Peter Lovesey - Diamond Dust

'Also did courses on juveniles, driving, race relations and drugs.'

'Is there anything on her early life?'

'Not a lot, but this might interest you. She was born and brought up in Bath. She did her schooling at the Royal High School. The family lived in Brock Street.'

Brock Street led to the Royal Crescent and Royal Victoria Park. He gave a whistle that must have been painful to hear down a phone-line. 'Spot on, Louis.'

'Does that help?'

'It's not what I was rooting for, exactly, but it may answer one question I've sweated blood over – why they met where they did. You see, the park where Steph was murdered wasn't a place she would have chosen. She had her favourite parks, but the Victoria wasn't one of them. I've always believed her murderer suggested meeting there.'

After a pause, Louis said, 'Peter, you're not seriously putting Irish in the frame for your wife's murder?'

'Things are falling into place.'

'But she's dead. She was the second victim.'

Diamond didn't answer. His thoughts were galloping ahead.

Louis waited. 'Peter?'

'Yes?'

'I can see problems here. You want to be careful.'

'Why?'

'You know what McGarvie and Billy Bowers will think if they get wind of this theory? They'll think you went out and shot Trish Weather yourself.' After another long pause he said, 'God, I hope you didn't.'

A Mr and Mrs Gordon Jessel still lived in Brock Street, Bath, according to the phone directory. A check of the birth registers confirmed that they were the parents of Patricia.

Seized by the need to share the news with someone else, Diamond called Julie Hargreaves that evening and told her he had a new theory that "F was Patricia – or Trish -Weather. At first she refused to entertain it. But so had he, at first. Julie caught her breath when he mentioned that Trish had been an Authorised Firearms Officer.

'So what do you have here?' she said, assessing the information with the precision he valued so much. 'The name beginning with "T". The link with Fulham and the police. Experience with guns. The fact that she was brought up in Bath, so she knew where to set up the meeting with Steph. Anything else?'

'Something pretty important. Steph wouldn't have thought of Trish as threatening. She had this friendly personality everyone warmed to.'

'Then why?' Julie asked. 'What had this charming woman got against Steph?'

'Before I come to that, there's a different "why".'

'Yes?'

'Why did Steph go to the park at all?'

'It was fixed. It was in her diary.'

'Yes, but what was their reason for meeting? It's not as if they were the best of friends. They met a couple of times when I was serving at Fulham in the eighties, but they didn't know each other well.'

'You've worked it out, haven't you?'

'It's preyed on my mind all these months, Julie, and the explanation is so bloody obvious I'm ashamed of myself. Steph gave it to me the night before she was killed and I didn't see it until today.'

'Share it, then. I want to hear it, guv.'

'You have to know the kind of person Trish Weather was. We called her Mary Poppins in the old days. She was forever chivvying us into behaving properly, doing the right thing, giving presents to anyone who left. She was the mother hen of the place.'

'There's usually one.'

'Right. I've been told that even after she quit the police to set up her temping agency, she kept dropping in at Fulham nick to look up old friends. It was as if she couldn't bear to leave.'

'It happens.'

'Now listen, Julie. On the last evening I spent with Steph she reminded me my fiftieth birthday was coming up. What's more she told me some friends had seen an article in the paper that mentioned my age and they were talking about giving me a surprise party. She wouldn't say who. You don't, do you, if it's meant to be a surprise? She was just sounding me out, confirming what she'd guessed already-'

'That you couldn't think of anything worse?'

'You know me and parties, Julie.'

'You think Trish was behind the surprise party?'

'I'd put money on it.' Immediately he was hit by a doubt. 'Don't tell me it was you.'

'I didn't even realise you had a special birthday this year.'

Relieved, he let his excitement bubble over. 'Everything points to Irish. In the diary Steph actually notes which evenings I'm out, so she can call her and discuss it. She knew very well what my reaction would be.'

'You think Steph squashed the idea?'

'No, that wasn't her style. Softly, softly. As I say, she spoke to me first, just to be certain of my reaction. The next day – if I'm right – she meant to break the news to Trish that it wasn't such a good plan. Knowing Steph, she'd want to do it without hurting the woman's feelings.'

'She could tell her on the phone.'

'No, they fixed to meet. She'd prefer to tell her face to face.'

'Who suggested the meeting, then? Trish?'

'I think so. She'd have said it would be nice to meet anyway and she came to Bath sometimes to visit her parents. Steph was friendly, as you know. She'd have fallen in with the idea. They picked the park because that was really close to where Trish's people live. Does that sound plausible?'

Julie sidestepped. 'But why did Trish bring a gun with her?'

'She had a different agenda.'

'Obviously.'

'The surprise party was just a blind.'

'Okay,' she said with a huge note of doubt. 'So what turned her into a killer?'

'Julie, that's the big question only one person can answer now.'

'Stormy Weather.'

He didn't need to confirm it.

Julie said without prompting, 'You think Stormy shot his own wife, don't you? He found out she'd killed Steph and he put her down like a dangerous dog.'

'He's been a strong support to me,' was all he would answer.

'I haven't met the man,' she said. 'I'm just looking at it coldly. He's a Chief Inspector. You and I know what he'd face if his wife was convicted of the murder of another officer's wife. He'd be finished.'

He said indifferently, 'I'm not going to shop him.'

Julie latched on immediately. 'Exactly. What's done is done. If Stormy shot his wife, leave it to Billy Bowers to work it out.'

He started to say, 'But I have to know why-'

Julie cut in, 'Guv, I know how your mind is working. Stay away from Stormy. Don't have any more to do with him. You can only panic him.'

Speaking more to himself than Julie, he started the statement a second time, and completed it, 'I have to know why Steph was murdered and I will.'

A November storm hit the West Country that night, uprooting trees and bringing down fences. Roads right across Somerset and Wiltshire were closed by flooding. Diamond decided not to drive. He took the InterCity to Paddington, crossed London on the Bakerloo Line and completed the journey to Raynes Park by a suburban train. And at intervals, resonating with the rhythm of the wheels, he fancied he heard Julie's voice urging him to stay away from Stormy.

Fat chance.

Before doing anything else at Raynes Park, he needed to relieve himself. He found the 'Gentlemen' sign on the station platform and discovered from a smaller notice on the door that not every man in Raynes Park was gentle. 'Due to continued vandalism these toilets are locked. If you need to use the facilities please ask a member of staff for the key.' 'I should be so lucky,' he said grimly, looking along the deserted platform. There was a similar notice on the ladies' door. He went down the steps and into the street.

A sheet of rain and a buffeting wind hit him when he stepped out of the station. In the street, umbrellas were being blown inside out. He never carried one. He put up the collar of his old fawn trench coat, jammed on his trilby more tightly and set off for Stormy's local shops. They began almost at once, along one side of Approach Road, and they were about as accommodating as the station facilities. The pharmacy had ceased trading. The fish and chip shop wasn't frying. There were a couple of others with shutters up, covered in graffiti. There was a public convenience. The sign on the door read: 'These toilets are permanently closed.' Driven desperate by the sound and sight of the rain, he stepped around the back.