rights of that poor sod you’ve got trussed up in some godforsaken hole?’

‘You’re mistaken.’

‘Where is he, then? Sitting at home with his feet up? I don’t think so.’

‘I know nothing about this.’

‘Did you fit a jacuzzi at the Steels’ house in Midford? Jocelyn and Martin Steel?’

‘In point of fact, no.’

‘Oh, come on, Monnington. Let’s not split hairs. You may not have installed it, but you sold it to them. We found the invoice in their filing system. Give it a Whirl. That’s your company, right?’

‘It wasn’t a jacuzzi. It was a hot tub.’

This, at least, was progress. He remembered the job. The link to the Steels was admitted.

‘Tell me the difference,’ Diamond said with an effort to be patient.

‘A jacuzzi uses an air system. Bubbles. A hot tub works on a different principle altogether, using jets of water.’

Diamond glanced at Leaman. ‘The things you learn in this job.’ He went back to his chair and nodded to Leaman to resume the tape-recording. ‘So you don’t deny visiting the Steels to sell them their hot tub?’

‘Two years ago,’ Monnington said. ‘That was all of two years ago.’

‘We’re getting somewhere. You admit they were clients?’

‘That’s no crime.’

‘Taken together with your attempts to start a relationship with another of the victims, Delia Williamson—’

‘
Relationship?
’ he broke in. ‘I flirted with a waitress.’

‘Gave her your hotel room number. If she’d come knocking on your door as you planned, would you have let her live? You like them begging for it like Lottie Brown, don’t you? You’re a sexy devil. But you get nasty when they ignore you.’

He looked away.

‘We’ve got your number, Dalton. You can’t take rejection. Killing them isn’t enough. You have to punish them, make an example of them by stringing them up. And when the boyfriends and the husbands come looking, they get the same treatment.’

Monnington shook his head and said nothing. But his hands were shaking.

‘All right,’ Diamond said. ‘Let’s leave your twisted thinking for later. Where can we find Martin Steel?’

‘I’ve no idea.’

‘I told you, it’s over, Dalton. The killing is over. No way are you going to string this man up. Is he dead already?’

‘No comment.’

‘Did you work with someone else? Are you trying to protect anyone?’

Silence.

‘What do I have to do to get the truth? Will your partner Angie help us? You must have some regard for her, because she survived. We can pick her up and bring her here, but it’s a two-hour drive.’

He shook his head again.

‘Don’t worry, she knows all about you and your playing around. I’ve spoken to her. I keep telling you, it’s common knowledge what you are. You’re finished. If you’ve got a shred of decency you’ll tell me where to find Martin Steel. That’s all I’m asking at this point. Tell me, and we’ll give you a break. You want some sleep tonight? You can get it.’

Monnington sighed and looked up at the clock.

Diamond made a grab for his hair and shoved his face hard against the table.

He yelped, more in shock than pain.

Leaman said, ‘Guv, don’t do this.’

Diamond jerked the face upwards. ‘I haven’t marked him.’ With his free hand he slapped Monnington sharply on both cheeks. ‘This is pit-a-pat. I haven’t started. Stand up.’

Monnington obeyed. He’d gone dead white, but red patches were forming on his cheeks.

‘Has anyone ever roughed you up?’ Diamond said, staring. ‘I mean really given you a workover?’ Without moving his eyes he said to Leaman. ‘Leave us alone for a bit.’

Leaman said, ‘Guv, I can’t do that.’

‘It’s an order.’

‘I think he might be ready to talk.’

In fact, Monnington was opening and closing his mouth without giving voice to anything at all. Then he fell back onto the chair and started making a series of animal-like sounds.

‘That’s all I bloody need. Hyperventilating,’ Diamond said. ‘Get him sorted.’ He marched out of the room.

He met Ingeborg coming fast downstairs.

‘Guv.’

‘Out of my way.’

She grabbed his arm. ‘Guv, I was coming for you. DI Halliwell needs you.’

He’d sacrificed Halliwell for the ram raid. The bloody ram raid. ‘He can get stuffed.’

‘He says it’s personal.’

‘Does he want out? Is that what it is? You can tell him I want out as well, but it ain’t going to happen.’ He brushed her arm aside and marched on, he didn’t know where. He needed to cool the fire raging inside his head.

She wasn’t giving up. She shouted after him, ‘He sticks up for you whatever anyone says and you treat him like shit.’

He stopped and turned. ‘Would you care to repeat that?’

She was white and shaking. ‘No, but I meant every word. People who toe the line get nowhere with you.’

‘You could find yourself in front of a disciplinary board.’

‘All right, but will you speak to Keith? I’ve never seen him so serious.’

If Ingeborg was risking her career, something was badly wrong.

‘Where is he?’

He found Halliwell in interview room two sitting across the table from a skinny young man with a shaved head. Gary Jackman was wearing a scuffed leather jacket flecked with paint. His hands were oil-stained. There was smouldering resentment in his brown eyes.

‘I’ll come out,’ Halliwell said.

‘This had better be good.’

Out in the corridor, Halliwell was twitchy. He waited for a uniformed sergeant to get out of earshot. ‘Something came up in here, guv. He’s saying he was double-crossed by the gang, which is why our stake-out came to grief.’

‘Well, he would. He gave us crap information. If this is all you’ve brought me here for—’

‘No, listen,’ Halliwell cut in. ‘You recall that he runs this vehicle repair shop and does up stolen cars? He’s insisting the gang didn’t use the vehicles he’d worked on, except for the decoy. He says the getaway car they used for the raid in Westgate Street was a blue Nissan Pathfinder and the owner is the brains behind the raids, planned the whole thing and torched his own car up at Lansdown the same night.’