Down Among the Dead Men

25

The life drawing still hadn’t resumed when Diamond returned. Davy the model was standing outside the studio in his dressing gown, smoking, no doubt pleased to be earning a fee for doing nothing. Inside, the noise level had reduced and the food and drinks had been cleared away. But some of the artists were restless.

‘Something holding you up?’ Diamond asked Drusilla.

She rolled her eyes upwards. ‘We can’t start without Tom. We need him to set the pose.’

‘Where is he?’

‘Over at the house. There’s some kind of flap going on. The police arrived.’

He moved fast. Two response cars and a large yellow van marked SPECIALIST SEARCH UNIT had drawn up in front of the house. Georgina was there among a group of uniformed officers doing her best to appear in control of events.

‘So there you are,’ she said when he approached, and made it sound like a rebuke.

‘What happened?’

‘Isn’t that obvious?’

‘But what brought them here — a tip?’

‘Better than that,’ Georgina said. ‘Good information. One of the many responses to the TV appeal. On the night of the party a Boxgrove businessman was returning late from London in his car when he passed someone on a scooter in the lane only half a mile from here.’

‘A scooter?’ The hairs on his neck stood up. ‘Mel?’

‘He said she looked young and female. This was about eleven to eleven fifteen. The report was processed with all the other possible sightings and this morning Chichester CID linked it to information from the parents that Melanie came here on Saturdays for the art sessions.’

His throat had gone dry. ‘Is Montacute with them?’

‘With the Standforths in the house. He knows all about the party.’

‘He won’t know all about it. He won’t know about the texts Mel was getting.’

Georgina said with a petulant sigh. ‘What’s this — something else you’ve been keeping from me?’

He was far too troubled over Mel to get into a spat with Georgina. He simply told her what he’d heard from the schoolgirls.

‘How long have you known this?’ she asked, still suspicious he’d failed to share vital information.

‘A few minutes.’

He could have joined in with her as she spoke the thoughts forming in her brain:

‘These text messages may have been the trigger for Melanie going out that night, especially the one about Miss Gibbon being a member of the art group before she went missing. We know how keen the girl was to trace Miss Gibbon. She must have got on her scooter and come straight here to find out more.’

He nodded. Speech was difficult right now for him.

‘You’d better inform Montacute. He’s in charge of the hunt for the girl. Our enquiries, such as they were, have been overtaken.’

‘He won’t welcome being told.’

‘Why not? It’s relevant.’

‘You said he’s with the Standforths. They’re starting to look like suspects. You don’t reveal all you know in the presence of people who may be involved. I can fill him in later, when he’s alone.’

She saw the sense in what he said. ‘Fair point. Better not barge in there.’ Her thinking was still transparent. ‘Everyone who was at that party is a suspect if harm came to the girl that night.’

‘True.’

‘And there are some very odd people among them.’

He didn’t wait for her to list them. ‘Have you spoken to the search team?’

‘Not yet. They’re standing by, awaiting instructions.’

‘I’ll have a word.’ He marched over to the van and introduced himself to the senior officer, with a sergeant’s stripes, seated in the cab. ‘You got a shout, then?’

‘It’s the missing schoolgirl, sir. DI Montacute says she could have been coming here.’

‘So what’s the game plan?’

‘The map shows a stretch of water at the edge of the property.’

‘I’ve seen it. Quite large. Muddy water, too.’

‘We’re used to that. Britain ain’t the Caribbean, more’s the pity.’

Diamond pointed down the slope to where he’d visited the lake. ‘I’ve been there. There’s a gravel path you can drive down.’

Montacute emerged from the house and came over. ‘You got here fast,’ he said to Diamond in a brusque aside, before briefing the dive team. ‘We’re in business, gentlemen. The owners have no knowledge of the girl coming here the other night, but she’s been here previously as part of an art class and will know the place. She’s familiar with the grounds. The lake is in the northwest corner, wherever that is.’

The sergeant pointed. ‘Down the slope behind the trees. Superintendent Diamond has seen it.’

With all the gratitude of a dog whose bone is snatched away, Montacute swung back to Diamond. ‘You’ve been there already?’

‘Took a stroll earlier this morning.’

‘Someone tip you off, then?’

‘I was taking a break between art sessions.’

There was a pause for thought. Unable to decide whether he was having his leg pulled, Montacute vented his annoyance on the sergeant. ‘What are you waiting for? Get to it.’

While the van disappeared down the slope, Diamond did the decent thing and updated Montacute on the text messages Mel had received. The DI didn’t need reminding Mel was the schoolgirl who had come to the police station.

‘At the time, I didn’t give this lass high priority.’

‘Nor me,’ Diamond admitted. ‘Gets more personal, doesn’t it, when you’ve met her?’

‘Believe me, we’re pulling out all the stops. Headquarters will go berserk about all the overtime, but I intend to find her. And so does Tom Standforth. He’s her art teacher and he’s bloody upset.’

‘What’s your next move?’

‘We timed this well. Most of the people who were at the party happen to be here today. I’ll take statements from them all. They can carry on with their drawing and I’ll pull them out one by one.’

‘Hoping there was a sighting of Mel?’

‘If they were in any state to notice. What about you? What are you planning to do?’ Montacute asked and added with a leer, ‘Finish off your masterpiece?’

‘Got a few questions for Tom Standforth. Have you finished with him?’

‘He’s in the clear.’

‘You think so?’

‘You don’t piss on your own doorstep.’

With that sage dictum to reflect on, Diamond returned to Georgina. ‘The art is about to get under way again,’ he told her.

‘You’re not going back in?’

‘It’s a chance to speak to Tom.’

‘In that case, I’ll find out how the divers are getting on,’ she said. ‘I’ve seen more of that model than I ever wished to see.’

Jim Bentley called his fishing friend Norman while Sheila was watching one of her daytime soaps.

‘Is this a good moment?’

‘If you really want to know, it isn’t,’ Norman said. ‘I was having my afternoon nap. Sometimes I think I’ll take a hammer to that phone.’

‘You could try turning it off.’

‘Now I’m awake, what do you want?’

‘Don’t know if you saw the news item about the missing schoolgirl.’

‘May have done. Can’t remember.’

‘Melanie, from Priory Park School.’

‘What’s she got to do with me?’

‘Nothing at all,’ Jim said. ‘Keep your hair on. She’s been gone several days now and they had the parents on, making an appeal for information.’

‘I still don’t see—’

‘Listen, Norman. The police guy clearly thinks she’s dead. They’re hoping someone can give them a clue about what happened to her. I’ve been thinking back to our last trip. Remember the inflatable we found that you said was like the Mary Celeste?’

‘Except it wasn’t,’ Norman said. ‘It belonged to that dick-head diver.’

‘But what was he up to? He didn’t say when you asked. He told us to bugger off.’

‘We caught him out, that’s why. Treasure-hunter, if you ask me. Found some wreck in the middle of nowhere and hopes it’s stacked with gold. If they make a find, they never tell anyone. They bring it up secretly, piece by piece.’

‘There wasn’t anything like that in the inflatable and he didn’t come up with any. I was thinking something else. Instead of bringing stuff up he was taking it down.’

‘What — hiding it? The schoolgirl?’

‘Her body.’

‘That’s far-fetched, isn’t it? If he wants to dump a body at sea he can heave it overboard. End of.’

‘But he chose that particular spot. He was anchored there. You thought there could be a wreck down there, right?’

‘I still do.’

‘What’s the depth out there? Not all that great.’

‘Forty metres probably. Enough water to cover a pretty big ship.’

‘OK, there are hundreds of wrecks along the south coast and divers like exploring them, but they don’t go alone. They dive in groups, for safety. This guy was alone and he was bloody annoyed when we found him. He was up to no good, Norm. We agree on that.’

‘Sure.’

‘Getting back to my theory, if you dump a body in the sea, it gets washed up eventually — unless it’s trapped. If there’s an unmarked wreck down there, it’s not a bad place to hide a body, tuck it into a hold where it can’t get loose and rise to the surface.’

‘I’m not convinced,’ Norman said.

‘Tell me what he was up to, then.’

‘I haven’t the foggiest.’

‘Well, I take it seriously enough to report it, just in case. Then it’s up to the police and it won’t be on my conscience.’

‘Is this what you woke me up to tell me?’

‘No, I woke you up to get the GPS reading. I asked you for it at the time, remember? You made a note of it.’

‘On the back of my hand,’ Norman said.

‘Bloody hell. What use was that?’

‘There was a pen, but no paper.’

‘It’s gone, then?’

‘Believe it or not, I wash my hands several times a day,’ Norman said.

‘And I don’t suppose you memorised the numbers?’

‘Come on, Jim, get real. Do you know how many digits there are in a GPS reading? Nine for latitude and nine for longitude. These days, I can barely remember my phone number.’

‘Thanks a bunch. I thought I could rely on you.’

‘You’re serious about this, aren’t you?’

‘I can’t ignore it.’

‘I took a picture with my iPhone.’

‘Of the guy sitting in his inflatable. I remember. But it’s not much use when we can’t say where it was.’

‘Got a pen and paper handy?’

‘What? You do remember the reading?’

‘No, my friend, I just told you I took a picture. I photographed the back of my hand before I washed it.’

In the studio, Tom had set the pose and the artists were already at work. He agreed to speak to Diamond. ‘Are you working together, you and Inspector Montacute?’

‘Sort of.’

‘He wants to question every one of my art group.’

‘About Mel.’

‘The thing is, he won’t set foot in here. They’re having to step outside one by one. Do you think he’s shy?’

‘Of a naked man? I expect he doesn’t want to be overheard, and neither do I. Can we move to the far end?’

They faced each other on two stools where the refreshment table had been set up, far enough away to speak without the artists hearing them. Tom could still supervise the session from there.

Diamond was torn. His thoughts were of Mel and what might have happened. He wanted to be at the lakeside watching the search, but he wasn’t needed there. This interview could be critical to the case. To make it tougher for himself, he knew he shouldn’t go for the obvious.

‘I won’t go over the ground DI Montacute covered with you,’ Diamond said. ‘Let’s talk about young Ella.’

A guarded look slammed down like a visor. ‘Ella? I thought you were interested in Mel.’

‘This is a bit of a cheek, outside my brief,’ Diamond said, as disarming as he could be under stress. ‘When I went looking for Ella yesterday at the school, I was really impressed by her artwork in the yard. A fantastic effort. She told me what it’s supposed to be.’

‘The House of Usher.’

‘What a terrific idea, all put together from old lobster pots and seaweed. And the size of it. She was explaining that it doesn’t have to be sent to the examining board. She can send them the image.’

‘Correct,’ Tom said, still wary of where this was leading.

‘I commented that the school yard isn’t the ideal setting, with the rubbish bins and the broken desks as a background.’

‘She can edit those out.’

‘But to anyone familiar with the original story, the Edgar Allan Poe’ — Diamond made it sound as if he was a world authority — ‘there’s one major element missing, and that’s the tarn.’ He looked for a reaction and got it. He’d guessed that the word would be unfamiliar. ‘The lake the house was built beside and which swallows the building when the collapse comes. I suggested mocking it up with tinfoil, but Ella didn’t think much of the idea. Ideally, she needs to get her House of Usher erected beside a real lake. After all the effort she’s put in already, it must be worth trying. It would lift her grade, I expect.’

‘She’ll get a top grade anyway.’

‘But to get into art school, she needs it to look as good as possible. She can show this as evidence of her talent. It’s a unique creation, and I know you helped inspire it. This morning I went for a walk around your grounds and found the lake beside the beech trees and thought what a perfect setting that would be for Ella’s house.’

Tom had visibly relaxed as the talk stayed off the party. ‘I hadn’t considered it.’

‘So I’m putting in a word on her behalf. If we can find some transport, and you don’t object, we’ll be treated to a spectacle that will have Poe himself rubbing his hands with glee.’

‘He’s been dead more than a hundred and fifty years.’

Diamond managed a daft grin. ‘He wrote horror, didn’t he? I wouldn’t rule it out, would you?’

Tom didn’t get it.

‘Seriously,’ Diamond said, ‘is it on?’

Tom tugged at his mane of dark hair. ‘We’d need to look at the logistics. I don’t know how well she lashed the pots together.’

‘I couldn’t help noticing commercial vehicles have been using the track across the lawn that passes quite close to the lake.’

‘That’s my dad’s horticulture business. He’d let us use the van for sure. It’s just a question of whether the House of Usher would survive the trip.’ He reached a decision. ‘Why not? If Ella’s willing to risk it, we’ll try.’

‘She’ll be thrilled,’ Diamond said and moved smoothly into more contentious territory. ‘She was nervous about asking you herself in view of what happened at the party.’

‘What do you mean by that?’ Tom’s whole physique tensed.

‘It’s more a matter of what Ella meant by it. She told me she took an ecstasy tablet and it went to her head and you helped her to the house. She doesn’t have much memory of what happened after.’

‘If you think it was anything inappropriate...’

‘Did I say so?’

Tom spaced each word of his response. ‘She spent the night on a sofa. In the morning I drove her home, or near to home. Nothing improper happened. To be frank, I was bloody annoyed with her for gatecrashing the party and even more pissed off that she took the drug.’

‘You didn’t tell me any of this at the school yesterday.’

‘I wasn’t going to volunteer it, was I? I could lose my job.’

‘Did you know she was texting her friends, including Mel?’

‘I saw she had the phone with her. I took it away when I knew she was spaced out, but I gave it back next morning.’

‘One of the messages she sent was about Miss Gibbon, their former art teacher.’

‘OK,’ Tom said, but his expression didn’t say OK. He looked like death.

‘It said, in effect, that Miss Gibbon was one of your Saturday group.’

‘She was. She left.’

‘Something else you didn’t volunteer. So was that how you learned there was a vacancy for an art teacher at Priory Park?’

He nodded. ‘Jobs are hard to come by. They needed someone at short notice. I put in my application before they advertised the post.’

‘Did you find out why she resigned?’

‘I heard there was a row with the head.’

‘About her teaching?’

He shrugged. ‘Things like that are kept confidential.’

‘But they leak out.’

‘I don’t know anything for certain.’

‘Put it this way: were you asked to take a more relaxed approach than Miss Gibbon?’

‘That’s my style. I am relaxed’ — he tried to show it with a twitchy smile — ‘except when the police are grilling me.’

‘Did you find out what Miss Gibbon was planning to do after she resigned?’

‘I don’t think anyone knew, except possibly Miss Du Barry.’

‘And you haven’t heard from her?’

‘From Connie Gibbon? Why should I?’

‘As one of your Saturday artists.’

‘She wasn’t the sort to send a postcard, if that’s what you’re thinking.’

‘I’ll tell you what I’m thinking, Tom. It’s about Mel. She was troubled about the way Miss Gibbon left the school and even more troubled that she became a missing person. The others weren’t particularly bothered, but it became a personal issue for Mel. She even called at the police station in Chichester to get the latest information.’

A pause.

Tom said, ‘I didn’t know that.’

‘It’s likely Ella’s text about Miss Gibbon was the trigger for Mel leaving her house. To the girls, it was new information. They didn’t know their former teacher was in your art group. Mel, who I said was eager to know more of what really happened, must have thought she would get answers at your party, from you or the other artists.’

‘She was wrong about that. I couldn’t tell her anything and I don’t think anyone else could.’

‘Mel didn’t know that.’

‘She didn’t come here. Ask anyone.’

‘There was a sighting of someone on a scooter a short distance from here.’

‘I know, and that’s why you lot want to search the place, but I don’t expect you to find anything. They’re looking at the lake. Why would she go anywhere near the lake? The party was going on here, not down by the lake.’

‘What time did it finish?’

‘Not all that late. It wasn’t an all-night rave. Most of these people are middle-aged. We packed up by midnight.’

‘Another question: back in 2007, a man from Slindon, a gardener by the name of Joe Rigden, was murdered. He worked on a garden not far from here, a place called Holly Blue Cottage. I’m wondering if he did any work for your father. You were living here then, weren’t you?’

‘I was born here. But you’ll have to ask my dad about Rigden. If he ever he came here, I didn’t meet him.’

‘Where can I find your dad?’

‘Right now? Over at the house. He’ll be clearing up the kitchen.’

Diamond was halfway across the yard when his phone went. He tugged it out and put it to his ear.

‘Peter?’ The voice was Georgina’s.

‘Speaking.’

‘I need you here at the lake — fast.’

‘Have they found something?’

‘Get here as soon as you can.’