‘Tell me, then.’
‘The trouble with you policemen is that you only bother with the conclusion, and then you want it all in one- syllable words. In my description of the external findings on page two, which you seem to have ignored, I mention indications of hypostasis on the right side of the back and buttocks.’
‘Hypo…?’
‘… stasis. It wasn’t pronounced, but it was there. You have to allow for secondary gravitation, and that diminishes the effect.’
‘We’re talking about pressure marks?’
‘Essentially, yes. They show up as pale areas after a couple of hours or so in one position. If the body was suspended directly after being killed I wouldn’t expect to find hypostasis where I did.’
‘The right side, you said. As if she was lying on her side for some time?’
‘I would say so.’
‘Curled up in a car boot, perhaps?’
‘Speculation.’
‘She’d have to be transported to the park. A car is the obvious way to do it.’
‘You tell me,’ Sealy said.
‘No, I’m asking.’
‘Not my job, squire. She could have been brought there on the back of an elephant for all I know.’
‘What about the time of death?’ Diamond asked with little expectation of an answer. Even the friendliest of pathologists can be guaranteed to baulk at that one.
‘How long have you been in the job, Mr Diamond?’
‘The approximate time, then?’
‘More than three hours before I examined her at the scene. Probably less than fifteen. And now you’re going to ask me about secondary injuries, and you could have found them listed in the report if you’d bothered to read it instead of turning straight to the conclusion. There were not many. A couple of broken fingernails, but that could have happened post-mortem. She didn’t put up much of a fight. However, she was not sexually assaulted. The usual forensic tests are being carried out. If any of the killer’s DNA was recovered we’ll let you know, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.’
‘I’d like to bring her partner out to Bristol to make the identification.’
‘Bring who you like. I’ll be on the golf course.’
‘These days,’ Diamond said to Ashley Corcoran on the drive back from Bristol after viewing the body, ‘we have a family liaison officer to help you through a tragedy like this.’
‘I’m all right.’
‘It’s the children I’m thinking of. They’ll have to be told now we’re certain it was their mother.’
‘Sure.’
The casual attitude was not unusual. In the first few hours and days, Diamond knew from experience, the practicalities take over and you believe you can get through without anyone’s support. That stage passes.
‘If I were you, I’d ask their grandmother to be present.’
‘Sorted. They’re staying with her now.’
So the man had done something right. Those two small girls were much on Peter Diamond’s mind. Steph’s hysterectomy had meant his own marriage had been childless, but that had never stopped him empathising with other people’s kids. ‘We’ll do our best to keep our distance. But the story is going to break this afternoon. I’ll have to call a press conference.’
Corcoran turned to look at Diamond, the overconfidence replaced by creases of concern. ‘You don’t want me there?’
‘No. What I’m saying is make sure the girls are told before they see it on TV — or their friends do.’
‘I’ll do that.’
‘The press will be a pain in the arse in the first days. Take a firm line, refuse any offers to tell your story and they’ll get the idea.’
‘I’ve got sod all to say to anyone.’
‘Good. Hold fast to that.’ He let a second or two pass before adding, ‘But if you have anything helpful to tell me, I’d like it now.’
‘I’ve told you all I can.’
That old cliche wasn’t stopping Diamond. ‘We do a reconstruction of her last twenty-four hours. You’re certain, are you, that she didn’t make contact?’
‘Not with me,’ he said, ‘and not with Marietta, the child-minder.’
‘I have to ask this, Ashley. Do you have any suspicion that Delia was seeing anyone else?’
He looked away, out of the car window. ‘Oh, come on.’ But there was something in the tone that undermined the words.
‘Was she like that, one for the men?’
Corcoran scraped his fingers through his hair and gripped the ponytail. The answer was a long time coming. ‘Guys liked her. She was something. She really was. She laughed a lot. But we trusted each other, right?’
Diamond gave a nod to that ‘right’, but he wasn’t sure if Ashley Corcoran’s trust had been well founded.
‘And you’re quite certain, are you, that there wasn’t any dispute with the girls’ father about custody?’
‘Danny? He’s a jerk. He’s never shown any interest. If he surfaces now and wants them back, he can go to hell.’
‘I’d take a more cautious line if I were you. As the father, he has more rights than you.’
Back at Manvers Street police station, the investigation machine powered into motion. Extra civilian staff were brought in to deal with statements. A press conference was scheduled. Halliwell was sent to Tosi’s, the Italian restaurant where Delia had worked, to see how much they knew of her missing days. Ingeborg continued to try and trace Danny Geaves.
Georgina, the ACC, liked to think of herself as a hands-on executive. Diamond liked the high-ups to keep their hands off. ‘Leave it to me, ma’am,’ he said when she looked in for the second time that day. ‘Have I ever let you down?’
‘We’ve had our moments, Peter. I put you on to this one, remember? Amanda sings with me. What’s the motive here? Have you thought about that?’
‘I will when I get a moment,’ he said.
‘The woman was strangled first and then suspended from the swing to make it look like a hanging,’ Georgina said. ‘That’s not the behaviour of a professional crook. Any villain worthy of the name would know forensics can tell the difference. I think we’re dealing with a first-time murderer who panicked when faced with a dead body. He didn’t think it through.’
‘I’ll bear that in mind, ma’am. And now if I can get on…’
‘An amateur, in other words. But the motive is the problem. I don’t understand the motive.’
‘Neither do I, yet.’
‘It doesn’t seem like panic,’ she said without realising she’d just contradicted herself. ‘It wasn’t manual strangulation. He used a ligature. And it’s pretty cool to transport the body to the park and string it up, however naive it was.’
‘It beats leaving it in his car.’
‘What do you mean?’
He shrugged. ‘Neutral ground. Nothing to connect him.’
‘Good point.’ She weighed it before speaking again. ‘Perhaps he is a professional. This is shaping up as a beast of a case.’
‘Thanks, ma’am.’
She gave a sideways smile. ‘But I have every confidence.’ And that was her exit line.
He crossed the room to where Ingeborg was using a computer. ‘Any progress?’
She shook her head. ‘This Danny seems to have gone to ground, guv. We’ve asked at all his usual haunts. No one knows him well enough to have heard of his plans. He isn’t a loner exactly, but he gives nothing away.’
‘There’s no talk of a girlfriend?’
‘Not in Freshford anyway. He does a lot of walking, serious walking, with a backpack.’
