Peter Lovesey - Skeleton Hill

‘Didn’t you believe me?’ he asked.

‘That’s not the point, Peter. They’re the experts. I wanted to hear it from them. I was thinking of calling my insurance company, but I don’t suppose I can claim, seeing that the damage was self-inflicted.’

‘You didn’t cause it.’

‘I was unwise enough to let you use the car, so I must take my share of the responsibility.’

‘I don’t know about “unwise”. You were being helpful.’

‘If the truth be told, my motive wasn’t as praiseworthy as that. What have you got there? The estimate?’

‘No, ma’am. It’s a witness statement taken this morning from a blacksmith by the name of Dave Barton.’

‘He saw you changing the wheel with the wrong bolts?’

She couldn’t get the damaged Mercedes out of her head.

He tried again. ‘This is the murder investigation. May I suggest you read it for yourself?’ He held it out.

While she was reading, he idled away the time looking at a black and white photo on the wall of a passing-out parade at one of the police training colleges. A much younger Georgina was saluting in the front row of the march-past. She was probably fifty pounds lighter in weight but she still had the outstanding chest of her year.

‘Do you think it’s significant?’ she said.

‘I certainly do,’ he said and got his thoughts back on track. ‘We’ve been appealing for witnesses for days without success.’

‘There are witnesses and witnesses, Peter. He doesn’t appear to have seen anything unlawful.’

‘With respect, that isn’t the point. He and Rupert found the skeleton – well, a part of the skeleton.’

‘The leg bone, it says here. And they put it back.’

‘Yes, and some time after that, Rupert was attacked.’

‘What are you suggesting – that this Dave was the assailant?’

‘That’s speculation. I wouldn’t be coming to you without proof, ma’am. No, it’s more basic than that.’

‘What is?’

‘Don’t you see? We thought the leg bone was found by a dog. We didn’t know these two guys found it first. What we have now is a definite link between the skeleton and the cavalier.’

She was frowning. ‘There’s a difference of twenty years between the two deaths.’

Georgina was intelligent, but there were times when she closed her mind to reason. All of this would work so much more smoothly if she came to her own decision and believed she had made it independently. To encourage the process, Diamond spaced his words. ‘Rupert had the femur in his hands and not long after that he was attacked and later murdered.’

‘That isn’t in dispute.’

She still hadn’t cottoned on.

He was forced to spell it out for her. ‘Ma’am, I need an operational decision from you. We can’t go on treating these cases as separate incidents. They have to be brought together. I’m asking you to centralise both investigations in Bath from one major incident room.’

He didn’t say who should be in charge. She may have worked that out for herself.

Keith Halliwell would be heartbroken. His first chance as SIO snatched away just when he’d got everything up and running. Diamond was known to be ruthless in pursuit of the truth, a bruiser who let nothing stand in his way, but Halliwell was the nearest he had to a friend in the team. The first news of the decision shouldn’t come from anyone else. Straight from his session upstairs he went to the incident room and asked Halliwell to drive him to the Mercedes garage to collect Georgina’s car.

‘Guv, I wish I could spare the time, but I can’t,’ Halliwell said, adding with a companionable smile, ‘I’m running a murder case, and you know what that’s like.’

‘Sorry, Keith, but I do know what it’s like and John Leaman can take over for twenty minutes. We need to talk.’

The smile turned to tight-lipped concern.

In the privacy of the car Diamond went over the logic of drawing the two enquiries into one, just as he had with Georgina. Through focusing so exclusively on the skeleton case, Halliwell, too, had missed the significance of Dave Barton’s statement.

‘As I see it now,’ Diamond summed up, ‘neither you nor I will get a result working in isolation.’

‘You’re telling me you’re taking over again,’ Halliwell said, his voice drained of warmth.

‘I’m telling you there has to be co-operation. I’m not knocking you, Keith. You’ve done a fine job already. But it’s necessary for me to move back to Bath.’

‘And I have to step aside.’

Diamond saw the look and heard the despair. Fortunately the deal he’d done with Georgina had a sweetener. ‘Nothing as daft as that. You were appointed SIO for the skeleton enquiry and that’s what you remain, running the show.’

A suspicious frown came with Halliwell’s next question. ‘So how will you fit in?’

‘Not the way you think. There’s going to be a new SIO for the Rupert Hope case, an inspector from Bristol called Septimus Ward.’

‘I know Septimus,’ he said. ‘Met him on a firearms course.’

‘Like him?’

‘He’s okay.’ But the frown remained.

‘Good. He’s going to be transferred here with the pick of the Bristol lot. The investigation is under one roof now.’

‘Two incident rooms in Manvers Street?’

‘Just the one.’

Halliwell shook his head. ‘You’re joking.’

‘I’m afraid that means some rearranging. You’ll need to transfer some of the display material to computer.’

‘Am I hearing right? Computers have their uses after all?’

A little irony from Halliwell was forgivable. ‘You can decide how much of the material needs storing.’

‘I prefer it where I can see it.’

‘Visual. I noticed.’

‘Mine is the hard case to crack, going back twenty years. I’m dealing with masses of information.’

‘Yes, and quite properly you’re defending your territory. You’ll get your share of resources, Keith, I guarantee.’

‘So what’s your part in this?’

‘Me?’ Diamond said, striking the first false note, as if he hadn’t thought about himself. ‘I’m the CIO.’

‘C is for chief?’

‘Seeing fair play.’

‘Keeping your distance?’

‘Exactly. At one remove from all the action. You and Septimus are the hands-on leaders.’ But even as he spoke, he could see the faint smile playing on Halliwell’s lips. Both knew it would go against nature for the big man to keep his distance.

He’d sold the deal as honestly as he was able.

They reached the garage and Halliwell asked, ‘Do you want me to wait while you see if the job is done?’

‘No need. Wish me luck driving the Merc back to Manvers Street. I’ve done enough damage for one day.’

Septimus Ward and three others from Bristol CID arrived at Bath Central in the morning looking about as comfortable as the Burghers of Calais. Diamond took them to the canteen for a coffee and explained the new set-up. Their spirits improved when they understood that they’d be heading the Rupert Hope side of what was now a major investigation. ‘Presently we’ll all drive up to Lansdown and look at the graveyard where he was found, and the other site,’ he told them. ‘I want you fully in the picture.’

The Lansdown visit had an extra purpose. It gave Halliwell time to clear space in the incident room.

One of the police minibuses had been booked for this and Diamond – sexist when it suited – had invited Ingeborg along as a morale-booster for the newcomers. She was already telling them animatedly about Bath’s nightspots.

He injected a more sombre note as they were being driven up the hill. ‘You may find this weird,’ he told everyone. ‘The terrain of Lansdown could be as crucial to this enquiry as the people in the case. I keep asking myself why two bodies should have been found up there. The hill has its own character, aloof from the city, seven hundred feet above sea level, windswept, a place most people drive over without stopping, unless they’re golfers, race-goers or boot-sale addicts. What is it about Lansdown that made it suitable for murder? Keep this in mind as we look at the two sites.’