Peter Lovesey - The House Sitter

“I’ll take your word for it,” Hen managed to say. “Getting back to Emma Tysoe, do you share an office with her?”

“No. It was decided I should have my own room.”

Diamond murmured, “I can’t think why.”

Stella closed her eyes and went pink in the face.

Hen carried on resolutely, “So do you know her well?”

“Not particularly. We meet in the staffroom on occasions.”

“Does she have any close friends in the department?”

“How would I know? I’m not sure why the professor picked me for this.”

Diamond said, “Perhaps he thought you should get out more.”

Stella made the braking sound again.

Hen’s glare at Diamond left the big man in no doubt that she’d had enough. “All right. Let’s go to the mortuary.”

Stella drove them to St. Richard’s, and not much was said on the way. Hen asked Dr Seton if Emma Tysoe gave lectures and was told all the staff were timetabled to lecture. Dr Tysoe normally did five hours a week and her topic was forensic psychiatry. When she was away on a case, colleagues would cover for her and usually tried to speak on something from their own field that related to the course. Nobody asked Seton what he found to talk about.

In the anteroom of the mortuary the formality of identification was got through quickly.

“That’s her.”

“Dr Emma Tysoe?”

“Yes.”

Out in the sunshine, Hen lit up a cigar and said to Stella, “We passed Outpatients’ on the way in. Why don’t you take Dr Seton there and buy him a cup of coffee? I need to check a couple of things with Mr Diamond.”

So Stella found herself reluctantly paired off with the masturbation expert, while Hen flashed a not-too-sympathetic smile and a promise of, “We won’t forget you.”

“The pay-off?” said Diamond to Hen, as they moved off.

“She was practically wetting herself laughing in my office,” she said. “She had it coming.”

“She’s with the right man, then.”

She didn’t smile. Diamond would have to work hard to overcome that bad first impression.

“Anyway,” she said. “I know a better place.”

“I hoped you might.”

These two strong individuals sat opposite each other at a table in the staff canteen like chess-players. They’d collected a pot of tea and Hen was determined not to be the one who poured. After Diamond had eaten a biscuit, slowly, he said, “Do you take yours white?”

She nodded and reached for the milk. “Are you going to pour?”

It seemed a fair distribution of the duties. “OK, I’m sorry about Seton,” he had the grace to say. “As you probably noticed, he’s a one-subject man. I had two hours of it in the car.”

“Do you think the professor picked him specially?”

“I’m sure of it. And I’m sure everyone had a good laugh about it after we’d driven away.”

“You could have tipped me off.”

“But how? It’s not the kind of thing you can whisper in a lady’s ear.”

She weighed that. “Probably not,” she conceded finally. Then: “For pity’s sake, how does he carry out this research? Oh, never mind. I’ll hear it all from Stella.”

“When I get back to Bath, I’ll speak to the prof,” Diamond said, putting down the teapot. He hadn’t done too well. Two pools of tea had spilt on the table. “Don’t you find metal pots always pour badly? The prof should be able to tell me more about the cases this woman was advising on. I’m assuming her death is in some way related to her job.”

“It has to be followed up,” Hen agreed, dropping a paper napkin over the spillage and wiping it.

“So what’s been happening down here?” he asked. “Do you have anything else under investigation?”

“Serious crimes? Nothing we’d need a profiler for, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

“Sleepers? We’ve all got sleepers.” He meant the unsolved crimes that stayed on file.

“A few of those, but none we’re actively pursuing. Believe me, I didn’t ask her to come and neither did anyone else I know.”

“Who are your neighbours? Hampshire police? Did anything happen in Portsmouth? Now there’s a place with a reputation. Naval base. All kinds of scams at the docks.”

“Portsmouth docks are more of a theme park these days,” she told him. “I’ve spoken to them, and they haven’t used her either.”

“She must have been down here for a reason.”

“Unless it was a holiday. People do go on holiday.”

“Dr Seton didn’t seem to know about it.”

Hen said, “Dr Seton seems to have narrow vision.”

He smiled. “It’s supposed to turn you blind, isn’t it?”

Her real reason for setting up this tête-à-tête had to be faced. “You’ll report back to me on this?”

“Full consultation,” he said after a slight pause. “It’s a joint investigation.”

“It was initiated here,” Hen made clear. “The incident room is at my nick. I’ll take the decisions.”

He said, “I wouldn’t want to pull rank.”

“Then don’t. It’s a West Sussex murder.”

“She’s a Bath and North-east Somerset woman. You may find the focus of the investigation is off-limits for you. Then you’ll need my help.”

“Need it? I’m depending on it,” Hen said. “Bath nick is my second home from now on.”

He grinned. Without getting heavy, they had reached an understanding. “And you’ll be welcome. So what’s happening at this end?”

She told him about the TV appeal and the difficulty in finding a genuine witness. “Plenty of people offered help, but not the ones we want most.”

“Who are they?”

“A family of three who were sitting close enough to notice her failing to move when the tide came in. The man fetched the lifeguard.”

“A responsible citizen, then?”

“But we’ve heard nothing from him since.”

“Do you have a description?”

“We have a name.”

“Good. What is it?”

She told him and he smiled. She told him about the daughter called Haley who had been lost for a short time.

“Haley is better than Smith,” he said. “Not so many Haleys about. Have you tried the local schools?”

“No joy.”

“People drive miles to the seaside,” he said. “They could be Londoners, or from anywhere. My way, even. Do you want me to take it on?”

She was guarded in her response. “For the present, I’d rather you found out what you can about Emma Tysoe’s life and work in Bath.” But it had not escaped her that he’d deferred to her. Maybe this man Diamond was more manageable than people said. “Now that we have her name, it’s going to open up more avenues.”

“As you wish,” he said. “And let’s get our names into the open. I’m going to call you Henrietta from now on.”

“Try it, and see what happens,” she told him with a sharp look. “I’m Hen.”

“Fair enough. Is it time we rescued your colleague from the one-gun salute man?”

“Stella? Not yet,” she said with a steely gleam in her eye. “I think I’d like a second cup. How about you… Pete?”

Haley Smith’s teacher, Miss Medlicott, was telling the class about their project for the afternoon. “We’re going to do measuring.

Presently I’ll ask some of you to come to the front and collect a metric rule. Not yet, Nigel! Then you’ll work in pairs with the person sitting on your right. Anyone without a person sitting on his right put your hand up now.”

Without fuss, she made sure everyone had a partner.

“You’ll also need a pencil and a large sheet of paper. One rule for each pair, one pencil and one piece of paper. Decide now who will collect the rule, and who comes for the pencil and paper. Quietly. Is everyone ready? Then we’ll begin now.”