Peter Lovesey - Upon A Dark Night

Uncovering the past summed up Gary Paternoster. He was a relic looking for relics.

‘But you weren’t out with your metal detector last Saturday night,’ Diamond said in an unsubtle shift to the matter under investigation.

He looked at Diamond as if the question did him no credit. ‘It’s no good going out after dark. You wouldn’t find a thing.’

‘Mr Paternoster.’

‘Yes, sir?’

‘I’m inviting you to tell me what happened.’

‘Oh.’ He fastened a button on his suit. ‘I was up at the Royal Crescent, at that party.’

Surprised, for Gary Paternoster didn’t look like a party-goer, Diamond said, ‘By invitation?’

‘Not in point of fact. It was open to everyone, wasn’t it? The shop was open late that evening, being Saturday. I was on my way home, about nine, I suppose, when I met some people I knew in Northgate Street. One of them was at school with me, quite a forceful personality. They were all on their way to this party and they asked me to join them. They said things I’m too embarrassed to repeat, about getting…getting…’

‘Laid?’

‘I was going to say getting lucky with girls. I didn’t really want to, and I said I wasn’t invited, but they said none of them were. I’m not very good at standing up to people like that.’

‘So you tagged along.’ Now he understood. The kid had been press-ganged.

‘I thought I’d slip away as soon as I got a chance. Parties make me tense. There seemed to be dozens going up there. They said someone here – in the Grapes – had won the lottery and thrown their house open for a party. That was what I heard and I think it’s true. When we got to the house, the door was open and we just walked in. There was loud music and beer. It seemed to be on several floors. We went upstairs to the first floor and that was where I saw the young lady who was killed.’

‘Already dead?’

‘No, at this point she was alive.’

‘You’re sure it was her?’

‘She’s the one whose picture is in the paper today. She was German, wasn’t she? She had a pink jumper thing and jeans – black or dark blue. A pretty face with dark hair, quite short. My friends seemed to know her from the pub – this place. She used to come here most evenings. It turned out that she didn’t know any English, because they were talking about her, making fun of her, saying suggestive things to her face.’

‘Such as?’

‘Stupid stuff, like she was desperate for…’ He cleared his throat. Simply couldn’t bring himself to say the word.

‘Sex?’

Paternoster took an intense interest in his shandy. ‘And they tried to embarrass me by telling her I wanted to go upstairs with her. She didn’t understand.’

‘She must have guessed what was going on,’ said Diamond. ‘She must have known what it was about from the sniggering. How did she take it? Was she upset?’

‘She ignored it. She seemed to be thinking about other things. She kept looking away, across the room.’

‘What at?’

‘The door, I think. She wasn’t looking at people. After a short time she just turned her back and moved off. They told me to go after her. They said she wanted me to follow her. I didn’t really believe it, but they were making me very embarrassed, so I went, just to get out of the room, really.’ He paused. ‘I don’t want you to think I had anything to do with her falling off the roof.’

‘It hasn’t crossed my mind,’ Diamond said in gospel truth. ‘Did you see where she went?’

‘Upstairs to the top flat. It was open. The party was going on there as well.’

‘And you followed?’

The young man took a deep, audible breath through his mouth. ‘On the stairs she looked round to see who was following. I was at the bottom of the stairs, and our eyes met. I’m not very confident with girls as a rule, and I didn’t really expect anything, but the look she gave wasn’t unfriendly. It was kind of amused, as if she’d expected one of the others to be coming after her and was pleased to find it was me instead. I knew she was foreign and couldn’t speak the language and that was a help actually because I get tongue-tied when I talk to them. She was older than me by a few years and that was nice. Girls my age seem more hostile. Older women like my mother’s friends say I’m nice. She wasn’t as old as Mum’s friends, but she was in her twenties, I should think.’

‘So you began to fancy your chances?’

He fingered his tie. ‘No, don’t misunderstand me. I was pleased because she’d noticed me and hadn’t pulled a face or something. I followed her upstairs. There were quite a number of people in the top flat, drinking and talking. I think some of them were dancing. It’s quite a big room.’

‘I’ve seen it. What did the woman do?’

‘She stood for a bit, watching. She went into the kitchen, I think, and came out.’

‘Was anyone with her?’

‘No.’

‘Are you certain of that? Did you notice a tall man in a leather jacket and jeans?’

‘I wasn’t looking much at the other people there. I was watching her.’

‘Try and remember. It’s important.’

Paternoster frowned. ‘How tall do you mean?’

‘Really big. Well over six foot. Large hands, wide shoulders.’

‘No. I don’t remember anyone like that.’

‘Do you remember anyone at all, any of the guests who stood out?’

‘There was a black lady, but she was talking to people as if she belonged there.’

‘You’re probably right about that. Sally Allardyce is black and she lives in the top flat. You said she was talking to people. Can’t you picture any of them?’

‘No. They must have been friends. They seemed to know each other.’

‘Perhaps she was with the Treadwells, from downstairs.’

‘Not Mrs Treadwell. I know her and she wasn’t with them. I saw her downstairs. She was definitely downstairs.’

‘You know Mrs Treadwell?’

‘I’ve seen her in our shop.’

‘She’s a detectorist?’

He smiled. ‘No. I know all the people in Bath who do it seriously. She came in out of interest one afternoon and looked at some books and magazines. A lot of people drop in just to see what it’s about. I think they expect us to have some treasure on view.’

‘How did you find out her name?’

‘Saw a picture of her in the paper almost the next day with her husband. In the business section. Something about a supermarket they designed. I remembered her face.’

Diamond returned to the more pressing matter of Hildegarde Henkel. ‘You were telling me how you watched the German woman.’

‘Yes. She was there some time, getting on for half an hour, I’d say, and I was trying to pluck up the courage to go over to her.’

‘I know the feeling.’

He was unsettled by Diamond’s comment. ‘Oh, but I was only wanting to let her know that not everyone in the place was unfriendly. I kept trying to catch her eye and smile or something, only she didn’t look my way. Like I said before, she didn’t seem to be looking at people. Then I got distracted – someone dropped a glass, I think – and when I looked up, she’d gone. I knew she hadn’t left the flat, because I was by the door and, believe me, I would have noticed if she’d come that close.’

‘I believe you,’ Diamond said. ‘So what did you do about it?’

‘Well, there was a small passageway at the end with two doors leading off it. One was the bathroom. I’d heard the toilet flushing as people came out. The other room had to be the bedroom. I assumed she’d gone to the bathroom. I waited some minutes to see if she would come out, but when the door opened, it was a man. So…so I guessed she’d gone into the bedroom.’