Natalie said in a calm, confident tone, “He was here, yes.”
“At his usual time, about ten?”
“I’m sure of it. I was waiting here with the oven on when he came in and I told him Greg was really late.”
“How did he seem — surprised?”
“He was sympathetic. He did his best to calm my nerves. I was already worried.”
“You’re sure of the time?”
“I remember looking at the clock and telling him Greg was three-quarters of an hour overdue. I was thinking he would get here by nine fifteen, so I’m sure it was ten o’clock.”
Diamond did some mental arithmetic. The time of the murder on the dashboard camera was 9:20. If Will Legat had been here in the kitchen by 10, straight from a bloody murder, cleaned up and ready for his cocoa, he wasn’t merely the coolest of killers. He was the quickest. A professional magician might have managed it. Trickery apart, it couldn’t be done — even allowing that the crime scene was only half a mile away.
Natalie had provided the alibi. But was she telling the truth, or covering for Legat?
“Did he stay here, to keep you company?”
“For a while, yes.”
“How long, Natalie?”
“I can’t tell you. I was too troubled by then to notice what the time was. He had Caesar to think about, so he went back to the barn.”
“Leaving you alone all night?”
She lowered her eyes and sighed. “He came back and persuaded me to get some sleep on the sofa in the sitting room. I can’t see how this has any bearing on what happened to Greg.”
“He seems to have taken over from Greg. You called him your hero a few minutes ago. I saw the way he lifted you off the mobility scooter.”
She nodded. “He’s been doing everything for me since I was left without Greg’s help. Intimate things I don’t like to speak about.”
“This is going to sound intrusive—”
She cut him off. “I know what you’re going to ask. Will can stay here as long as he likes. He treats me with absolute kindness and he’s a pleasure to be with.”
“You have no concerns about him at all?”
“Haven’t I made myself clear? He doesn’t do drugs, or get drunk, or steal from people. He chose his way of life. He’s a good man. I know it.”
“A gentleman of the road?”
“A gentleman through and through.”
As they moved off in the car, Ingeborg said, “That was quite some character reference.”
“Sincere?”
“I thought so. I found her persuasive, didn’t you?”
“Actually, I did,” Diamond said without sounding pleased about it. “He’s worked his charm on her and I doubt whether he’ll be sleeping in the barn much longer — if he hasn’t moved in already.”
“That’s unworthy of you, guv.”
“What do you mean?”
“Cynical.”
“Realistic, Inge.”
“I saw no sign of him when I was upstairs.”
He laughed. “Did you look in the other bedrooms? You’re no better than I am. She was reasonably honest, wasn’t she? I believed most of what she said. I think she’d have told us if they were sharing a bed. None of it sounded rehearsed.”
“Not even when she talked about the evening of the attack?”
“Especially that bit.”
“She said he came in at ten. He’d have needed to be supercharged to do the murder and get there for his cocoa in just over half an hour.”
“Agreed, she’s given him an alibi and it would have been watertight if she’d said she saw him at nine fifteen walking the dog across the yard. She didn’t. She gave this elaborate account of him appearing in the kitchen at his usual time and it came over as spontaneous, as if she was picturing it in her mind.”
“You don’t think she’s lying for him?”
“No. She’s on the level. She’s making a huge mistake letting him into her life, but the poor woman hasn’t much choice. Do we agree on that?”
“You still don’t trust him?”
“No, but I trust her and I’m now in two minds about him killing Greg Deans. I’m not forgetting we have his bloodstained clothes from the stabbing at Charmy Down and I’m keeping a mental note that he was present in Bath when Dave Tudor disappeared.”
“Not enough for a prosecution, guv.”
“More’s the pity, no. What did you make of Greg being Romanian?”
“Amazing. Who would have thought it? I can’t wait to look into his past. What was all the secrecy about? Was he an illegal immigrant?”
“Unlikely if he has a passport,” Diamond said. “Romania is in the European Union. And having worked here so long, he’ll have been given settled status.”
“Why hide it from everyone?”
“I’m willing to believe he wanted to identify with the TV people, and no questions asked, as Natalie told us. Like she said, the past was too painful to speak about. Tough times he wanted to forget. Under that dictator with the unpronounceable name—”
“Ceauşescu.”
“Thanks. The secret police were into every corner of society. People guarded their words. There was suffering, starvation and your neighbours ready to inform on you if you put a foot wrong. Who wouldn’t want to put that nightmare behind them?”
“Is it a red herring, then, his nationality?”
“It’s one more thing to check on. I don’t put it higher than that. However...”
Ingeborg waited. Diamond seemed to be lost in thoughts of his own.
He said, “I don’t like these narrow lanes. Slow down a bit.”
She eased her foot on the pedal. “I wasn’t even doing twenty, guv.”
He picked up his thread again. “One of the others who went missing had a foreign inflection in his voice.”
“David Tudor. They thought it was his Welsh accent.”
“But someone — Sabine, I believe — told me there was suspicion at one time that Tudor was here illegally. What if he was originally Romanian as well? What if all three missing men came from Romania? What did Greg’s room look like?”
“Soulless. You wouldn’t think he’s lived there for years. It could have been a hotel room.”
“Ready for the next guest.”
She laughed. “Or resident. Do you think Will Legat is ready to exchange his walking boots for carpet slippers?”
“He can hardly wait.”
“I’m worried for Natalie now.”
“He won’t attack her. He’s happy to play the part of her caretaker and have a roof over his head. We can let her enjoy being looked after until he gets on the road again.”
“I hope you’re right, guv. Too soon to hope for news from the lab, I suppose? Have you checked your phone lately?”
He pulled it out, pressed and waited.
“Not switched on?” she asked.
“It needs charging. I’m conserving the power for emergencies.”
“Got you.” But she didn’t sound impressed.
Nothing from the lab. Instead, he found a voice message from Earnshaw, the dive supervisor, asking him to call back. “I’m not looking forward to this one,” Diamond said. “He’ll tell me they finished at the marina and found nothing but scrap.”
He was wrong.
The words were heavy with recrimination. “I’ve been trying to reach you for the past hour and a half. Early this morning we hooked out an item that may be of interest to you. A large suitcase, strapped and heavy.”