Peter Lovesey: The Secret Hangman

‘Sure.’

The casual attitude was not unusual. In the first few hours and days, Diamond knew from experience, the practicalities take over and you believe you can get through without anyone’s support. That stage passes.

‘If I were you, I’d ask their grandmother to be present.’

‘Sorted. They’re staying with her now.’

So the man had done something right. Those two small girls were much on Peter Diamond’s mind. Steph’s hysterectomy had meant his own marriage had been childless, but that had never stopped him empathising with other people’s kids. ‘We’ll do our best to keep our distance. But the story is going to break this afternoon. I’ll have to call a press conference.’

Corcoran turned to look at Diamond, the overconfidence replaced by creases of concern. ‘You don’t want me there?’

‘No. What I’m saying is make sure the girls are told before they see it on TV — or their friends do.’

‘I’ll do that.’

‘The press will be a pain in the arse in the first days. Take a firm line, refuse any offers to tell your story and they’ll get the idea.’

‘I’ve got sod all to say to anyone.’

‘Good. Hold fast to that.’ He let a second or two pass before adding, ‘But if you have anything helpful to tell me, I’d like it now.’

‘I’ve told you all I can.’

That old cliche wasn’t stopping Diamond. ‘We do a reconstruction of her last twenty-four hours. You’re certain, are you, that she didn’t make contact?’

‘Not with me,’ he said, ‘and not with Marietta, the child-minder.’

‘I have to ask this, Ashley. Do you have any suspicion that Delia was seeing anyone else?’

He looked away, out of the car window. ‘Oh, come on.’ But there was something in the tone that undermined the words.

‘Was she like that, one for the men?’

Corcoran scraped his fingers through his hair and gripped the ponytail. The answer was a long time coming. ‘Guys liked her. She was something. She really was. She laughed a lot. But we trusted each other, right?’

Diamond gave a nod to that ‘right’, but he wasn’t sure if Ashley Corcoran’s trust had been well founded.

‘And you’re quite certain, are you, that there wasn’t any dispute with the girls’ father about custody?’

‘Danny? He’s a jerk. He’s never shown any interest. If he surfaces now and wants them back, he can go to hell.’

‘I’d take a more cautious line if I were you. As the father, he has more rights than you.’

Back at Manvers Street police station, the investigation machine powered into motion. Extra civilian staff were brought in to deal with statements. A press conference was scheduled. Halliwell was sent to Tosi’s, the Italian restaurant where Delia had worked, to see how much they knew of her missing days. Ingeborg continued to try and trace Danny Geaves.

Georgina, the ACC, liked to think of herself as a hands-on executive. Diamond liked the high-ups to keep their hands off. ‘Leave it to me, ma’am,’ he said when she looked in for the second time that day. ‘Have I ever let you down?’

‘We’ve had our moments, Peter. I put you on to this one, remember? Amanda sings with me. What’s the motive here? Have you thought about that?’

‘I will when I get a moment,’ he said.

‘The woman was strangled first and then suspended from the swing to make it look like a hanging,’ Georgina said. ‘That’s not the behaviour of a professional crook. Any villain worthy of the name would know forensics can tell the difference. I think we’re dealing with a first-time murderer who panicked when faced with a dead body. He didn’t think it through.’

‘I’ll bear that in mind, ma’am. And now if I can get on…’

‘An amateur, in other words. But the motive is the problem. I don’t understand the motive.’

‘Neither do I, yet.’

‘It doesn’t seem like panic,’ she said without realising she’d just contradicted herself. ‘It wasn’t manual strangulation. He used a ligature. And it’s pretty cool to transport the body to the park and string it up, however naive it was.’

‘It beats leaving it in his car.’

‘What do you mean?’

He shrugged. ‘Neutral ground. Nothing to connect him.’

‘Good point.’ She weighed it before speaking again. ‘Perhaps he is a professional. This is shaping up as a beast of a case.’

‘Thanks, ma’am.’

She gave a sideways smile. ‘But I have every confidence.’ And that was her exit line.

He crossed the room to where Ingeborg was using a computer. ‘Any progress?’

She shook her head. ‘This Danny seems to have gone to ground, guv. We’ve asked at all his usual haunts. No one knows him well enough to have heard of his plans. He isn’t a loner exactly, but he gives nothing away.’

‘There’s no talk of a girlfriend?’

‘Not in Freshford anyway. He does a lot of walking, serious walking, with a backpack.’

‘I’ve seen you with a backpack and I wouldn’t call you a serious walker.’

She rolled her eyes. ‘Mine is a fashion accessory.’

‘Does he work for a living?’

‘No one seems to know.’

‘See if he’s on the social.’

Keith Halliwell, when he returned from Tosi’s, had more to report. ‘Delia did her waitressing as usual on Tuesday, the night she went missing, guv.’

‘Did she now? But according to Dr Sealy she was killed Wednesday night or early Thursday morning, so where was she?’

‘That’s a mystery. I spoke to the owner, Signor Tosi himself. He said she was the best waitress he’d ever had, dependable, a lively personality and popular with the customers. He’s very emotional about the murder. Even wept a little while we were talking about it.’

‘What time did she leave after work?’

‘He thinks about eleven.’

‘Thinks?’

‘He’d already gone. His wife wasn’t well, so he left the restaurant early and his head waiter Luigi closed the place.’

‘Did you speak to this Luigi?’

‘I’m going back later. He’s on at five.’

‘I’ll come with you.’

Before that, he spoke to the entire murder squad, seated around the incident room. ‘The press are waiting downstairs and I’m going straight to them after this. What I won’t be telling them at this stage is that the victim was fun-loving, as they say, and not getting much fun from her partner. Ashley is so wrapped up in his work he doesn’t even notice when she isn’t home. She has a child-minder for her two kids, and they don’t fret when she’s away. Why? Because she’s done it before. She’s that kind of mother. She needs space, according to Ashley. We have no clue where this space was, and if it involved another man. We’re damn sure it involved someone else on the night she was strangled.’ He spread his hands. ‘Of course it won’t take the press boys long to work this out for themselves, but I want to start with the shock of the young working mum strangled at night and left hanging in the park. We’ll issue her photo and hope to get some feedback from the public. She was a waitress, so we’re sure to hear from people who remember her, who could have spotted her with a man in the hours leading up to her death. We may even get lucky and hear from someone who saw her with her killer. The phone lines are ready. It’s a crucial time and we’re up for it, right?’

The phone on his desk was beeping when he returned to his office. He gave his surname, as always.

A woman said, ‘Hi, Peter.’

He couldn’t place the voice, but she seemed to know him and she wasn’t going to help by saying her name.

‘Er, hi.’

‘So how was the cake?’

‘What?’

‘They did give it to you?’