Peter Lovesey - The Last Detective

'We are obliged to you.'

When Lilian Bargainer rose to cross-examine, nothing in her manner suggested that this would be anything but a formality.

'Mr Buckle, you described yourself as the Managing Director of Realbrew Ales, but you have a number of other business interests, don't you?'

'I didn't think you needed to know. I'm a supplier of novelty goods to stationery shops and other outlets. I'm also on the boards of several companies in the entertainment business.'

'Novelty goods?'

'Toys, Christmas crackers, metal puzzles – you name it

'You import these items, presumably?'

'Well, yes.' Buckle answered in a way that showed he was more interested in talking about other matters.

'From the Far East?'

'In the main.'

The judge, too, was uneasy and signalled it by resting his hands on the bench and leaning back stiffly against his padded chair.

Lilian Bargainer made no concessions. The toys. Would they include such items as miniature teddy bears from Taiwan?'

'Certainly.'

'Last summer you asked Mrs Didrikson to collect a consignment from Southampton Docks.'

'That's right.'

'She told you, I believe, that she was stopped on the way back by two policemen in plain clothes who searched the cartons containing the bears. Is that so?'

'That's what she told me.'

The judge leaned forward to interrupt. 'Mrs Bargainer, I am trying to see the pertinence of these questions.'

'The matter has direct relevance to the case, my lord, as I shall presently demonstrate. Mr Buckle, you're obviously – literally, in fact – a man of the world. You must have divined the reason why the police were interested in this consignment. Toys from the Far East, collected by a company driver from the docks.'

'They were clean,' said Buckle, affronted. 'Teddy bears – for charity. They were handed out to kids at Longleat.'

'So it emerged,' Mrs Bargainer conceded. 'But clearly in the view of those policemen there were grounds for suspicion that you were importing drugs.'

Sir Job bounded up to interrupt. 'M'lord, I can't believe my ears. This is outrageous. It's a blatant attack on the reputation of the witness. Nothing in Mr Buckle's testimony can warrant such character assassination.'

'Both counsel will approach the bench,' the judge instructed them.

From the gallery, Diamond strained to overhear the earnest argument that ensued. If the judge ruled in favour of the prosecution now, Mrs Bargainer's task would be next to impossible. In the dock, Dana nervously repinned a strand of hair. Whether she fully understood the significance of this moment was unclear, but she could not have failed to sense the tension in the court.

After almost ten minutes of wrangling, counsel returned to their positions. Sir Job was crimson, Lilian Bargainer still serene.

'My apologies, Mr Buckle – for the delay,' she resumed. 'I have been asked to come quickly to the point, and I shall. Is it a fact that Anton Coventry, known as Andy, is an associate of yours?'

Buckle's hands gripped the ledge of the witness box. 'I've met a man of that name, if that's what you mean.'

'I mean a little more than that. Have you entertained him at your house?'

'Well, yes.'

'He swam in your pool on at least one occasion?'

'Yes.'

'Doubtless you've heard that he is at present in custody on several charges, including offences relating to the supply of cocaine?'

'I read something about it in the paper.' Buckle was unconvincing. It was too late now to distance himself from his odious friend.

'Did you know that Andy Coventry is alleged to have supplied cocaine to the late Mrs Jackman?'

Buckle was silent.

'Come now. It is public knowledge, is it not?' Lilian Bargainer probed.

'Why ask me, then?' said Buckle.

'Why not admit it, then?' she rapped back. 'We're getting closer to the truth, aren't we? The whole truth that you promised to tell, Mr Buckle. I put it to you that you came under police suspicion as an importer of illegal substances. My client's trip to Southampton at your behest to collect the teddy bears was just a charade, a diversionary tactic to spike their guns, was it not? How interesting that when she returned to your house at the end of the day you were entertaining, among others, Andy Coventry.'

Sir Job rose to protest that the charges against Coventry were sub judice and the imputation was misleading, and Mrs Bargainer withdrew her last comment.

'But you agree with my account of the facts?' she pressed Buckle.

'The whole thing is irrelevant,' he said without conviction. 'I'm here to talk about the car.'

Mrs Bargainer smiled. 'Very well, let's talk about the car. The Mercedes 190E 2.6 Automatic that you bought when Mrs Didrikson joined Realbrew Ales. You bought two cars of that model for the company at that time, didn't you?'

'Yes.'

'One for your personal use and the other for Mrs Didrikson's?'

'Yes.'

'Good.' She beamed at Buckle; he didn't smile back. 'I'm going to ask about the use you made of the cars, notably on Monday, 11 September and Tuesday, 10 October last year. Am I making myself clear, Mr Buckle? The first date was that of Mrs Jackman's murder. We have already heard from you that Mrs Didrikson did not report for work that day, so presumably you had to drive yourself about?'

'Yes.'

'And ever since Tuesday, 10 October, you have been without a chauffeur, because that's the day Mrs Didrikson was taken in for questioning by the police. When were you informed?'

'I can't recall.'

'Chief Inspector Wigfull testified that he phoned you between eight and nine that evening, 10 October.'

Buckle shrugged. 'Fair enough.'

'I must insist on a better answer than that. Do you recall being telephoned?'

'All right. It was some time that evening. I didn't check my watch.'

'It's important, you see, because there was a delay of some twelve hours before the Mercedes Mrs Didrikson drove was collected for forensic examination. The car stood outside her house for twelve hours. When it was collected, we now know, the impossible was shown to have happened. The scientists proved with their genetic fingerprinting that the body of Geraldine Jackman had been in the boot of that car. I say it was impossible because Mrs Didrikson has told me so, and I believe her.'

Buckle stared rigidly ahead like a guardsman being bawled at by a drill sergeant. Actually Lilian Bargainer had not raised her voice one decibel.

The skill of this cross-examination was profoundly satisfying to Peter Diamond. Compelled to hear his own deductions voiced by proxy, he was locked in to every word the barrister uttered.

'I put it to you that the impossible can only be explained this way. When you got the call from Chief Inspector Wigfull, you decided on a plan to confuse the police and divert suspicion from yourself. For it was you, wasn't it, Mr Buckle, who deposited the body of Geraldine Jackman in Chew Valley Lake?'

Nobody protested and Buckle made no pretence of a response. A paralysing curiosity gripped the court as Mrs Bargainer talked on. 'On the night of 11 September you drove there with the dead woman in the boot of your Mercedes. And when, a month later, you heard that Dana Didrikson was being held overnight, you thought of a way of confirming the police in their suspicion that she was the murderer. The spare keys for her Mercedes were held by your company. You drove up to Lyncombe where the vehicle was parked. You opened the boot and undipped the fabric lining.'

Buckle's eyes flicked towards the jury, as if in search of a doubter. The looks that met his were not encouraging.

'Are you listening, Mr Buckle? You undipped the lining. Then you removed the lining from the boot of your own car, the lining the body had lain on, and fitted it into the other car. Do you deny it?'