‘What else could there be? It was obvious it was an attempted break-in. As I got nearer I saw that the rider was off the scooter and at the door of the walled garden. It has a combination lock and they seemed to be trying the numbers.’
‘Couldn’t you tell it was one of the schoolgirls?’
‘I wasn’t close enough. There was a full moon, but she was in the shadow of the wall. I couldn’t even tell if the figure was male or female. At that stage she still had the crash helmet on. I fired a warning shot into the air and that created panic. Instead of getting back on the scooter, she made a run for it, trying to stay in the shadow of the wall. She took off the helmet, for ease of movement, I suppose, and sprinted away at a rate I knew I’d never match. You may not have noticed, but along that wall there’s a door that connects to the next garden.’
‘We used it today,’ Diamond said.
‘You know what I was thinking, then. I could see she would escape, and I was alarmed, telling myself I shouldn’t have fired the shot because it showed I had something of value to protect. But as I’d pulled the trigger once, it wouldn’t hurt if I fired another.’ He stopped and dragged a hand through his silver hair. ‘It’s hard to explain why I did what I did next. You have to be in charge of a gun to know the strength of the impulse. A moving target is compelling, asking to be hit. I took aim and fired. She went down straight away. I think I hit her in the back. When I caught up, she was lying still, making no sound. I didn’t know if she was alive or dead. To me, in that situation, she would be better off dead, so I put another one through her head.’
In the stunned silence, they could all picture the scene, Ferdie like a huntsman despatching his quarry.
‘Didn’t you recognise her as Mel?’ Diamond asked. ‘You must have met her.’
‘After she was dead I did.’
Tom’s eyes were like searchlights. He’d listened in mounting horror. Now he faced his father. ‘How could you be so callous? She was just a kid, one of the sweetest I ever taught. I’m revolted, sick to the stomach. My own father. I trusted you. I thought the worst you were doing was growing illegal shrooms and I was willing to turn a blind eye. I brought my students here in the belief they would benefit. They should have been safe. But you shot Mel, little more than a child. She died because of my pathetic loyalty to you. You and your disgusting greed, preserving your dirty profits at all costs. Three killings — it’s obscene. You deserve all that’s coming to you.’
Ferdie gave a nod and looked away. In the distance, a police siren was wailing. It sounded like a lament.
35
On the short drive back to Chichester, nothing was said for some time. Both detectives needed to reflect on all they had learned. As the glow from a streetlamp passed across Hen’s face, the tears were trailing down her cheek. She reached for a tissue, and Diamond had the sense not to comment. His gritty companion would have hated that.
He left a reasonable gap before saying, ‘That was a day and a half.’
‘I’ll go for that.’
‘But you got through.’
‘With difficulty.’
‘I can understand.’
‘I’m not new to murder, as you know,’ Hen said. ‘I’ve been a copper long enough to know there are no happy endings in our line of work. There’s always a loser. But this was family. Poor kid, she had a wretched life. I’ll visit my brother and Cherry in the morning.’
‘They’ll have been informed.’
‘Yes, but...’ Unable to go on, she swallowed before starting up again. ‘Sad, isn’t it, that it takes a tragedy like this for us to come together and forget old feuds?’
‘If something positive comes out of it...’
She hadn’t taken that in. ‘I can’t begin to imagine their feelings. And as for Mel’s parents... Little more than a child.’
He murmured his assent. He, too, was feeling a profound sense of loss. He grieved for Hen and her family and he also grieved for Mel. Meeting her that afternoon at the police station had made it harder. He would forever ask himself whether Mel would have survived if he’d handled the meeting differently. She’d been sent away without much reassurance that the police really cared about Miss Gibbon’s disappearance. At the time, a missing teacher mattered less than a valued colleague in danger of losing her job. An unsolved murder, corpses being disposed of... Miss Gibbon was never going to be high priority. Yet Mel had persisted and got herself killed. And the irony was that Miss Gibbon had survived.
‘What makes it worse,’ Hen went on, ‘is the piffling reason why these killings were done — to allow that despicable man to go on selling his illegal mushrooms.’
‘He was living in fear, Hen. He had a monopoly in growing the things. Made him a small fortune, but it also tied him into every drugs syndicate worthy of the name. He was dealing with hard men who think nothing of murder. One false move, one name leaked, and he signed his own death warrant.’ Before Diamond had got the words out, he realised they were a mistake. He’d meant to ease Hen’s pain by stressing that the motive wasn’t trivial, but it came out sounding like an apology for Ferdie.
‘I refuse to waste any sympathy on him.’ She put her foot down and the engine roared. ‘You asked how I feel, matey, and I told you.’
Half a mile on, she relented a little. ‘How are you feeling?’
‘At this speed? Uncomfortable.’
She slowed to just above the speed limit. ‘What’s next?’
‘If I survive this car ride? A night’s sleep and some unfinished business tomorrow.’
‘The business that brought you here?’
She meant her own suspension. He needed to take the heat out of the topic. ‘I had mixed feelings when this caper was dumped on me.’
‘Which caper?’
‘Investigating a bad egg like you.’
‘Get away, you enjoyed it.’
‘The only thing I enjoy — apart from seeing you again — is this bit: riding away and leaving someone else to clear up the mess. Poor old Montacute will be doing overtime with Davy and Ferdie and their crimes and a major drugs operation to unravel.’
‘Don’t fret about Montacute, Pete. It’s his chance to shine. He’ll take any credit that’s going.’
‘And get promoted?’
‘He won’t want that. As you said the other day, he’s a natural second-in-command. He isn’t after my job.’
‘Who do you think is?’
‘You’re still on about the whistle-blower, aren’t you? Forget it, like I did. It’s not as if that anonymous letter was a lie. Hahn read it out to me before I was suspended and every word was true.’
‘I’ve seen that letter, too,’ Diamond said. ‘In fact, I made a copy.’
‘There you go, then. I did know about the DNA result and I made my choice not to investigate Joss. I can’t argue. I must face the music for what I did — or, rather, what I didn’t do.’
‘How many of your present team were working for you when it happened?’
‘At the time the DNA result came in? Five I can think of, all trusted friends.’ She sighed. ‘I don’t know why you keep on about this, cocky. It’s a blind alley.’
‘Perhaps you’re right. I’m coming from the wrong direction. I’ll try a different way in. The team knew you well. Could it have been someone who didn’t know you well?’
‘You’ve lost me now.’
‘A newcomer.’
‘That’s daft. It had to be someone who knew about the DNA result.’
‘And you said you spoke to no one?’
‘Not a word. The DNA report came to me via headquarters from the lab. Put yourself in my position. You don’t blab about it when you bury bad news.’
‘Who were the latest to join your team?’
‘In CID? Nobody in the last year. You know how it is with all the cuts. They’re not recruiting these days.’