‘Another civilian outfit,’ Diamond said to Ingeborg. ‘Everything is being privatised. One of these days you and I will have a little advert in the Yellow Pages. Mark my words.’
But it soon emerged that the Safeguard and Search people were ex-police officers who knew their job. He gave them the background and they brought out their equipment and started checking for traces of recent visitors, starting with himself and Ingeborg. Shoes and fingers. He owned up to breaking in. The senior man said there were no indications of another break-in, so it had to be assumed that the abductor had a key, or was admitted by one of the victims.
‘In which case, he may have been known to them,’ Diamond said.
‘That can’t be discounted.’
One early discovery was a noticeboard with some contact numbers and addresses, among them one poignantly listed as Mum. Joss Steel’s mother lived only ten minutes away, in a retirement home at Monkton Combe. People were occupied with their jobs in Brookview Lodge. Diamond could safely leave them for a short while.
Later, in the room overlooking the pool, the murder squad touched base. After looking around for somewhere to sit, Diamond touched his own base on a gym machine looking like a futuristic throne. ‘Is this thing safe, would you say? It’s not going to launch me into outer space?’
Ingeborg said, ‘It’s for exercising the abs. You’re in no danger.’
She and Halliwell, both lightweights, sat on chairs from the poolside.
Diamond said, ‘These are the facts. There’s no sign anywhere of a struggle. It’s obvious they weren’t held here for any time. That half-prepared meal in the kitchen shows they were interrupted late afternoon, early evening. The stable girl saw Jocelyn Steel on Saturday and the phone messages start Sunday, so we can assume this happened late Saturday. The killer calls and someone admits him.’
‘Someone known to them,’ Halliwell said.
‘Unless he points a firearm. They did as they were told.’
‘They could have gone willingly if they trusted him,’ Ingeborg said. ‘He may not have needed a weapon.’
‘I doubt that. They were preparing a meal. They stop everything and go off with him. I sense some compulsion here.’
‘You’re assuming both of them were present,’ Halliwell said. ‘He could have taken them separately.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘Well, if the man — what’s his name?’
‘Martin Steel.’
‘If he was doing something outside, say, in the garden. It’s Saturday. He’s at home, catching up on jobs. He gets taken first, tied up presumably, and taken to the getaway vehicle. Then our killer walks into the house and attends to the woman.’
Ingeborg said, ‘What do you mean — rapes her?’
Diamond shook his head. ‘There’s no evidence any of these were sex crimes.’
‘What I meant,’ Halliwell said, ‘is that he takes her to his vehicle — car, van or whatever — and drives off with the pair of them trussed up.’
‘That would make it easier for our suspect to cope,’ Diamond said. ‘Could he have planned it like that, knowing the man would be outside?’
‘Doubtful.’
‘If the motive isn’t sex,’ Ingeborg said, ‘why is he doing this? There’s no profit in kidnapping unless you demand a ransom, and he doesn’t. He just murders them. It’s like some perverted power game.’
‘It’s no game,’ Diamond said.
‘He’s taking big risks,’ Halliwell said. ‘Does he want to get caught? Deep down, I mean.’
Diamond rolled his eyes. He’d never had much truck with psychology. ‘There’s a pattern to all this, I’ll give you that. It has to be done in a certain way that involves hanging them up, even if they’re dead already. They must be left hanging — and in a place where people can see them.’
‘Sick.’
‘We agree on that, but where does it take us, Keith? What’s behind this?’
Halliwell dug deep for an explanation. He pursed his lips and half closed his eyes. Then a look of revulsion passed across his face. ‘No, that’s too horrible.’
‘Go on,’ Ingeborg said.
‘I was thinking if it wasn’t one killer at all. If there was some secret society and the way to join it is to murder a couple and hang them up like that.’
‘That’s a bit extreme,’ Ingeborg said.
‘So is hanging people,’ Diamond said. ‘We’re in extreme territory here. I’m listening to any suggestions.’
Ingeborg said, ‘Let me get this straight. Keith is saying it isn’t one killer. It’s three. Every time a couple is murdered it’s someone else earning his pass to this secret society. Come off it, guys. There aren’t that many crazy, evil killers in the whole of Britain, let alone Bath.’
‘It only takes one dominant figure,’ Halliwell said. ‘He sets the agenda and influences his disciples. How about Charles Manson, that Californian hippie who had the so-called family and sent them out in squads to kill? His people were women as well as men. It’s happened before and it could happen here.’
‘That’s not what you were saying just now,’ Ingeborg said. ‘You were talking about initiation rites.’ She liked precision, did Ingeborg.
Halliwell wriggled a little under her scrutiny. ‘No two cases are the same. The point is that suggestible people can be brainwashed into doing horrible things.’
Diamond said, ‘If you’re right, forensics are wasting their time trying to compare DNA and fingerprints. They’ll get a different set at each scene.’
‘What do you think, guv?’ Ingeborg asked, unimpressed by Halliwell.
‘On balance, I favour a single killer. I’ve thought a lot about cults. When it seemed we were faced with suicides this was a possibility, else how can you explain people doing away with themselves in near-identical ways? But we’re dealing with murder now. Joss Steel didn’t tie a noose around her neck and kick a chair from under her. She was put there.’
‘With sugar in her hair,’ Halliwell added.
‘Let’s not get sidetracked,’ Diamond said.
Ingeborg said, ‘We’re assuming the husband was abducted too — but is that definite?’
‘That’s the MO,’ Halliwell said.
‘What are you thinking?’ Diamond asked her.
‘The husband could have killed her.’ For Halliwell’s benefit, she said, ‘Before you arrived we talked to Dawn, the stable girl. There’s a guy who visits on Fridays. He leaves as she’s arriving, round about five. He’s been here for the afternoon. It’s obvious what Dawn thinks.’
‘That he’s the lover?’
‘He’s in his twenties, nice car, good-looking. What if the husband got wind of it?’
‘Killed her for two-timing him?’
‘Exactly.’
Diamond said, ‘He’d bury her in the paddock. He wouldn’t hang her in the park.’
She saw the logic in that, sighed and conceded with a faint smile. When a wife takes a lover, the husband doesn’t want the whole world to know.
‘We’ve got to assume Martin Steel is under imminent threat of death,’ Diamond said. ‘Here’s the action plan: to get everything possible on this couple. Their recent movements, contacts, phone calls, e-mails, credit statements. I need at least three good people here going through their personal stuff. Keith, you talk to the gardener, Ted Hawkins, house in the village with the gnome fishing in the pond. Inge, get onto that cleaning service, Tidy House. See what they know.’
‘What about lover boy?’
‘Hold on, we’re getting ahead of ourselves.’
‘The mystery caller, then.’
‘I’m going to call him Man Friday. We need to identify him first. He’s top of your list of questions. Between the cleaners and the gardener we ought to find out more.’
