‘Civilian staff?’
‘Only Pat Gomez — but she knows nothing. She arrived from headquarters a couple of weeks before I was suspended.’ They had reached the first roundabout for Chichester town centre. ‘Where to, Grand Inquisitor? Your hotel?’
He looked at his watch. It was close to midnight. ‘I suppose.’
‘Will Dallymore be waiting up for you?’
‘Sure to be.’
‘You’ve got plenty to tell her. What’s she been up to? Has she written her report on me?’
‘Not when I last saw her. If she has, she’s wasted her time.’
She managed a hollow laugh. ‘How can that be?’
‘You’ll find out, Hen.’
Next morning, Diamond and Georgina checked out of the hotel and loaded their luggage into the official car. With difficulty Diamond squeezed himself into the back seat among the golf clubs and pink suitcases.
‘We need to call at Chichester police station first,’ Georgina told their driver. ‘And then county headquarters in Lewes. After that, you can return us to Bath and your duties will be over.’
‘They do themselves proud down here,’ Diamond said as they eventually approached Mailing House, the executive home of Sussex police, an elegant seventeenth-century building in red, grey and orange brick. ‘Makes ours look like a bus station.’
‘Old doesn’t mean better,’ Georgina said. ‘We’re not going to be intimidated.’
‘No way.’
‘You haven’t met Archie. He’s no lightweight.’
They were shown up a superbly carved oak staircase to Archie’s suite on the second floor.
‘Commander Hahn is aware that you’re here,’ his personal assistant told them. ‘Please take a seat and he’ll see you presently.’
‘The age-old trick,’ Diamond said to Georgina. ‘Part of the process of making us feel servile. Don’t forget to curtsey when we go in.’
She gave him a look. She was getting nervous of how he would behave in there.
They didn’t have long to wait.
‘Georgina!’ Hahn, all silver buttons and badges, got up from behind his desk as if meeting a long-lost sister. But instead of a hug, her one-time heart-throb gave her the social double kiss with the minimum of contact. Georgina’s remark in the car had been true: he was no lightweight. He was a featherweight. In fact, he was not much more than a cotton bud.
Georgina introduced Diamond by name and rank. Hahn barely gave him a look. Evidently he didn’t shake hands with mere superintendents. He showed them to a black leather sofa and offered coffee, which they declined.
Diamond was distracted by a movement beside his leg. A little dog with a sandy, long-haired coat had appeared from nowhere and was sniffing his shoes.
‘That’s Nipper,’ Hahn said in a voice suitable for reading from a charge-sheet. ‘He’s being friendly, but keep your hands out of range. He seems to be interested in the splashes of mud on your trouser leg.’
The remark was surely meant to undermine. The attempted clean-up of the suit before breakfast hadn’t been entirely successful. There is only so much you can do in a hotel room with a toothbrush.
Georgina said, ‘I asked to see you, Archie, because we’ve concluded our work here.’
Hahn gave a confident nod. ‘And very grateful I am. Perhaps you can give me the gist of it before you write the report.’
‘That’s why we’re here.’ She turned to Diamond. ‘Peter?’
Hahn couldn’t avoid looking at his second visitor now.
Diamond folded his legs, wanting to discourage Nipper, who was getting to be a nuisance. ‘We’ve spoken to DCI Mallin more than once and she’s entirely frank about what happened. She admits she was in error for failing to investigate her niece when the DNA evidence came to light. It amounted to misconduct.’
‘That’s the crux of it,’ Hahn said, bringing his hands together. ‘There was no justification. Policing has to be scrupulously impartial. Anything that smacks of corruption can’t be tolerated.’
Diamond added, ‘There’s no question that the niece, Jocelyn Mallin, as she was then, before she married, drove the car containing Joe Rigden’s body to Littlehampton.’
‘It’s good to have this confirmed independently.’
‘And it became clear as we investigated that this was part of an ongoing conspiracy within the criminal community to dispose of murdered corpses.’
This was the first thing Archie Hahn didn’t like. He shifted in his chair. ‘But that’s not part of your brief.’
Diamond had his own opinion. ‘I’m sure news has reached you that the person behind this was found dead yesterday on his yacht, apparently from an overdose.’
‘I saw a report, yes — but until the matter has been investigated, his activities must be a matter of speculation.’
‘There isn’t much room for doubt, Commander. As we speak, corpses in refuse sacks are being brought up from a wreck a mile off Selsey Bill. The man known as Davy, actually Stanley Clitheroe, was photographed recently in diving gear with his boat anchored over the point where the wreck lies.’
‘I’m not sure where you’re going with this. You’d better confine your remarks to DCI Mallin.’
‘Very well. Before she was suspended, DCI Mallin had taken an interest in the conspiracy. She suspected a significant number of missing persons along the south coast were murder victims and had been disposed of—’
Hahn broke in so abruptly that Nipper started yapping. ‘Georgina, will you tell your man to address the matter in hand. This is outside the scope of your inquiry.’
Georgina didn’t get a chance because Diamond had no intention of stopping. ‘She took the initiative of contacting CID colleagues right along the coast. It must have created quite a stir here at headquarters when news of what she was doing reached you. Just when there’s pressure from government for improving crime statistics there’s a real danger of your murder rate rising astronomically. She had to be stopped as a matter of urgency.’
‘That’s outrageous.’
‘How convenient that you had something on her, something you’d been content to ignore three years ago when it first came to light.’
Hahn was on his feet. ‘Get this man out of my office, Georgina.’
‘That wouldn’t be wise, commander,’ Diamond said. ‘I’m sure the chief constable will be willing to listen and, if he isn’t, there’s the police and crime commissioner.’ He glanced down. ‘Nipper, basket.’
The tone of voice must have done it. The little dog gave a whimper and ran to the corner of the room and into its basket. And Archie stopped protesting, too.
‘The DNA match that implicated Jocelyn in 2011 was sent here first from the lab and then to DCI Mallin. She showed it to no one and took no action, as we know. Here in headquarters nobody was unduly perturbed. The possibility that a man was in jug for a crime he didn’t commit didn’t trouble you. Danny Stapleton was a career criminal anyway. But someone here was sharp enough to note that Jocelyn Green had been Jocelyn Mallin before she married. The information was noted. Why don’t you sit down? You’re making the dog nervous.’
Hahn had turned as pale as moonlight. He had started pacing, arms folded, fury personified.
Diamond continued. ‘Three years on, when Hen Mallin became interested in missing persons, the alarm bells started ringing here and, I dare say, in the neighbouring police services. She had to be stopped. The difficulty is that she’s stubborn, unlikely to listen to a warning from high. She knew she was on to something.’
Georgina said, ‘Please sit down, Archie. We can deal with this in a civilised way.’
Hahn said to her, ‘Are you associating yourself with this unfounded rubbish?’