'Blue. Dark blue. Why do you ask?'
'Registration?'
She gave the number. An F registration: quite a seasoned car.
'Did you use it on the Monday evening after the meeting?'
'Of course not. It's only a short walk from here to St. Michael's. Besides, I was far too shaken by my experience with the dog to take the wheel of a car.'
'So what happened? Did you walk home?'
'Yes.'
'Didn't anyone offer to drive you?'
'I can't remember. If they had, I wouldn't have accepted. You see, I was well enough by then to make my own way back here.'
Miss Chilmark's fitness interested Diamond. During the interview he had been assessing her physique. Though probably around sixty, she was a sturdy woman, not incapable, he judged, of cracking a man over the head with a heavy implement.
'And after you got home, did you go out again?'
'No. Why should I?'
'Was anyone here that evening? A visitor?'
The look she gave him removed any doubt that if roused she was capable of violence. 'How dare you?'
Diamond smiled faintly. 'Miss Chilmark, I wasn't suggesting anything risque; I was trying to find whether you had an alibi for the time when the murder took place.'
'Surely you don't believe…' Shocked, her voice trailed off.
'But it turns out you don't have one,' said Diamond. 'Shame.' He heaved himself up from the settee and crossed the room to examine one of the portraits, of a mustachioed man in a gray suit with a cravat, one thumb tucked into a waistcoat pocket to give a good view of a gold watch chain. His young wife stood at his side in a long blue dress. She was holding an ostrich-feather fan. Three small boys were grouped in front, one of them in a sailor suit looking up adoringly at his father. 'Family?'
Miss Chilmark's mind was on other things. There was a pause before she responded. 'Er, yes. My grandparents, with Papa and my uncles Esmond and Herbert.'
'Handsome family.'
'Grandpapa was mayor of Bath before the First World War.'
'Really? Did they live in this house at the time?'
'Yes.'
'It passes down through the family?' He swung around from the painting and looked at her. 'You did say it belongs to you still?'
She made a murmur of assent and nodded.
'Of course, if we had any doubt we could check who pays the Council Tax,' Diamond dropped in casually to the dialogue.
There was an uncomfortable silence.
He then added, 'Or we could ask the old lady upstairs.'
'You can't do that!' said Miss Chilmark in a panic. 'Well.' She cleared her throat. 'Technically, the house isn't in my possession any longer. Living here, as I have all my life, I still tend to think of myself as the owner.' She had just been caught out, but she was doing her damnedest to gloss it over.
'Technically?' repeated Diamond. 'You sold the place?'
'On the firm understanding that I may remain here for life.'
'And how long ago was this transaction?'
Miss Chilmark rested her hands on her thighs and pushed out her chest in an attempt to reassert herself. 'I don't see that this is a matter for the police.'
'It is if you mislead us,' said Diamond. 'We expect truthful statements, Miss Chilmark. If we don't get them, we ask why.'
'A misunderstanding.'
'I don't think so, ma'am. When did you sell?'
'In January 1993.'
'A painful decision, I'm sure.'
'One's circumstances alter,' said Miss Chilmark philosophically.
'You had some hefty expenses to meet?'
'Do I have to go into this? It isn't easy for a single lady to exist on a private income in these expensive times. My savings were depleted through inflation and some bad investment advice, so I took stock of my position, my future, and decided it was wise to realize the asset of the house. I have no family to pass it on to. I can now face my declining years with reasonable confidence.'
They left soon after. Outside in the street, Julie said, 'You pressed her hard about her circumstances.'
'And I haven't finished,' said Diamond. 'She's gone through a mint of money. I'm not convinced about the bad investments- unless it's something like a gambling habit.' We need to do some digging, Julie. You see, if she sold the house- what? — a couple of years ago, she must have made a bomb. You wouldn't buy an entire house in the Paragon for much under four hundred grand-even with a sitting tenant in the basement. What's happened to the money?'
'Banked, I expect,' said Julie.
'There wasn't much sign of spending, was there? That basement could do with some redecoration. Furniture ought to be replaced-that settee, anyway. She runs a five-year-old car. Is this a woman who came into several hundred grand?'
'People do live meanly' sometimes.'
'The jewelry-all that sparkly stuff-wasn't genuine, was it?'
'It looked like imitation to me,' Julie admitted.
'I want you to make some discreet inquiries,' he told her. 'Go through the local papers for 1993. Find out which estate agent handled the sale. Go and sweet-talk them. Get the price if you can, the bank she used and the name of the new owner, presumably the old lady we first met. Once we know the bank… Can you handle this?'
'Without breaking the Data Protection Laws?'
'I didn't mention them, did I?'
'But you'd like to see a bank statement if I can rustle one up?'
'I would.'
'If you say it's necessary, I'll do my best.'
He turned to look her in the face. 'What's this 'if you say it's necessary'? Do I sense a whiff of insurrection?'
She shook her head. 'It's just that I still have a pair of handcuffs in my coat pocket. You asked me to bring them, but they weren't needed.'
'Only thanks to you, Julie.'
'Oh?'
'The cuffs were there to shock the old bat. Break down her defenses. You did that in a much more subtle way, with your knowledge of Chinese literature.'
'Chinese?'
'Foo So.'
She laughed. 'Foucault's Pendulum. That isn't Chinese. It's a book by Umberto Eco, the writer she was talking about.'
'I don't care. It was brilliant, Julie. It shook her rigid. Shook me, too. How on earth did you know about that?'
She said, 'I don't think I'll tell you.'
'Come on.'
'You'll be disappointed. It was pretty obvious, really.'
'No!' he said, thinking back, picturing the room. 'It wasn't one of those books on the mantelpiece?'
'There you go. Am I still brilliant, or have you changed your opinion?'
