wall. The white quilt on the bed was doubled back. There were wine glasses on the bedside tables, each with a tidemark of red wine.
‘Doesn’t look to me as if they were fighting,’ Diamond said.
‘Guv.’
Ingeborg had found a framed wedding photo. Beyond doubt the bride was the woman found hanging in Royal Victoria Park.
32
T he doorbell chimed.
‘Too soon to be Halliwell or forensics,’ Diamond said. From the bedroom window all he could see on the front drive was Ingeborg’s Ka. ‘See who it is.’
He picked up the wedding picture and studied the groom, a tall, slim figure in a morning suit. It was helpful that Martin Steel was holding the grey topper, not wearing it. He hadn’t much hair on top, a distinct point of recognition, and there were silver streaks in the sideburns. Some years older than his bride, by the look of him. The thought crossed Diamond’s mind that this might even be Jocelyn’s father, but he dismissed it just as quickly; the place for that picture wasn’t in the bedroom.
‘Guv, would you mind coming down?’
‘On my way.’ First he removed the photo from its frame and slipped it into his pocket.
Standing in the hall with Ingeborg was a girl of school age, probably not more than fourteen. She was in T- shirt and jeans. A stud in her nose and coloured stripes in her hair.
‘This is Dawn, the stable girl. She looks after the horse twice a day.’
‘Good for her.’ He smiled at the girl. ‘Better for the horse.’
There wasn’t a flicker of amusement.
‘She saw my car and called to see who we are.’
‘Sensible,’ he said, thinking a word of praise was no bad thing. He hoped this wasn’t one of those sullen teenagers. ‘Well, young lady, I expect Ingeborg has told you we’re detectives. You work for Mr and Mrs Steel, then? Have you seen them lately?’
‘Saturday,’ Dawn said. ‘Mrs Steel, not him. Her name is Joss, but I call her Mrs Steel.’ She had that youthful habit of ending statements on a rising note, making them sound like questions. Fair enough. She was communicating, giving the answers and volunteering information as well. Kids aren’t all bad.
‘Saturday? That’s three days ago.’
‘He’s all right, except he hates being locked up all day.’
Diamond wondered for a moment if he’d got this case all wrong. Then the penny dropped. ‘You’re talking about the horse?’
She nodded. ‘Three days is too much. He needs to get out.’
‘Between you and me, Dawn, we’re interested in the people.’
‘Why — has something happened to them?’
‘We’re trying to find out. They haven’t been seen by anybody for a couple of days.’
‘Yeah, it’s weird. She always tells me if they go away. Then I get to ride Prince. He needs riding every day. She hasn’t taken him out on the roads since Saturday. I can tell by the state of his hooves.’
‘Does anyone call at the house? A cleaner, perhaps?’
‘Lady in a van. Tidy House Services. It isn’t always the same lady. They come Thursday.’
‘Anyone else?’
‘The gardener, Ted. He does Wednesday.’
‘Is he local?’
‘Just up the lane, cottage with the gnome in the front fishing in the pond.’
‘Ted who?’
‘Hawkins. Something like that.’
‘No one else? No strangers — apart from us? This is important, Dawn. You may be our only witness.’
She pulled a face at that. ‘You’ve got to be joking. I’m not a witness. I’m mucking out and grooming and feeding, aren’t I? I don’t stand about looking to see who calls.’
‘You’re certain you saw no one?’
‘I told you.’
‘Fair enough. There are no other regular visitors than you and the gardener, then?’
She hesitated and fiddled with her hair. ‘Don’t know if I should be telling you this. Sometimes when I come Fridays there’s a posh car outside. Belongs to this bloke in his twenties. Quite a hunk, he is. He leaves about five.’
‘You don’t know who he is?’
‘I’ve never spoken to him.’
‘A friend of Mrs Steel’s, would you say?’
She gave a coy smile.
‘But he only comes Fridays?’ Diamond said.
‘That’s when I see’d him.’
‘So he won’t have called yet this week. He’s not from the village?’
‘I’d know if he was, wouldn’t I?’
‘Can you describe him?’
She sighed and drew her arms across her chest, worried that she might have put her job at risk, and Diamond knew he wasn’t going to get much of a description. ‘There’s nothing special.’
‘What colour’s his hair?’
‘Dunno.’
‘If you’ve seen him, you must know.’
‘It’s too short to tell.’
‘A skinhead?’
‘Almost.’
‘Is he big, would you say?’
‘Not really, except for his shoulders. Look, I don’t know if I was meant to see him.’
‘What’s the car like?’
‘I told you, posh. I don’t know nothing about cars.’
‘Not a sports car?’
‘No.’
‘Colour?’
‘Silver.’
‘Was he here last Friday?’
‘He was leaving as I come up the drive.’
‘So those are the callers,’ he summed up. ‘The cleaners, the gardener and the young guy in the silver car? They each have their special days, but you come twice a day all week?’
‘I don’t mind. He’s awesome.’
‘Who? Ah, you’re on about that horse again? And quite right, too. You’d better keep coming and see that he gets his exercise. You can get back to him now. Is there a paddock he can run around?’
Dawn didn’t think much of Diamond’s ideas on horse management. ‘I wouldn’t let him out after being stabled so long. He’d get all excited. He could damage hisself.’
‘What’s to be done with him, then? It won’t get dark for another hour and a half. Take him for a ride.’
‘Cool.’ But still she hesitated. ‘Do you think she’ll mind? Mrs Steel, I mean.’
‘Take it from me,’ he said. ‘She won’t mind.’
The forensic team arrived with Halliwell not far behind them. They came in a customised white van with Safeguard and Search written on the side.
