car.’
‘My poor darling,’ Paloma said, putting an arm around him. ‘Why did they have to set light to it? If they must steal a car, can’t they content themselves with driving it around and leaving it somewhere?’
‘They want to remove all traces of themselves,’ Diamond said. ‘Even the dimmest of joyriders have heard of DNA. We’ll have forensics look at it, anyway. Something may have survived the fire.’
‘Catching them won’t be much consolation,’ Jerry said.
‘You’ll be wanting to use the Porsche for some while longer,’ Paloma said.
‘Thanks, Mum, but no. It’s yours again. I’ve rented something bigger. The space is the problem. I’m on the move so much that I use the car as an office. I’ll call for a taxi in a minute and you can have your Porsche.’
‘Where do you live?’ Diamond said. ‘I can drive you home.’
‘What — and ruin your evening? You’re not even dressed. A taxi will do fine. But I could do with a bite to eat. Is there anything in the fridge, Mum?’
‘I expect so,’ Paloma said. ‘Have a look.’
When Jerry had left the room, Paloma gave Diamond a knowing smile and said, ‘Comfort food.’
‘Where does he live? I can easily run him back.’
‘No,’ she said. ‘That’s kind, but we can afford the taxi. Besides, I can see he’s a bit embarrassed. Nothing personal, but he doesn’t really approve of what I get up to.’
‘Is that the church bit?’
‘Probably. They’re all pro-marriage and anti-naughties from what I can gather. Wouldn’t suit me at all.’
‘Nor me,’ he said. ‘Where’s the fun in that?’
‘I’m told banging a tambourine is the height of ecstasy,’ Paloma said.
‘I’d be out of a job if it was.’
Jerry came back into the room spooning chocolate-chip ice cream from a tub. ‘Taxi’s on its way,’ he said. ‘I’m a bit low on bread, Mother, so I’ve helped myself to a loaf. And some slices from that chicken.’
‘Take the whole bird if you want,’ she said. ‘I don’t think I’m going to need it.’
‘You don’t know that,’ he said. ‘Peter might wake up feeling hungry.’
28
‘I s this a takeover?’ Diamond asked.
The pathologist Jim Middleton was sitting with eyes closed, gently revolving in Diamond’s own chair and humming a tune as if his mind was on some intricate dance step. This at nine twenty the next morning.
‘Nowhere else to park myself, squire,’ Jim said, returning to the here and now. ‘Where have you been? I came in specially. They tried calling you at home, but you must have left.’
‘They wouldn’t have caught me at home.’
‘Don’t you have a mobile?’
‘I don’t use it in the car.’
‘I thought you people were working round the clock.’
‘We squeeze in an hour of sleep every three or four days. What have you got for me?’
‘Not what I expected,’ Jim said. ‘Not what you expected, I dare say.’ He reached for a scuffed brown briefcase and removed the folders containing the autopsy reports on John and Christine Twining. ‘Tell me about the fellow who wrote this stuff.’
‘Dr Shinwari? There isn’t much. He was attached to various hospitals in this area as a pathologist. He carried out hundreds, if not thousands, of autopsies. Eighteen months ago he resigned and returned to Pakistan.’
‘He’s definitely left the Health Service, has he? I want to be sure of this before I say any more.’ Jim, as ever, behaving as if he was treading on glass.
‘No question,’ Diamond said. ‘He’s left, decamped, quit the stage, flown the coop, hoisted the Blue Peter. No forwarding address. No contact numbers.’
‘Did you read these?’
‘I could follow some of it. At least they’re in simpler language than our friend Dr Sealy’s reports.’
‘The language is the problem.’
‘What are you on about, Jim?’
‘Is he a fluent speaker of English?’
‘How would I know? I’ve never met him. What problem?’
Jim’s eyes gleamed as they did when he executed a perfect chasse on the dance floor. He opened one of the reports. ‘There’s a section here. “Post Mortem appearance: face pale, lips, tongue and mucous membrane bluish. Petechial haemorrhages under the conjunctivae. Early putrefactive discoloration on the lower abdominal wall.”’
‘You’ve lost me already,’ Diamond said.
‘Follow the words I’ve marked in pencil.’ He handed the report to Diamond, and then turned to the second folder. ‘You’ve got John Twining. This is Christine. “Post Mortem appearance: face pale, lips, tongue and mucous membrane bluish.” And so it goes on, the wording precisely the same. That’s just one example. It goes on for pages.’
‘Well, if the method of death was the same, wouldn’t the appearance be the same?’
‘Peter, you don’t repeat yourself word for word. And no two autopsies present precisely the same symptoms. Look at the other section I marked. “The line of the ligature followed the line of the jaw, then passed obliquely upwards behind the ears, where it was commonly lost.” Exactly the same wording in both reports. But what does he mean by “commonly lost”? It makes no sense to me as a pathologist. Do you understand it?’
‘Read it to me again.’
‘It’s just the phrase “where it was commonly lost”.’
‘Don’t know. Typing error?’
‘I think he didn’t understand it himself. He’s used a crib.’
‘What — copied from something?’
‘And I’m damned sure where he got it from.’ Jim took from his case a black book that had the look of a much-thumbed Bible. He’d put markers between the pages. ‘This is Glaister’s Medical Jurisprudence, the standard work when I was going through college. Chapter 6: Asphyxia, sub-section 4: Hanging. See if this sounds familiar. “The line of the ligature must be carefully examined. In suicidal suspension, it usually follows the line of the lower jaw, then passes obliquely upwards behind the ears, where it is commonly lost.” Glaister is talking about the generality of suicides by hanging. In its proper context the word makes sense.’
Diamond studied the textbook and then the two reports. ‘You’re thinking Dr Shinwari didn’t know what he was writing about?’
‘That’s clear. The way he borrows the word “commonly” is the giveaway. He may have known how to dissect a corpse, but not enough English to report his findings.’
‘So he copied out of the textbook?’
‘I wouldn’t mind betting that if you checked other reports you’d find Glaister being quoted verbatim.’
‘To cover up Dr Shinwari’s poor English?’
‘That’s the obvious inference, isn’t it? Either that, or he was lazy and just copied out the same stuff each time.’
‘Poor English seems more likely.’
‘Whatever it was, he was going to get caught some time. My guess is that a coroner was on to him, which is why he quit the country. To avoid a scandal.’
‘But I was told he was one of their busiest pathologists. Wouldn’t he have been rumbled before this?’
‘Peter, you have a touching faith in the system. Believe me, you can get by for a long time in the Health Service before any failings are picked up by management.’
‘I’m surprised some lawyer didn’t notice.’
‘Dr Shinwari wouldn’t often appear in court. He isn’t a forensic pathologist. I would have known him if he was. He does routine autopsies.’
‘Suicides are routine?’
