‘And then come and see me in my office, Peter. There are urgent matters on my mind.’
While Ingeborg and Gilbert went to seek out a computer forensics expert, Diamond headed for the drugs unit. When he handed across the plastic box, the two sergeants in there asked what he thought was inside.
‘I’m keeping an open mind, but I wouldn’t have come to you if I wasn’t suspicious. It was well hidden.’
‘Have you tasted it, sir?’
‘No way. Is that what you do?’
He got a pained look from the one who appeared to be in charge. ‘We’re not amateurs.’
‘How long will you take?’
‘About five seconds. Marley will know. Put the box on the floor. You can leave the lid on.’
Five seconds was an overestimate. Marley was a brown and white springer spaniel who confirmed cocaine as soon as he was brought in. There was no barking, no yelping even. He went straight to the box, stood quite still and focused intently with eyes and nose.
‘That’s coke,’ the sergeant said. ‘He’s been on more busts than any of us. The street value of the finds he’s made runs into millions. It’s the large nose and long muzzle of the breed. Good dog, Marley.’ He took a plastic container from a shelf and rattled it. ‘Want to give him his reward?’
‘Will he take it from me?’
‘He will when he’s off duty. He’s a different dog then. He’s waiting for you to take the box away.’
Diamond didn’t like that look in Marley’s eyes. ‘I’d rather you did that.’
Georgina was behaving as if the entire population of Bath was on its way out to Emersons Green to lynch her.
‘It’s a bad, bad day, Peter.’
‘Why is that, ma’am?’ he asked, feeling chirpy again.
‘Can’t you see? If this isn’t handled right, the media will portray us as incompetent. A shooting in front of the Royal Crescent when almost our entire strength was on duty there. And now this — a drug user in charge of a fireworks show.’
‘He didn’t personally light the fireworks.’
‘He was the front man and probably high on cocaine at the time.’
‘What do you want me to do — hush it up?’
‘No, no. It will leak anyway. But if questioned, you don’t need to go into detail about whom he approached.’
He enjoyed the ‘whom.’ She was a stickler for correct grammar.
‘I’ll do my best to cover up for whomsoever you mean, ma’am.’
She twitched and looked towards the window. The lynch mob couldn’t be far off. ‘It’s not a case of covering up for anybody. You can give a vague answer, can’t you?’
‘If pressed.’
‘This is our reputation at stake. God knows we’ve had more than our share of scandals in recent years. How do you propose to handle this murder?’
‘In the usual way, ma’am,’ he said in a fine demonstration of vagueness.
‘Meaning what?’
‘We’ll gather all the evidence we can and decide on possible motives and draw up a list of suspects.’
‘When you say “we”...?’
‘Me and my team.’
‘Is that wise?’
He frowned, not liking this. ‘We’re CID. That’s what we do.’
‘But you’re already at full stretch on the Twerton murder. You can’t be in two places at once.’
He got it. She wanted to hand the Beau Nash case to someone else. ‘We can, between us. We’re an experienced team. DI Leaman is currently out at Twerton on the dig you and I discussed the other day.’
‘They’re digging — in weather like this?’
‘In waterproofs and wellies. I made sure they went prepared.’
‘Has he found anything?’
‘I haven’t heard from him this morning.’
‘Drowned, I shouldn’t wonder.’
He gratified her with a grin. ‘He’s unsinkable, is John Leaman.’
‘I hope so, for his sake.’
‘Not forgetting the six diggers, ma’am.’
‘Absolutely not.’ But the six diggers weren’t high in Georgina’s thoughts. She beat a short tattoo with her fingers on the arms of her chair. ‘This new case will require more resources. It’s not as if it happened twenty-odd years ago, like the Twerton murder.’
‘More resources would be good,’ he said, ignoring the last low punch. ‘We can always use help. Where from?’
She didn’t exactly answer. ‘There’s a drug element and we both know how dangerous that can be. I want you leading the team. Peter.’
‘Well, I am.’
‘Fully engaged, I mean, with all your senior people involved, including Inspector Leaman.’
Now the warning light had gone from amber to red. ‘Then what’s going to happen about Twerton? We can’t just fold our tents and walk away. The press are on at us all the time for updates. It’s an active case, a headline story.’
‘Credit me with some intelligence, Peter. I’m bringing in a team from Bristol.’
‘What?’
‘You heard me.’
This was beyond all. ‘You can’t do that. It’s my patch.’
‘It’s what the government keeps telling us about: maximising resources. Bristol are overmanned just now. We’re all Avon and Somerset, aren’t we? I’ve discussed it with senior colleagues at Bristol Central. They’ll relieve you of the Twerton case. Detective Chief Inspector Crocker will take over.’
‘Crocker?’ He could barely get the word out. ‘Charlie Crocker. He can’t do it. He’s all wind and piss.’
‘Please. That’s no way to speak to me, and no way to speak of a colleague.’
‘No colleague of mine. He’d ruin everything, destroy all the work we’ve put in. You can’t honestly think a goon like that—’
‘Before you go on, Charlie Crocker earned a chief constable’s commendation for the way he dealt with the neo-Nazis at College Green last year. He’s a valued officer clearly destined for higher things.’
‘So they jump at the chance of unloading him on us. The man’s a walking disaster area.’ But insults wouldn’t win this contest. He had to think of something that would make an impact on Georgina. He thought hard and, as so often when the adrenalin was pumping, a bold idea came. ‘Can you imagine him interacting with your friends from Charlcombe?’
She blinked. ‘The Parises?’
‘I wonder how Sir Edward and Lady Sally will take it when he wades in, bragging about kicking shit out of the neo-Nazis. Could be okay, I guess. For all I know, they may hold ultra-right-wing views themselves.’
‘I think not. My impression is that they’re liberal-minded about most things.’
‘So they won’t mind Charlie’s effing and blinding. Fine.’
The worry lines were multiplying by the second. ‘Is he like that?’
‘Only when he gets on one of his hobbyhorses, like the class system. Abolish the House of Lords and string them all up from Westminster Bridge, Charlie says. But that’s okay if your friends are liberal-minded. The problem as I see it lies elsewhere.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘The Beau Nash Society. When he visits there, he’ll come up against a few of the filthy rich, as he calls them. Sure to.’
‘Oh my God.’
‘I may be wrong. He could choose to remain silent. He won’t have much to talk about except his politics. He doesn’t know the first thing about Beau Nash.’
‘Does he need to go there?’
‘It’s arranged, isn’t it? Sir Edward is expecting a senior detective. You had me in mind when you promised to send your man to the next meeting.’
‘Oh dear, yes.’
‘That’s why I’ve been doing a crash course on the Beau and his fifty years of life in Bath: the houses he lived in, his mistresses, his circle of friends. And his rules for the Pump Room. I’m so well briefed I could go on Mastermind, I was told. The reason I’m doing so much homework is to blend in with the members. Simply wearing the frock coat and the wig isn’t going to fool anybody.’