The Secret Hangman

20

O ne thing you could say for Peter Diamond: nothing would grind him down. Dr Shinwari might have left the country, but there was always Jim Middleton. Why hadn’t Jim been in touch? He’d had ample time to read those reports.

His mobile number was on the back of an envelope.

‘Damn you,’ Jim said. ‘I should have turned the bloody thing off. I’m in Starbucks, enjoying a quiet moment here.’

‘Well, I’m not. I’m working,’ Diamond said. ‘Are you alone?’

‘At this minute, yes, but one of my friends could arrive any time.’

‘So we can talk. What did you think of those autopsy reports?’

‘Look, this is hardly the place.’

‘Do you want speak from the toilet?’

‘I draw the line at that.’

‘I wouldn’t worry, anyway. I’ve overheard some amazing conversations in coffee shops. What have you got to tell me?’

Jim must have sensed that the man was unstoppable. He started to open up. ‘I have to say there isn’t much to quibble over. He seems to have done a workmanlike job in both cases. Not everyone provides the kind of detail Bertram Sealy gives you.’

This wasn’t what Diamond had hoped to hear. ‘You agree with his conclusions, then?’

‘Can’t fault him.’ Jim paused, probably to look round and see who might be listening, then lowered his voice. ‘There’s no question the woman was murdered, strangled first and strung up later. And the man was hanged from the railway bridge, just as Sealy suggests.’

‘You say there isn’t much to quibble over. Is there anything?’

There was another hesitation. ‘Almost every autopsy has its points of interest.’

‘And you found some?’

‘You gave me both reports to read, so I had the advantage of an overview. Sealy dealt with each case in isolation. Quite properly.’

This was all too cagey for Diamond. ‘I gave you both reports for a reason, Jim. I want that overview.’

‘I know. And what I say to you, Peter, is that any pathologist worthy of the name treats each autopsy as a separate event, and that’s what Sealy has done. It’s not a good principle to go into the dissection room with ideas of what you might expect to find.’

‘Point taken. What have you got for me?’

‘In no way is this a criticism of a colleague.’

‘You’ve made that very clear. You’re simply suggesting lines of inquiry.’

Jim sounded happier with that. ‘Right. You’re the SIO and your job is different from his. He presents you with his findings and you weigh them with all the other evidence you have. You’re dealing with both incidents, aren’t you?’

‘I was until I got told to wrap up the case.’

‘You saw both bodies in situ?’

Now Diamond hesitated, reminded of his own refusal to climb into the cherry picker at the viaduct. He could at least claim he’d been at the scene and viewed the suspended body from below. ‘I did.’

‘Did you get close up?’

‘Close enough. At the second incident they cut the man down and I saw him on a stretcher.’

‘The cord was still in place?’

‘Yes, they cut it and left it knotted round the neck, if that’s what you’re asking.’

‘Notice anything special about that second corpse?’

He tried picturing it in his mind, unzipping the body bag. His overriding concern at the time had been to identify the body as Danny Geaves. ‘I give up. What should I have spotted?’

‘Did you look at the knot?’

‘The knot?’

‘That’s what I said.’

‘I’m trying to remember. You’d better help me.’

‘He used a slip knot. That’s of interest because it wasn’t a slip knot in the first incident. The woman was suspended from a loop with a fixed knot. You got the characteristic mark on the neck rising to a peak at the knot. That was why it was apparent that she’d been strangled previously with a ligature.’

‘Two sets of marks.’

‘Exactly. Hold on. I think someone is coming to this table.’

Diamond found himself listening to a commentary on movements in the coffee shop.

‘No, they’re going past. They’ve seen me using the mobile. Wait, they’re coming back, I think. It’s all right, they just wanted to borrow a chair. Do you know what I mean by a slip knot? It’s a running noose, as distinct from a fixed one. When a slip knot is used, and the cord takes the weight of the body, the noose tightens. The ligature mark is different. It runs right round the neck. Follow me?’

‘Because there’s no slack?’

‘Correct.’

‘Why would he use a different knot the second time?’

‘This is where the pathologist shuts up and lets the detective take over. Our job isn’t to answer questions like that. We report what we find. Bertram Sealy has done that.’

Diamond closed his eyes, concentrating hard. He knew Jim Middleton was hinting at something without wanting to compromise a professional colleague. ‘Can we look at this another way? If he’d used a slip knot when he suspended the woman from the swing, it could have covered the mark of the strangling, and we wouldn’t have known she was murdered.’

‘That’s if the rope was tight all the way round the neck and covered the original ligature mark.’

‘So how can we be sure the second death was a genuine hanging?’

‘The vertebrae were broken in the mid-cervical section of the spine. That’s what you expect from a hanging involving a drop. A judicial hanging will produce the same result.’

‘So the point of interest, as you put it, is the knot. Was there any need for a slip knot?’

‘Whatever knot he used, the outcome would have been the same.’

‘A quick death?’

‘Very.’

‘I’ll need to think about this some more.’

‘That’s up to you. And sod you, Peter Diamond. My coffee’s gone cold.’

And the shop had probably emptied, too.

Halliwell came in after lunch looking as if he’d won the lottery. There was a breakthrough on the ram raid. An informant had fingered a pair of villains called Romney and Jacob who were well advanced on plans for a second raid.

‘Is this reliable, Keith?’

‘It sounds kosher to me.’

‘Who’s the grass?’

‘A new guy, name of Gary Jackman. He’s got a record for doing up stolen vehicles. Moved into the area last Christmas. He figures that if he puts new plates on a four-by-four that’s going to be driven into a shopfront there’s a fair chance something will go wrong.’

‘Such as the front plate falling off?’

‘Right, and if we don’t get him, the villains will, for messing up.’

‘Who did they use last time?’

‘Nobody. They nicked the vehicle the same night from outside the technical college. This time they want to limit the uncertainty so they knocked off a Range Rover last weekend and asked Jackman to give it a new identity. He’s not happy.’

‘Yes, but what does he want from us?’

‘A blind eye to his activities.’

‘What, for ever more? That’s ridiculous. We can trade leniency, but not carte blanche.’

‘We’ll make that clear, then.’

‘See that he goes on the register. Every meeting and transaction. Who’s handling him for us?’

‘Our new boy. Paul Gilbert.’

‘Gilbert made the contact?’ This was worrying, the most junior member of CID.

‘Yes.’

‘Good lad. What’s the plan?’

‘Ours or theirs?’

‘Both.’

‘They want the Range Rover ready for Sunday night, according to Jackman. We don’t yet know which shop they’re targeting.’

‘Nothing is simple in this game.’

‘If we find out, we’ll have a reception committee waiting. We’ll bug the vehicle anyway and have a high presence on Sunday.’

‘What about Romney and Jacob? Do they have form?’

‘Not as ram raiders. Jacob may have done some stuff as a juvenile, petty theft mostly, but it’s possible it was someone else of the same name. They’re not out of their teens yet. This is new territory for them.’

‘Sounds like it. Rank amateurs.’

‘Do you want Georgina in the loop?’

Diamond thought for a moment and grinned. ‘Not yet. Let’s surprise her. Sunday night I reckon she puts her feet up and watches the Antiques Roadshow. We’ll put on a roadshow of our own.’