Peter Lovesey - Upon A Dark Night

Diamond loyally did his best to justify Julie’s conduct. ‘What were you doing, peeking round the front door?’

‘I thought it was my husband coming in.’

He hesitated, playing her answer over in his head. ‘He’s still out? Where?’

‘God knows.’ Her voice faltered. She swallowed hard, pulling the dressing-gown across her chest, getting command of herself. ‘I heard a car draw up outside. I wanted to catch them sneaking in together.’

‘Catch who?’

‘William and Emma.’ Speaking the names caused a torrent of resentment to pour from her. ‘I’m sick of all the deceit. I’ve known about it for months, the way they look at each other, the secret meetings, the evenings out together, the restaurants on his credit card statements, pretending it’s business when I know bloody well what it is. I want to catch them creeping in. Tonight I was sure. I waited up. I knew they were together.’

So it was cards on the table with a vengeance.

‘But he isn’t with Emma,’ Julie told her.

‘Don’t give me that. I know bloody well he is.’

‘You’re wrong, Sally. Emma came back a good two hours ago and we picked her up. She’s in a cell at the police station.’

Sally stared at her. ‘What for? But I heard her go out at seven, seven-fifteen, or something, and he was looking out of the window, waiting. He didn’t know I was watching. It was like a signal to him, like she was some bitch on heat. He was off down those stairs without even telling me he was going out.’ She paused, letting Julie’s statement sink in. ‘If he isn’t with her, where is he, then? If she’s locked up, where the hell is William? What’s he doing at this hour of the night?’

The same question was troubling Peter Diamond. He thought of a possible answer that would be no comfort to anyone. Instead he asked, ‘Someone slashed a tyre of your husband’s car yesterday night. Was that you?’

‘Me?’ She looked bewildered. ‘Why should I do that?’

‘You’ve just told us. You’re an angry young woman with a two-timing husband, that’s why. You walk to the station early on your way to work, when it’s still dark. You go through the Circus, where you know it’s parked. You could easily-’

‘I didn’t,’ she said in a tight, controlled voice. ‘I wouldn’t demean myself.’

Back in the car, he told the driver, ‘Change of plan. Switch on the beacon and back to the nick. Fast.’

Above the surge in acceleration, Julie said, ‘If this is to do with me-’

‘It isn’t.’

‘I know I was out of order to scrap with her.’

‘Will you listen, for Christ’s sake? Another killing may have taken place tonight.’

‘William Allardyce?’ Her voice rose high. ‘You think he’s been murdered?’

‘No chance. I think he’s the murderer.’

After a pause, to be sure that he was serious, she spoke her mind. ‘This is an about-turn, isn’t it? You’ve been telling all and sundry that Rose is the killer.’

‘Of the farmer, yes.’

‘Is she, then?’

The lack of contact between them had never been so apparent. ‘No, Rose is innocent’

‘After all that you’ve been saying?’

Unwisely, he was still trying to claim some credit. ‘The way I prefer to put it, Julie, is that I confirmed my earlier theory. Allardyce was our main suspect from the day we met him. Remember the missing shoe? You can’t have forgotten us watching his car for hours.’

She said, ‘We were investigating something else.’

‘Right. I hadn’t connected Hildegarde’s death with the farmer’s. This new information that Emma has been hiding Rose stands the whole thing on its head. William is our man.’

‘Both murders?’ she said in disbelief. ‘William Allardyce?’

‘Don’t tell me you like the man.’

‘That’s neither here nor there.’

‘But…?’

‘He was easier to deal with than the rest of them. He went out of his way to be pleasant.’

‘His job,’ Diamond cynically dismissed it. ‘PR.’ He swayed against her as they swung left into George Street. ‘God, don’t you hate being driven fast?’

The car’s speed didn’t bother Julie. Being crushed against the arm-rest didn’t either, but being crushed by force of personality was something else. she said nothing. She was waiting for him to make his case against Allardyce.

Instead, he asked, ‘Did you believe what Sally just told us?’

‘About what – her husband with Emma?’

‘The tyre, Julie. The slashed tyre.’

‘Yes, I believed her.’

He sighed. ‘So did I.’

‘What is it about the damned tyre?’ she asked. ‘You won’t let go.’

‘I won’t let go because it’s crucial to the whole shooting match.’ Competing with the engine, he explained, ‘We have two angry spouses, Guy Treadwell and Sally Allardyce: reason enough to sabotage the car. I put it to them both and they denied it, and we believe them, right?’ Julie nodded.

‘And there’s no earthly reason, is there, why Allardyce would have done the slashing himself and then reported it?’

‘I can’t think of one.’

‘So who else knew where the car was parked last night?’

She pondered the options. ‘Only Emma. But she’s supposed to be his lover. She had no reason either.’

‘Oh, but she had,’ he said. ‘She had a reason, Julie, a far better reason than anyone else.’

Emma was not sleeping. She was lying in the cell wrapped in the blanket, but that was to keep warm. When the door was unbolted, she sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed.

‘Straight answers, now,’ Diamond demanded. ‘Where did you take Rose?’

Her mouth tightened.

He told her, ‘William Allardyce isn’t home yet. We just came from there. His wife says he followed you when you went out this evening soon after seven.’

She drew in a sharp breath and still said nothing.

‘Emma, you don’t want another killing on your conscience. You’ve been protecting Rose. That’s why you disabled his car last night. Isn’t that so?’

She stared away at the blank wall, absorbing what he had said.

‘You put his car out of action to stop him following you. But he’s out there now and he came after you tonight. How long is it since you left Rose?’

Now, giving way to emotion at last, her face creased in anguish.

‘You loved the man,’ Diamond went on, still taking the tolerant line with her. ‘You had an affair and it went horribly wrong. He’s a killer twice over, your lover. He shot the old farmer, didn’t he? And he threw the woman off the roof of your house. You know he won’t stop at two. If Rose isn’t dead already, she will be shortly. Where is she, Emma? Where are you keeping Rose?’ He grasped her arms and practically shook her.

She turned her terrified eyes on him. ‘Prior Park Buildings.’

‘Where’s that? You’re coming with us.’

In the short drive across the Avon and out along Claverton Street, Diamond got some more things straight with Emma.

‘He was using you – you realise that? Putting you out front, getting the plans of Marton Farm through your official duties as a surveyor. No doubt you were excited by his stories of a fabulous hoard waiting to be dug up. But did you know he was willing to kill for it?’

She was ready to talk now that she understood the danger Rose was in. ‘William was jealous of Guy. He was so reasonable in every other way,’ she said in a voice drained of all emotion. ‘Totally charming and civilised, much more in control than my husband.’

‘You say “in every other way”.’

‘He had this obsession – there’s no other word for it-with beating Guy at his own game. Guy seems to lead a charmed life. You’ve heard us talk about his good luck, and it’s true. Well, his hobby is archaeology.’