The Secret Hangman

41

‘L et’s face it, we’re too late for Martin Steel,’ John Leaman said to the rest of CID, now gathered in the incident room. ‘Going by what happened to the others, he’ll have been strangled already. He’ll be strung up overnight in some public place for the first hapless berk who comes by to discover tomorrow morning. We’ve failed him.’

‘John, that’s a load of bull,’ Halliwell said. ‘The men aren’t strangled first. Danny Geaves was hanged, and hanged at night. There’s still a chance to save this guy.’

‘Well, I could be wrong, but I know this much. The boss was down a mine all afternoon while I was above ground watching some kids kick a ball around. I’m a senior detective. I could have been better employed.’

Someone muttered in a passable imitation of Brando, ‘I could have been a contender.’

Halliwell said, ‘The boss caught up with Harry Lang.’

‘Top result!’ Leaman said with sarcasm.

‘What’s your problem with that?’

‘Turns out he’s an illegal immigrant and that’s why he scarpered when we raided the flat.’

‘So he’s an illegal. He’s still in the frame, isn’t he?’ Halliwell said. ‘Jocelyn Steel’s personal trainer and one of the last to see her alive. Has the boss given up on him?’

‘He should.’

‘Am I missing something here?’

‘Did any of the other female victims have personal trainers?’ Paul Gilbert asked, trying to be constructive.

‘Come on,’ Leaman said in the jeering tone you would only use with a rookie. ‘Delia Williamson had two kids and was working evenings as a waitress. She didn’t need to find ways of exercising. And Christine Twining had a demanding job with Marks and Spencer. Her brother-in-law told us a lunchtime walk in the park was the only exercise she got.’

‘I wouldn’t count Lang out of it until we get some forensic results,’ Halliwell said.

‘You think there’s more to him?’ Gilbert said.

‘A twenty-grand car, for starters. Where did he get that money when he’s living in community housing?’

‘Ask him when his head clears,’ Leaman said. ‘It doesn’t help us. There isn’t a profit motive in these killings.’

‘What is the motive?’ Gilbert asked.

‘If we knew that, we’d be making an arrest,’ Halliwell said.

‘We’re chasing a nutter,’ Leaman said. ‘We can forget about motive.’

Unseen by Leaman, Diamond had come in with Ingeborg at his side. ‘What’s your plan, John? Call in a shrink?’

‘It might be no bad thing.’

Halliwell rolled his eyes and looked towards Diamond. ‘Guv, I don’t know how much you heard. The thinking seems to be that Martin Steel is as good as dead already and we ought to be second-guessing where to find his body.’

‘Anyone who thinks like that had better leave now,’ Diamond said.

No one moved. No one blinked.

‘To business, then,’ Diamond said. ‘I saw Georgina earlier. Every park in the city is under surveillance tonight.’

Leaman said, ‘Bridges?’

‘What?’

‘Danny Geaves was hanged from a bridge.’

‘The plod are all over the city.’

‘You know what’ll happen? Tomorrow morning the cells will be full of rough sleepers and courting couples.’

Nobody smiled. Leaman had lost his audience.

‘What about Lang?’ Leaman said. ‘Is he in the clear?’

Diamond sidestepped that one. ‘He’s no threat to anyone where he is now. But there is a development.’ He turned to Ingeborg.

‘Tell them what you just told me.’

It was obvious to all that team spirit had sunk to a low point. Not an easy situation for Ingeborg, noted for her desire to please the boss and achieve early promotion. Her good looks simply added to the feeling that she started with an advantage. And no one would forget that she had been an investigative journalist. From their faces her colleagues might have been watching Lucrezia Borgia at a wine-tasting.

‘It may be nothing,’ she said. ‘The boss asked me to go through the filing cabinet in the Steels’ house. I was looking at some of the invoices. The fitness room was added about eighteen months ago. They installed the exercise machines and had a jacuzzi fitted.’

‘Who by?’ Halliwell said.

‘Give it a Whirl.’

‘Jesus!’

‘Nice work,’ Leaman said.

Some of the team hadn’t yet picked up the reference.

Ingeborg said, ‘Give it a Whirl is Dalton Monnington’s firm. Monnington — remember? The sales rep who dined at Tosi’s restaurant and tried to make a date with Delia Williamson.’

Leaman was not yet convinced. ‘But we went all the way to Wimbledon to interview him. The tests on his car were negative. The CCTV footage at the hotel didn’t pick him up.’

‘Doesn’t mean he’s in the clear,’ Diamond said. ‘He slipped out of the frame at a time when we were thinking Danny Geaves was Delia’s killer.’

‘He’s linked to two out of our three incidents,’ Halliwell said. ‘Let’s pull him in.’

‘Is there any connection with the other couple, the Twinings?’ Leaman asked.

‘We don’t know yet,’ Ingeborg said. ‘We haven’t had time to check. The Twinings were in the money. No reason why they shouldn’t have had a jacuzzi.’

‘We can find out,’ Diamond said. ‘Remind me where they lived.’

‘Hinton Charterhouse. John Twining was an architect and he designed it himself. All mod cons. It would be surprising if they didn’t have a pool at the very least.’

‘Check it out, Inge,’ Diamond said.

‘Now?’

‘Get the present owners on the phone.’

She looked bemused. ‘Do we know who they are?’

‘Initiative test,’ Diamond said and turned to Halliwell. ‘I want a check on Monnington’s present whereabouts. Is he back home in Wimbledon or on the road? Get onto Wimbledon CID and ask them to visit the house.’

The incident room was recharged. The mood was up now. Phones were in use, files being retrieved. Dalton Monnington was hot again.

Ingeborg swiftly tracked down the current owners of Longsword Lodge, where the Twinings had lived. They told her that the property included a swimming pool, built when the Twinings had lived there, but no jacuzzi.

‘Back to square one,’ Leaman said.

‘It doesn’t mean there was no contact,’ Ingeborg said. She was flushed with excitement and wasn’t giving up. ‘Monnington could have been to the place and tried to sell them one. A big, modern house is the sort he would target. If they chose not to buy he would still have met them.’

Paul Gilbert said, ‘If they refused to buy, he’d have even more reason to kill them.’

‘Buy one of my jacuzzis or else,’ Leaman said with a curl of the lip. ‘If that was the motive, there’d be dead couples all over the West Country.’

‘Back off, John,’ Diamond said. ‘This is the best lead we’ve had. Ingeborg, go on the internet and see what you can discover about Give it a Whirl. We may need to contact someone tonight.’ Like Ingeborg, he wasn’t discouraged. Investigations don’t often pan out so obviously. Her point was a good one. Monnington may well have met the Twinings as a would-be salesman.

A call came in from a Wimbledon police mobile patrol. They were at Monnington’s house and he wasn’t at home. His partner Angie Collier had told them he’d left three days ago. The couple had argued because she’d smelt perfume on the pyjamas he’d given her to wash. She’d accused him of having affairs when he was supposed to be on business trips.

‘Does she have any idea where he was heading?’ Diamond asked.

‘Hold on and I’ll ask.’ There was a pause and then: ‘She says to hell for all she cares.’

‘Great.’ Diamond turned to his team. ‘So it’s not impossible that he’s here with us in Aquae Sulis. Inge, how are you doing?’

She had found the Give it a Whirl phone number and was trying to get through.

‘You won’t get anyone. It’s after office hours,’ Diamond said. ‘Try the Bath Hilton. These reps are creatures of habit.’

Leaman shook his head. ‘He’s not going to have Martin Steel locked in a hotel bedroom.’

‘Yes, but he needs a base. Steel could be trussed up in the boot of his car.’

Ingeborg was through to the Hilton. They told her Monnington was a regular guest, but he wasn’t in residence now and hadn’t made a reservation.

‘Nice try,’ Leaman said, meaning she’d wasted her time.

‘Do we have his mobile number?’ Halliwell asked.

‘Good suggestion… No.’

‘His partner will have it.’

The sergeant in the Wimbledon police car was not overjoyed at being asked to return to Angie Collier.

Ten more minutes passed.

Wimbledon came on the line again with the number. Before disconnecting, the sergeant asked with heavy sarcasm if there was any other service they could perform for their colleagues in Bath.

Diamond tapped in Monnington’s number and put on the amplifier for everyone to listen.

‘Hi,’ a bright voice said to the whole of CID, ‘who wants me?’

Definitely Monnington, but a more bobbish Monnington than they’d encountered the last time.

‘Depends what you have to offer,’ Diamond said. ‘Where are you?’

‘Bath, my friend. The city, not the soap and water.’

‘Where exactly in Bath?’

‘Tosi’s restaurant, for an early supper.’

Creatures of habit. Diamond eyeballed the sceptic on his team.