‘Maybe because I’m dealing in murder on a regular basis. And this was little more than speculation.’
‘It’s nothing of the sort. There’s a warrant out for her now. She must have heard about the DNA match and made herself scarce.’
‘Is that any surprise?’ Hen said. ‘Most of Sussex seems to know I’m being hung out to dry. Joss will have heard.’
‘It isn’t in the papers, is it?’
‘Might as well be. The police service leaks like a sieve.’
‘There’s no need to be cynical.’
‘It’s well known.’
This was descending into a slanging match. Hen still had some spirit and Georgina was wading in as if she sensed blood. ‘I won’t take that sort of talk from any officer. We’re trusted by the public to enforce the law and be worthy of that trust. If we can’t take pride in the way we conduct ourselves, we lose all respect.’
‘I don’t know about pride,’ Hen said. ‘I’m content to do the job as well as I can, but I don’t kid myself there’s glory in it. There’s more shit than respect.’
‘Please!’
‘I said at the beginning I messed up. You’ve got your views about policing. I’ve got mine. What else do you want to hear from me?’
‘I haven’t heard a single “ma’am”,’ Georgina said. ‘That would be a start.’
Diamond’s flesh prickled.
Hen rose to it, as he knew she would. ‘God help us. Is that what you mean by respect? There was I thinking you were a fellow human being come to listen to my grubby little story when the truth is that you only came to hear me call you ma’am, and I missed all those opportunities. Well, I can put that right, ma’am, ma’am, ma’am, ma’am—’
‘Hen!’
She stopped.
Diamond couldn’t let her destroy herself in front of him. ‘Get a grip.’
She seemed to have frozen, her mouth half open, eyes red-lidded.
‘This isn’t helping you or us,’ he said. ‘You asked what we want to hear from you and I’ll tell you. We need to know how you acted at each stage and why: the Rigden murder investigation, the arrest and trial of Danny Stapleton, and the DNA report that brought Joss into the reckoning. We want to understand each decision you took and test it against the evidence.’ He kept his eyes locked with Hen’s. If Georgina objected to him interrupting, she could take it up later.
Hen said, ‘Flipped my lid. Pressure.’ She breathed in, clutched her hands and faced Georgina. ‘If you looked at my personal file, I’m sure you’ll have seen that. A hothead. Sorry for what I said. Truly... ma’am.’
Georgina was a beached whale. She, too, had lost it, but in another sense. Diamond was in charge now. He’d switched direction, offered Hen the chance to talk about something other than the mess she was in.
And it worked. She became the professional again, in control of her emotions, but speaking exclusively to him. ‘The problem is that we couldn’t find a motive. Rigden had no enemies.’
He nodded. ‘We read the file.’
‘You know, then. Everyone in the village liked him. We tried hard to find someone who would say a word against him. No one would.’
‘To me,’ Diamond said, ‘this doesn’t look like a village murder. The gunshot and the disposal in a stolen car is a professional at work.’
‘That’s how I saw it. But the idea that everyone’s favourite gardener had any link with organised crime was beyond belief. We searched the house minutely, went through his papers, his address book, everything. Didn’t even find an unwashed dish. He lived frugally, but cleanly. No one else had entered the cottage in weeks. He wasn’t murdered there, that’s for sure.’
This was more like old times, the two of them trading theories. ‘And you got nothing useful from Danny Stapleton?’
‘He claimed he’d never heard of Rigden.’
‘He would, wouldn’t he? But Danny is a professional car thief. He knew the local villains, obviously.’
Hen shrugged. ‘So did we. Never got a sniff of a connection, from Danny or our usual informants.’
‘The body in the car: was it clothed?’
‘Same clothes he wore for his garden work. Sweatshirt and jeans. Socks, but no shoes. I expect you saw the autopsy report. Apart from the head wound, which was gross, no other marks of any significance. Nothing under the fingernails except garden dirt. He didn’t fight for his life.’
Diamond turned in his chair. ‘Anything you wanted to ask, ma’am?’
The tide was still out for Georgina. ‘You carry on.’
He told Hen, ‘You seem to have covered every angle except one.’
‘What’s that?’
‘What we’re here about.’
‘Joss?’
‘She may know something. We need to track her down. We’ve got to.’
‘I understand.’
‘Is her mother about?’
‘Died when Joss was twelve. Brain tumour. It explains a lot about what happened after.’
‘Did your brother find another partner?’
She gave a nod. ‘Cherry. I’ve never met her. From what I hear, she’s the quiet sort, a carbon copy of Jane, the first wife. Fits in with whatever Barry decides. He likes his women submissive.’
‘Is he local?’
‘Midhurst, a half-hour’s drive away. You want their phone number? There’s a Rolodex on the bookcase beside you. Look under Mallin.’
He made a note of it. Also under Mallin he found a card inscribed My Mobile, followed by the number, which he took down, unseen by Georgina. ‘And if this turns out to be a wild goose chase, we’ll be back to some of the people you interviewed.’
‘Rather you than me,’ she said. ‘The folk round here who employ gardeners think they’re God’s gift, most of them.’
‘I’m sparing no one, Hen. It may seem like a cold case, but there are high stakes here: a lifer who may be innocent and a damn good detective whose career is on the line.’
They left soon after. Georgina muttered something to Hen about hearing from them in due course and Diamond winked.
Hen widened her eyes a fraction.
On the walk back, Georgina said nothing until they’d gone more than halfway to the hotel. Finally she spoke. ‘I suppose I ought to thank you, Peter.’
‘What for?’
‘Taking over when it all became too heated. She’s a difficult woman. I don’t have a shred of sympathy with her.’
‘She lost her rag. She was out of order.’
‘I’m glad you agree. You called her “Hen” more than once, I noticed, almost as if you knew her.’
‘Relaxed the mode of address, that’s all. Sometimes it gets results.’
She gave him a sharp look.
‘At the end,’ she said, ‘you called her a damn good detective. That’s more than I would have done.’
‘She was in a state,’ he said.
‘So was I, by then.’
‘But no one needs to say you’re a damn good detective.’
She tilted her head and gave a sniff of satisfaction.
He moved smoothly on. ‘So you didn’t mind me picking up the baton? I hope I didn’t say anything you weren’t about to say.’
‘I was coming round to asking questions about the Rigden murder just as you did, but her offensive outburst put me off my stroke.’ She looked away, across the street. ‘All in all, you covered for me rather well.’
‘Thanks. I’m concerned about the niece.’
‘Avoiding arrest, you mean?’
‘It could be worse.’
‘In what way?’
‘I didn’t say anything to DI Mallin when she was talking about the glut of missing persons almost certainly murdered. Joss is missing.’
13
Peter Diamond phoned Hen Mallin from his room in the hotel while Georgina was taking an afternoon nap.
‘Me again.’