Killing with Confetti

37

Advance news had reached Concorde House that Diamond was bringing in the crime baron, so there were interested faces at the plate glass windows of the CID room when the car came up the drive. It was unusual for any prisoner to be brought here. They were supposed to be taken to the custody suite at Keynsham. But as John Leaman remarked to Ingeborg Smith with a shake of the head, if there was a rule the guv’nor hadn’t broken in his time, he’d like to know what it was.

Diamond was out first and opened the car door for his prisoner, who had the look of a defeated man, head bowed and wrists cuffed. Diamond took a grip on Irving’s arm and steered him towards the main entrance. From the back of the car, a sheepish Keith Halliwell emerged with the pet carrier.

‘Yay,’ Ingeborg said. ‘They arrested the kitten as well.’

‘I’m going down to meet them,’ Leaman said, eager to share his sensational new information about the existence of a second handgun.

‘I wouldn’t,’ Ingeborg said.

‘Why not?’

‘See the look on his face?’

‘You’ve got good eyesight if you can tell from here.’

‘I’d call it his take-no-prisoners look, except he’s actually taken a prisoner.’

Leaman took her advice. She was the best in the team at judging Diamond’s moods.

Not a word was spoken when the boss and his sullen captive entered the CID room. They crossed to Diamond’s own office and the door slammed behind them — a sure sign that interruptions wouldn’t be welcomed.

When Halliwell walked in a few seconds later, he placed the pet carrier on Ingeborg’s desk. ‘Do you mind?’

She unzipped the sidepiece and lifted Claude out. ‘Poor little scrap — he’s terrified.’

She was a better judge of people than cats. Claude was in no mood to be comforted. He squirmed free and strutted across her desk to investigate the box of tissues she kept beside her computer screen.

‘Is it house-trained?’ Leaman asked.

‘Must be,’ Ingeborg said.

‘I don’t want it on my desk.’

‘I don’t suppose he’s interested in your desk unless he wants to leave his calling card.’

Unamused, Leaman turned to Halliwell. ‘Has Irving confessed yet?’

‘I’m not sure. Not much was said in the car. I didn’t dare ask. I could feel the electricity between them.’

‘Why has he brought him here?’

‘More questions, I guess.’

‘Why not at Keynsham?’

‘His decision.’

‘It ought to be done properly and on tape. The CPS won’t be happy with this.’

‘I’m sure he knows what he’s doing. This may be a way of buying more time. We can hold the bastard for breaking his probation order and hit him with the murder charge when we’re ready.’

Leaman didn’t look impressed. He went back to his desk.

Halliwell left the room to see if he could get a lift back to Bath to collect his own car, still parked at Camden Crescent.

‘Looks as if I’m left to take care of Claude,’ Ingeborg said with a sigh.

‘That’ll be no hardship,’ Leaman said from across the room.

The kitten was still on Ingeborg’s desk, nudging her computer mouse across the shiny surface, when the Assistant Chief Constable, Georgina, made an unexpected entrance.

‘What’s that animal doing here?’

‘I’m keeping an eye on it, ma’am, while DS Diamond is in conference with Mr. Irving.’

‘In conference?’

‘Questioning him, we believe. He brought him here in handcuffs.’

‘Under arrest? Why wasn’t I informed?’

Tricky.

Ingeborg said. ‘They only came in a short while ago.’

‘If there were plans to bring in a major criminal like him, I should have been consulted first and so should headquarters.’ She started towards Diamond’s door, thought better of it, and said, ‘He’s put me in an impossible position. I don’t want to question his authority in Irving’s presence. It would undermine us all.’

‘Yes, ma’am.’

‘Ask him to report to me as a matter of urgency as soon as you see him alone.’

‘I will, ma’am.’

‘And put the kitten back in its box, or whatever it arrived in.’

She strode out, powered by her own invective.

Leaman looked over his screen. ‘Rather you than me, asking him to report to her.’

‘What’s going on in there?’ Ingeborg asked.

Leaman’s desk was against the wall of Diamond’s office and occasionally he heard things. He pressed his ear to the plasterboard.

‘He’s making phone calls. They’ve stopped talking and he’s been on and off the phone. I can’t hear what he’s saying, but he’s saying it to a lot of people.’

‘Maybe he’ll phone Georgina and save me the job of telling him to report to her.’

‘You can hope.’

Diamond did eventually emerge, only to put his face around the door and say to Ingeborg, ‘Be an angel and nip out for two packs of sandwiches. I can’t leave him alone. A BLT and an egg mayo preferably. Some crisps and a six-pack of lager. Do you have money?’

She nodded. Normally anyone of any rank asking her to run an errand like that would get an earful from Ingeborg, but she sensed that this was an exceptional request. ‘Guv, the ACC looked in.’

‘I know,’ he said. ‘I’ve calmed her down on the phone. Thanks.’ He closed the door again.

‘Doughnuts for me,’ Leaman said as she was reaching for her bag.

‘Piss off.’

When she returned and tapped on the boss’s door, he shouted for her to come in.

Joe Irving was slumped in the armchair in the corner, apparently no happier than when he’d arrived, but he wasn’t wearing the handcuffs. Diamond was seated behind his own desk.

She handed across the bag.

‘Who’s outside?’ he asked.

‘John and me. And Claude.’

‘Keith?’

‘He went to fetch his car. And Paul’s still getting over the attack. Guv, John would like a word. He has some more news from his snout and he thinks it will help.’

‘Send him in.’

‘With present company in the room?’

‘You heard what I said.’ There was a real sense of urgency about him. ‘And rally the troops. I’ll brief them individually. I’m going to need everyone I can get tonight. I’ve arranged to do a reconstruction in the hypocaust at six-thirty. All interested parties are being invited and Mr. Irving here will be cooperating.’

You could have shelved the Encyclopædia Britannica on the jut of Mr. Irving’s lower lip. If that look promised cooperation, she could only hope Diamond would be bringing a cattle prod to the reconstruction.