Peter Lovesey - The Last Detective

'We'll find out presently.' Diamond returned down the garden path and got into the car. 'Would you drive us round to the front?'

This gave the impression that they were just arriving. The young constable at the door recognized him as he opened the gate. 'Mr Diamond?'

'We'd like to see inside, if you don't mind.'

'Sir, I'm under instructions from Mr Wigfull.'

'You'd better come in with us then, and see we don't steal the silver.'

Whether or not the news of Diamond's departure from the force had percolated to this level of the uniformed branch, the voice of authority prevailed. With the constable in tow, they went straight to the back sitting room and examined the window-fastening. The frame had a substantial brass fitting of the kind that rotated on a pin and slotted snugly into a catch to secure both sections of the window in the closed position.

'Nothing wrong with that,' Jackman observed.

Diamond turned to the constable. 'See if you can find me a screwdriver, lad.'

A few minutes later he unfastened the four screws that held the main fitting in place, and lifted it clear of the wood. Then he stood back. 'See what you make of that.'

If Diamond's tone of voice wasn't quite so self-admiring as Wigfull's had been in court, it was a near-run thing. It was undeniable that the wood below the fastening had recently been splintered. You could see where the screws had been forced. Tiny splinters of clean, white wood had been jammed into the holes to give the screws something to bite into when they were replaced.

'The intruder got in this way and tidied up afterwards,' he said. 'I spotted a chip of fresh wood on the floor between the boards. Years ago, in the days when real detectives worked out of Scotland Yard, we had a saying: 'Give your eyes a chance".'

Ideally, the dictum merited a moment's contemplation. It got none at all from Jackman. 'When was the break-in? Last night?'

'Could have been any time in the past two weeks. The letters were hidden upstairs ready to be discovered if and when they were needed.'

Diamond grinned from ear to ear. After so many months in the doghouse he was entitled to be satisfied. The discovery was detective work at its finest, worthy to secure his place in the pantheon with Fabian of the Yard and the other trilby-hatted heroes of yesteryear.

LILIAN BARGAINER, QC, DISPOSED OF John Wigfull next morning with appropriate irony.

'Chief Inspector, the entire literary establishment salutes you today for recovering the missing letters of Miss Jane Austen. The newspapers are bracketing your name with Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple. Pray, how did you make this happy discovery? Was it, to paraphrase Miss Austen herself, the result of previous study, or the impulse of the moment? Was it sense, or sensibility, that guided you to the hiding place?'

Wigfull frowned and said, Tm afraid I don't follow the question.'

'I'm surprised it causes any difficulty to a man of your acuteness. Let me put it another way. Who tipped you off?'

He swayed back like a boxer. Tm unable to answer that.'

'Somebody did, presumably. Surely you didn't order the search of the house yesterday morning on a whim?'

'Well, no.'

'So…?'

Wigfull passed the tip of his tongue slowly around his lips.

After an appreciable pause, Mrs Bargainer said, 'Do you understand what I am asking this time?'

'Yes.'

'Then you really must give an answer.'

He said softly, "There was a phone call -'

'Speak up, Chief Inspector.'

'There was a phone call to the main police station in Bath late the previous evening. The caller rang off before we could get his name.'

'So you were tipped off. You didn't tell us this in your statement yesterday.'

'I didn't consider that it was needed at that stage.'

'I'm pleased to hear it. I really didn't have you down as a glory-hunter. Now we know. An anonymous caller. Do I have it correctly now?'

'Yes.'

Mrs Bargainer drew her gown aside and rested her hands on her hips.. 'Let us consider another point. When you gave us this startling information yesterday, we were supposed to deduce, were we not, that the defendant, Mrs Didrikson, had obtained the letters and hidden them in her dressing table herself?'

'I simply reported what I found,' Wigfull said guardedly.

'And – you can tell us now – were you surprised to have made such a discovery? After all, you had searched the house from top to bottom on a previous occasion.'

"We must have overlooked it the first time. As I explained -'

'Oh, don't sell yourself short, Chief Inspector. Have you considered the possibility that someone entered the house some time in recent days and planted those letters there?'

Wigfull looked across to the table where the prosecution team were seated, but no help was forthcoming. 'I don't think that's likely. The place has been kept locked.'

'So would it surprise you to be informed that the sash window in the sitting room at the back has recently been forced, and the fitting repaired and screwed back into place?'

'Is that true?' said the hapless Wigfull.

'That is my information. You are the detective, Mr Wigfull. I suggest you investigate. Your findings will interest us all, as will your deductions afterwards. We accept that your statement yesterday was made in good faith. However, craving the court's indulgence, I venture to describe the testimony as somewhat coloured by pride and prejudice. No further questions, my lord.'

The judge looked faintly amused. He leaned forward, his chin propped on his right hand. 'Sir Job?'

Some hurried shuffling of papers at the prosecution table underlined their confusion. 'At this point, m'lord, we propose to move on to the chief inspector's evidence-in-chief.'

'Then I suggest you do.'

The next hour and fifty minutes was an exercise in damage limitation, a painstaking recapitulation of the police investigation. By switching back to the discovery of the body in Chew Valley Lake and plodding systematically through the process that had led to Dana's indictment, Sir Job contrived point by point to rehabilitate Wigfull as a credible witness.

To Wigfull's credit, his testimony was equal to the challenge. He spoke with restored assurance, making a point of facing the jury as he gave his responses, and his language was simple and direct. He didn't hesitate again. He must have been aware that Diamond was watching from the public gallery, yet he described the first phases of the inquiry, when Diamond had been in charge, with impeccable recall – the search of the lakeside and the delay in identifying the body; the television and press appeals for information; and how Professor Jackman had eventually come forward and identified the body. Sir Job took him through the search of John Brydon House, the interviews with Jackman and the transatlantic phone conversation with the American academic, Dr Junker (an affidavit from Junker had been filed by the prosecution). Wigfull explained how checks had been made at University College and with Air France that established an alibi for Jackman, and how the focus of the investigation had then switched to Dana.

'What happened when you went to interview her?'

'She ran out of the back of the house. I gave chase, but she got into the Mercedes and drove away. It happened that she met another car in a narrow road near the house -met it head-on. There was a slight collision.'

'She was unhurt?'

'Yes, sir.'

'And did she admit to running away from the police?'

'Her words were, "I was trying to escape."'

So it went on through the morning, this process of assembling a case that would allow no reasonable doubt. Sir Job omitted nothing. He took Wigfull through the interview of Dana and established that she had insisted she had no more to tell when in reality there had been much more to come. He plotted the stages of her disclosures, showing how she'd eventually admitted to having visited the Jackman's house on the morning of the murder and had seen Geraldine lying dead in bed. Finally, he testified that when the reports had come back from the forensic lab confirming that the body had been placed in Dana's car boot, he had formally charged her with murder in the presence of her solicitor.