Peter Diamond - 09 - The Secret Hangman by Peter Lovesey Read Free Book Online Page A

all round.
    Leaman didn’t smile, however. He was the most serious-minded member of the team.
    Diamond said, ‘Fair point, John. You’re trying to see it from the killer’s point of view and so am I. If he could pass it off as a suicide, all his problems would disappear. The fake suicide theory stays on the table.’
    Three days into the investigation, he was willing to consider anything. Now that the story had broken in the papers, he’d hoped for a better response, sightings of Delia Williamson with her killer. Of the twenty-two calls they’d taken, more than half could be dismissed straight away and the others were no help. Nobody had seen her on the night of the murder. A few women of her description had been seen in various towns up and down the country the day before she was killed and there were three callers who thought they’d spotted her in Bath. No one had seen her with anyone else.
    ‘What about the former boyfriend, Danny Geaves?’ he said. ‘He must have read the papers. Why hasn’t he surfaced?’
    Ingeborg took this as criticism. ‘I’ve run every kind of check I can think of, guv. He hasn’t drawn his benefit for over a week.’
    ‘He’s got something to hide,’ Halliwell said.
    ‘Or he’s dead,’ Leaman said.
    Diamond struck a more positive note. ‘We’ve got three named suspects, apart from Geaves. That’s a start.’
    There was a pause. He looked round the room. This time he seemed to be inviting contributions.
    Paul Gilbert flushed all over his young face and asked, ‘Would DNA help?’
    The focus shifted to Diamond. ‘What did you say?’
    ‘DNA, sir.’
    ‘It would if we had some.’
    Ingeborg almost cut Diamond off in her eagerness to help her new colleague. ‘Up to now forensics haven’t found any, or they would have told us. This wasn’t a sex crime. And if Delia fought her attacker she didn’t scratch him. There was no skin under her fingernails.’
    Paul Gilbert should have stopped there, but after waiting so long he wanted some credit for contributing. ‘It doesn’t have to be a skin sample,’ he said. ‘Just a touch can leave a contact.’
    ‘Are you lecturing me on DNA?’ Diamond said, and everyone waited for the explosion. Instead he leaned forward and lowered his voice. ‘I’ll tell you something in confidence, constable. Upstairs on the top floor’ – his eyes turned upwards, as if he was speaking of something religious – ‘up there they have our personal records, yours and mine and everyone else’s. We’re all on computer. The high-ups like Georgina spend a lot of time looking at those records. And there’s a special file labelled “professional training”. It goes without saying that any of us with ambition should keep up to date by going on those courses they run at Peel Centre and Bramshill. Anyone notice last month’s on forensic science? I was asked to go. The ACC thought it would do me good. My name is now on that all-important file, and beside it you’ll see the letters DNA.’ He gave young Gilbert a penetrating stare, and then a slow smile. ‘Did Not Attend.’
    The rest of the team enjoyed it. Given time, Paul Gilbert would appreciate it, too. Working for Peter Diamond was no picnic, but every so often you got a helping of sauce.
    The trip to Wimbledon was a day out for someone, definitely a perk. Diamond bagged it for himself, with John Leaman in support as his driver, note-taker and sympathetic ear. They reached the M25 when the traffic was building.
    ‘What’s all this for?’ Diamond asked.
    ‘Football,’ Leaman said. ‘It’s Saturday remember?’
    ‘All right for some.’
    Secretly he was relieved to go slowly. Fast driving was no pleasure for him. His stomach was behaving like a sack of frogs. He produced some extra strong mints and insisted Leaman had one. ‘Reward for the driver.’
    Leaman wondered if Diamond was telling him he had bad breath, but decided the boss wasn’t so subtle as that.
    The address they had