Peter Lovesey - Skeleton Hill

‘The licence, please.’

He produced it from his pocket and the cop used his radio to check with the Police National Computer. Then: ‘I’m reporting you, sir, for driving an untaxed vehicle. Whether any action is taken is out of my hands. Where were you driving to?’

He didn’t like the ‘were’. ‘Home. I live in Weston.’

There was another stressful delay while the cop considered the options. ‘All right,’ he said finally, ‘you can finish your journey, but don’t be so unwise as to use the car again until you get the new disc. And the brake light.’

‘You can borrow mine,’ Paloma said in the Crown that evening. She’d driven out to Weston to meet him.

‘I won’t do that,’ he said. ‘I appreciate the offer, but I’m not depriving you of your car just because I cocked up.’

‘How will you get to Bristol in the morning?’

‘I’ll go into Bath and hop aboard a patrol car.’

‘I doubt if you’ll hop anywhere in your present state. Let me take you.’

‘No. I meant what I said.’

‘You’re like a limpet sometimes.’

‘Actually I’ve thought of a way I can use this to my advantage.’

‘What’s that?’

‘I’ll tell you if it works.’

She took a sip of her white wine. ‘All told, this hasn’t been much of a day for you.’

‘Too true. They didn’t roll out the red carpet at Bristol, either, but we ended the day on better terms… I think.’

‘Are you any nearer to finding who killed this man?’

‘That’s the sort of question I get from Georgina, the boss.’

‘Oops. Sorry I asked.’

‘We concentrated on the victim today, building up a profile. He’s something of a mystery himself. No family in this country. Lived in Bristol all his life, so he must have made hundreds of contacts.’

‘For contacts, read suspects?’

‘Potential suspects anyway. The problem is that here was a harmless guy who put a lot into his job and didn’t make enemies of people. Mind, he wasn’t all that popular in the staffroom. They speak well of him – as you do of a dead colleague – but it comes through that he had no close friends.’

‘Did the students like him?’

‘Apparently. He made big efforts to bring the history to life for them.’

‘And in the process showing up the other lecturers? Was that what made him unpopular?’

‘With some, I suppose.’

‘Enough to justify murder?’

He grinned. ‘That would be stretching it.’

‘The way you talk about some of the people you work with…’ ‘The bullshit artists and brown-nosers?’

‘You’ve made my point. Resentment can run deep among colleagues.’

‘I wouldn’t murder them.’

‘Look at it another way, then. Your victim may have been a harmless guy, but he had a knack of annoying people. He seems to have caused an upset at the car boot sale.’

‘Nicking stuff because he was hungry.’

‘You don’t know what else he got up to in those days he was living rough.’

‘I know one thing. He was at the races the evening we were there. Remember the guy who wandered across the course when the runners were going to the start?’

‘That was Rupert?’ She put her hand to her mouth.

‘Has to be. He gave his name as Noddy. I took him to be a drunk.’

‘And he said something about wanting food. Poor soul. That’s awful, Peter. I thought the same as you. How wrong we were.’

He nodded. ‘We saw something and we made an assumption, like the people who saw him trying the doors of parked cars. I’ve been assuming professional jealousy played a part in his death, or some incident in his personal life. It could be much more basic.’

‘Someone who caught him misbehaving up at Lansdown and saw red?’

‘Exactly. I must find out more about those days when he was behaving erratically. We’re short of witnesses. I hoped to get help from the Lansdown Society. They’re the resident snoops.’

‘They can’t be everywhere. You’re more likely to hear from someone who happened to be passing by.’

‘Walking the dog?’ He laughed. ‘You’re so right. You can bring in helicopters and thermal imaging, you can have a thousand coppers doing a fingertip search, but nothing beats a dog’s nose.’

‘You wouldn’t have found that skeleton without the dog’s help, that’s for sure.’

He sighed and shook his head. ‘The skeleton isn’t my case any more.’

She smiled faintly. ‘It still rankles, doesn’t it?’

‘Slightly.’

‘Who was it who found Rupert Hope?’

‘The guy who keeps the cemetery tidy.’

‘Without a dog?’

‘I doubt if he had one with him. Dogs don’t treat gravestones with the respect that we do.’

They finished their drinks and Diamond said he’d better get home. He’d promised the team an action plan for the morning.

Paloma said, ‘That sounds like a dedicated man talking. I suppose it’s no use offering you a back massage?’

‘I know you mean well, and I’m sure it would do me good, but I couldn’t take it.’

Her face creased in sympathy. ‘Are you feeling worse, then?’

‘Quite a bit better, thanks to you, but you’ve no idea what a randy old goat I am. Your touch would inflame me.’

‘Get away,’ she said, laughing. ‘It didn’t get you going last night.’

‘Frozen peas and hot flannels?’

‘Really, Peter, what you’re saying hadn’t crossed my mind.’

‘It crossed mine, and I’m in no state to make a move, more’s the pity. It would end in frustration and I’m not nice to know when I get frustrated.’

‘Hurry up and get better, then.’

Appreciably more mobile next morning, he took the bus into Bath and arrived early at the police station confident of winning the next round against Georgina. Not much was happening. The desk sergeant was chatting to a MOP – a member of the public – who looked as if he’d lost his wallet. ‘Ah,’ he said, spotting Diamond, ‘here’s somebody from CID.’

‘Unless it’s extremely urgent, I can’t help,’ Diamond said. ‘I’m in a bit of trouble myself.’

‘You don’t look too good,’ the sergeant said.

‘Is the boss in?’

‘ACC Dallymore?’ He glanced at the clock on the wall. ‘Before her usual time. Give her ten minutes. If you can spare five to talk to this gentleman – what’s your name, sir?’

‘Dave.’ The MOP turned his gaze hopefully on Diamond. He had the look of a man with a story to tell. Five minutes wouldn’t do it.

‘To talk to Dave,’ the sergeant continued, ‘I’m sure he’d appreciate it.’

‘What’s it about?’

‘That skeleton they found on Lansdown,’ Dave said.

‘Sorry,’ Diamond said raising a hand. ‘That’s Inspector Halliwell’s case. I’m on another enquiry. You’ll need to see one of Keith Halliwell’s team.’ He let himself through the door behind the desk and started the painful climb up the stairs to Georgina’s lair on the top floor. He paused on each landing and when he reached the top he heard her coming up behind him. She must have been fit because she wasn’t breathing heavily.

‘Peter,’ she said, ‘why aren’t you in Bristol?’

‘That’s what I came to tell you about. There’s a technical hitch.’ She swung open her office door. ‘Don’t tell me they’ve walked out on you already.’

‘No. We’re getting on with each other.’

‘Are you?’ A disappointed note came through. ‘That’s a relief. Have a seat. You’re not ill, are you? You don’t seem to be moving freely.’

‘That’s another story. This is something else, something embarrassing.’

‘A personal problem?’ A rare touch of pink came to her cheeks. She moved behind her desk as if she would feel safer there.