Peter Lovesey - Skeleton Hill

Thinking of small-time murderers, he was forced to admit that the latest developments rather undermined the theory that Nadia’s death and Rupert’s were connected. If Nadia’s was an organised crime ordered by professionals then Rupert’s had the hallmarks of a local affair, a casual killing. Did it matter any more? Probably not. Linking them had been convenient at the time, a way of making sure both enquiries were controlled from Bath. Georgina might complain when the cases were solved and the dust settled, but the world would have moved on.

He drove back to Manvers Street deciding on priorities. The first step was to get Nadia’s face onto posters, into papers and on television. He’d tell John Wigfull to drop everything he was doing and get the job done fast. After sixteen years was it too much to hope that someone in Bath remembered seeing the girl with her killer? She had left the cottage in Lower Swainswick on an afternoon early in August, 1993. Too long ago? Never underestimate the power of an image.

To his credit, Wigfull didn’t demur. He saw the sense in blitzing Bath (Diamond’s words) with the picture. It wasn’t the highest quality, he said unnecessarily, but fortunately his photographic expert enjoyed a challenge.

‘No touching up,’ Diamond warned him. ‘I don’t want any distortions.’

‘That doesn’t happen these days,’ Wigfull took pleasure in telling him. ‘You’re way behind on the technology.’

Next on the list of priorities was a call to Charing Cross Hospital. He was given the encouraging news that Keith was breathing normally now and had been allowed out of bed. There was no reason why he shouldn’t make a full recovery in a few weeks.

Then a call to Louis Voss. ‘I still need help,’ he said when he’d summarised what he’d learned from Mrs Jarvie. ‘Weren’t you working with the vice squad in 1993?’

‘I did six years of it,’ Louis said before introducing a cautionary note. ‘I know what you’re going to ask. You think Nadia was murdered to order and the order came from here. You want names. Sorry to disappoint, but you’re on a loser, matey. I won’t say the vice barons are faceless, but they make damned sure you can pin nothing on them.’

‘But you know who they are?’

‘It’s organised crime, Peter, big business. We don’t get near them. We never had the resources to hook a big fish. The trouble with prostitution is that there are no victims.’

‘Rubbish,’ Diamond said. ‘Thousands of women are trafficked. I’ve seen girls beaten up by ponces. If they’re not victims, who are?’

‘Okay, I could have put it better. Prostitution works through private transactions, like the drugs trade. Try going to court and you find the sellers and the users are equally unwilling to testify. For me, the vice squad was a reality check. I started out thinking we could make a difference. Some chance. There’s no pressure to act except from local residents who complain about kerb-crawlers, and they’re not the people with influence. Basically, we turned a blind eye to most of what was going on unless it got really ugly. Occasionally we put away a vicious ponce for a couple of years, and raised a cheer. For how long? Before the case came to court another brute was running the show. We never got near the head honchos.’

‘You’re saying I should let some hired assassin get away with murder on my patch?’

‘I’m saying if he was any good at his job you won’t find him. More frustrating still, you won’t get the guy who hired him.’

‘That’s as cynical as anything I’ve heard in the police.’

‘Cynical and true. But let me give you something else to chew on, country boy. I know how the sex industry works in London. At the time you’re speaking of, the Wall had come down and London was awash with classy foreign girls willing to turn tricks. Remember the old saying about no one being indispensable? Your Nadia will have been replaced overnight and forgotten. One little whore making a run for freedom was never worth pursuing to Bath and killing.’

Put like that, the argument was difficult to challenge. There had always been give and take with Louis. That was their way with each other. Deep down, Diamond had a strong respect for his old friend’s wisdom. He remembered hearing something similar from Vikki about the girls being treated as money-makers, like fruit machines, and getting replaced. ‘If you’re right, it means she came to Bath and in a matter of days met someone local who not only murdered her, but removed the head so that we wouldn’t identify her.’

‘So right,’ Louis said. ‘What was it Sherlock Holmes said about the smiling and beautiful countryside and its dreadful record of sin compared to London?’

‘Have you checked your emails today, boss?’ Ingeborg asked, breezing into Diamond’s office soon after he’d ended the call to Louis.

‘What do you think?’

‘You’re not even switched on.’

‘I’m switched on. The computer isn’t.’

She smiled. ‘Don’t you look at your in-box routinely?’

Sarcasm, he thought. This young lady needs reining in. ‘I was in London on police business.’

‘And of course you don’t have a laptop.’

‘I’m a detective, not a freak.’

‘I think you mean geek. You can access your email from any other computer,’ she informed him ‘You could have logged on from London.’

‘I had slightly more urgent things to deal with, like Keith being shot and almost killed. What did you really want to say to me, Inge?’

‘It’s high time we heard from the lab about the hair we sent for analysis, the one found under the tab of Nadia’s zip.’

She was right. More dramatic events had put the hair to the back of his mind. He would deal with it shortly. He wasn’t going to let Ingeborg think she’d caught him out. ‘The men in white coats always take an age. They phone if there’s anything startling. It’s academic now, anyway. We’re ninety-nine per cent sure who she was.’

‘Just thought I’d remind you,’ she said. ‘Did you get any DNA from the cottage where she stayed?’

‘How would we have got that?’

‘Particles of hair or skin.’

Now it was his turn to give a smile, remembering the state of Mrs Jarvie’s cottage. ‘You’re optimistic. Sixteen years have gone by and numerous house guests have gone through that cottage.’

‘The girl left unexpectedly. Didn’t the house owner keep her property?’

‘Nadia arrived with nothing and walked out with nothing.’

‘It was only a thought.’ She lingered and it was obvious that her real reason for coming in had yet to be aired. ‘Did I catch a glimpse of you when I was at pike drill last night?’

He nodded. ‘I told you I might look in. You seem to be handling the weapons all right, but are you picking up information?’

‘It’s a case of softly, softly, guv. I want to get their confidence, so I haven’t gone in there firing questions at everyone.’

‘I met one of the camp followers,’ he said.

‘Mrs Swithin? Nothing gets past her.’

‘I didn’t try. I said straight out that I’m from CID. Of course I didn’t let on that you’re one of my team. Mustn’t blow your cover.’

‘She mentioned you later.’

‘Favourably, I hope?’

‘She was a bit freaked that our local unit of the Sealed Knot is under police surveillance.’

‘I told her why.’

‘Yes, but the members are proud of what they do and they don’t think Rupert’s death has any connection with them.’

‘You mean Mrs Swithin thinks they’re in the clear. She can’t know everything that goes on.’

‘She has a bloody good try.’

‘You know who she is?’ he said. ‘The wife of Major Swithin, golfer and leading light of the Lansdown Society. The Swithins were the people who reported Rupert trying to break into cars.’