‘There’s no need for sarcasm, Peter. The Geaves case was last week. We’ve moved on. I expect you to take a personal interest in the ram-raid inquiry. Is that understood?’
Ingeborg burst in a few minutes after. The excitement was in her eyes, her stance, her voice. ‘The Twinings, guv.’
‘Twinings?’ He was bruised by Georgina’s attack. A dog with a bone. Was that how she thought of her top detective?
‘The couple who hanged themselves.’
‘I wish they had another name,’ he said. ‘Makes me think of tea.’
‘Guv, this is serious.’
‘So am I. You can tell me downstairs.’
In the canteen, Ingeborg was on hot bricks. She started on about the case while they were in line at the self-service.
He muttered, ‘Wait till we get to the table.’ The canteen ladies were his friends, but they dispensed as much gossip as food and he didn’t want it getting back to Georgina that he was checking on yet another double suicide.
‘I’ve dug out the Bath Chronicle reports and it’s the same pattern,’ Ingeborg finally managed to tell him. ‘There was no suicide note. They didn’t do it together. The woman went first, and then the man, two days later. And this is the really interesting bit. In those two days, nobody saw John Twining. He wasn’t at home or at work. He disappeared off the radar — just like Danny Geaves.’
‘Have you looked at the autopsy reports?
‘Not yet. I’ve asked for them.’
‘Who did the autopsies? Not our friend Sealy?’
‘No, it was another name.’
‘Bring them in as soon as they arrive. What else do we know about this couple? Was there anything in the papers about the people they mixed with?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘I’d be interested to know what sort of life they led. Were they part of any community?’
‘Religious, do you mean?’
‘Religious, hippy, drug-dependent. Get the drift? Some fringe group, alienated from society, that might have put them up to this.’
‘Were Delia and Danny part of some cult?’
‘That’s what I’m asking,’ he said. ‘It’s got to be considered. There’s a new dimension now, Inge, and it’s darker than I thought.’
On his return to the office after lunch he found an envelope on his desk. His name was on it.
‘This is all I need,’ he said to Leaman, who happened to look in.
‘What’s up?’
‘Georgina’s writing. Could be the old heave-ho.’
He was wrong. He found two theatre tickets inside. Georgina had attached a note saying, Hope you can use these. It’s one of my choir nights, unfortunately.
A peace offering, he decided, with a whole new perspective on his boss. She’d been well out of order earlier and no doubt regretted it now.
Leaman asked, ‘Something nice after all?’
‘How did you guess? Close the door as you go out.’ A smart idea had popped into his head. He looked up Paloma’s number and called her.
She answered at once.
‘Sorry about this morning,’ he said. ‘I had the dragon sitting in my office.’
‘The lady boss? I’m sorry. Shouldn’t have called on spec like that. Just wanted to thank you for-’
‘You did,’ he said. ‘Look, I know you like the cinema, so I guess that goes for the theatre as well. I’ve been given a couple of tickets for the Theatre Royal tomorrow night and I thought we might do another restaurant afterwards. My chance to treat you for a change.’
‘I’d really enjoy that,’ she said. ‘What’s on?’
‘Can’t say I know it,’ he said, ‘but it sounds appropriate. An Inspector Calls.’
18
L ater the same afternoon, Diamond took a trip to Norton St Philip and it had nothing to do with the ram raid. He’d asked John Leaman to drive him, leaving Halliwell in charge. Georgina wouldn’t be overjoyed to hear that her top man was elsewhere, but she’d know his deputy was capable of progressing the investigation.
‘You know what this is about?’ he said to Leaman.
‘The couple who hanged themselves a couple of years back? Ingeborg filled me in, guv.’
‘I would have asked Inge along, but she’s digging out files for me and she knows what she’s got and what she hasn’t. You and I are going to meet Harold Twining, the older brother. He’s a teacher on leave of absence at the moment, suffering from stress. So we treat him gently, right?’
For all his fault-finding, Leaman had a sympathetic side that sometimes showed. After some thought, he said, ‘Brute of a job, teaching. I wouldn’t like it, facing a roomful of bolshie kids.’
‘If the teacher’s any good, the kids aren’t bolshie. You remember that from when you went to school, don’t you?’
‘When I was at school they clipped you round the head if you messed about. Teachers have got no sanctions now.’
‘They used the cane in my day. You favour corporal punishment, do you?’
‘They had other methods,’ Leaman said.
‘Like what? Slinging blackboard rubbers at the kids? Cold showers? Those were the bad old days, John.’
‘Didn’t do me any harm.’
‘So you end up in the police, whacking villains with batons. The old, old story.’
Leaman realised he’d walked into that one. ‘Hey, what about you, guv? You’re part of it.’
‘Me? Haven’t you noticed? I’m the Mr Chips of Bath nick.’
Leaman smiled and said no more on the matter. Presently they left the A36 and turned right. ‘I’m in your hands now,’ Leaman said.
‘Took that to heart, did you, about me being a gentle soul?’
‘What I’m saying is that this is Norton St Philip coming up and I don’t know where we’re meeting Harold Twining.’
‘Do you know the George?’
Leaman nodded. Everyone who has been to Norton knows the George Inn, a mighty and magnificent pub said to have been built by the monks of Hinton Charterhouse. Samuel Pepys, Oliver Cromwell and the Duke of Monmouth stayed there, although not at the same time or Pepys’ Diary might have had an interesting entry.
‘He’s waiting for us in the main bar,’ Diamond said.
‘Off school with stress and he goes to the pub?’
‘Not much stress there.’
‘Unless like me you happen to be the driver.’
They parked and went in and found a cheerful character at the bar telling a joke to a barmaid. They let him reach the punch-line, which was, ‘Don’t laugh. You’re next.’ Then he turned and said, ‘These must be my visitors. What’s your tipple, gentlemen?’
‘Mine’s a draught bitter,’ Diamond said. ‘A pint. His will be lemonade. And you’re…?’
‘Skint,’ said Harold Twining, ‘so you’ve copped the first round.’ He chuckled at his own wit and Diamond remembered a history teacher from his grammar school who had the same annoying habit. ‘I hope you’re on expenses,’ Twining went on. ‘I’d love to treat you, but I know my limitations. If you press me, I’ll have the bitter as well.’
