‘Where is he?’
He found Halliwell in interview room two sitting across the table from a skinny young man with a shaved head. Gary Jackman was wearing a scuffed leather jacket flecked with paint. His hands were oil-stained. There was smouldering resentment in his brown eyes.
‘I’ll come out,’ Halliwell said.
‘This had better be good.’
Out in the corridor, Halliwell was twitchy. He waited for a uniformed sergeant to get out of earshot. ‘Something came up in here, guv. He’s saying he was double-crossed by the gang, which is why our stake-out came to grief.’
‘Well, he would. He gave us crap information. If this is all you’ve brought me here for-’
‘No, listen,’ Halliwell cut in. ‘You recall that he runs this vehicle repair shop and does up stolen cars? He’s insisting the gang didn’t use the vehicles he’d worked on, except for the decoy. He says the getaway car they used for the raid in Westgate Street was a blue Nissan Pathfinder and the owner is the brains behind the raids, planned the whole thing and torched his own car up at Lansdown the same night.’
Diamond’s shoulders twitched in a reflex action. How could this be true?
44
H e recalled the heart-to-heart he’d had with Halliwell — blurting out his feelings about Paloma — on the drive back from the Ballance Street flat. My big mouth, he thought. This silly story about the ram raid could have been dealt with routinely, Jerry interviewed and cleared without anyone finding out who was dating his mother. Instead Halliwell feels in honour bound to tell me about it and I’m in honour bound for Paloma’s sake to deal with it myself. What will that do for our relationship?
Halliwell was backtracking fast. ‘Guv, I don’t believe Jackman. He’s giving us this bullshit to shift the blame.’
‘How does he know about the burned-out Pathfinder?’
‘He’s in the car-repair business. Spare parts. They can spot a dead one like vultures.’
‘Why would he make this up?’
‘He’s between a rock and hard place. He’s going to get hammered by the ram-raiders if he gives evidence against them, yet he owes us something for the fiasco the other night.’
‘So he fingers Jerry Kean, who has sod all to do with it? If that’s so, he’s an idiot. We check it out and find he’s lying. He’s worse off than before.’
‘Do you want to talk to him?’
‘Jackman? No, I don’t.’
‘Do we follow this up, or not? ‘ Diamond sighed, weighing the options. Absurd as the allegation was, it would have to be investigated. He looked at the time. ‘Leave this with me. I’ll get the truth of it.’
‘But you’re wanted here. The hangings.’
‘I said I’ll do it.’ He walked away, leaving Halliwell staring after him.
Time was bearing down, but the questioning of Dalton Monnington had come to a temporary halt. How long did it take to get over a hyperventilation attack? Twenty minutes? Half an hour? Or longer?
The other main suspect, Harry Lang, was still semiconscious.
If there was a right time to see Jerry Kean, it was now. He took out his new mobile and called the only number in the directory.
Paloma’s voice lifted his spirits, for all the awkwardness he felt. ‘Hello.’
‘This is Peter.’
‘Peter? How nice.’
He was tempted to say not nice, not nice at all. Instead he asked if she knew where Jerry was.
‘Right here with me.’
That simplified matters. ‘In your home?’
‘Sainsbury’s, as it happens, late-night shopping. Where it all started, really. Do you want to speak to him?’
‘I’d rather see him in person. It’s sort of… delicate.’
‘Where are you? Still at work? You’re overdoing it.’
‘You caught me on a bad day.’
‘You’d better speak to Jerry. I’m handing this across.’
Jerry’s voice asked what the problem was.
‘It’s to do with your stolen Pathfinder. I need to clarify a couple of things with you.’
‘How can I help?’ Jerry said in such a civil tone that Diamond was tempted to deal with the matter over the phone.
But when the call ended, Jerry would be annoyed he’d come under suspicion. He’d sound off to Paloma and she’d be hurt, as any parent would. Better, surely, to deal with it face to face. ‘What are your plans for the next twenty minutes?’
‘Back home to unload the shopping.’
‘Paloma’s?’
‘Mine first. Her car is at my place.’
‘I’ll see you there? It won’t take long. Where exactly do you live?’
He told Leaman he would be out of the building for the next half-hour. ‘Time out for all concerned,’ he said with a weary smile that left Leaman in no doubt that his boss was as much in need of a break as the hyperventilating suspect.
*
Jerry’s flat was in Cavendish Mansions, a converted hotel in Laura Place, just across Pulteney Bridge. No doubt Paloma’s money helped him live at a smart address, just as she subsidised his cars. This young man had no need to get involved in criminality, Diamond told himself. The ram-raid charge just didn’t stick.
They were ahead of him after he’d parked the car, carrying bags of shopping into the building. He stepped out and caught up with them in the entrance hall. Jerry was collecting his post from the pigeon-hole system near the lift. Paloma turned and kissed Diamond. He was aware how tense and tight his lips had become. He was shaking a little. This interview would be about as stressful as any he’d done.
He took over Paloma’s bag of shopping. Strictly, it was Jerry’s shopping. No doubt of that, because it was one of those Hosannah totebags. All the shopping was bagged like that. He had no use for Sainsbury’s carriers. The ecology was safe with Jerry.
‘We did a joint shop,’ Paloma said. ‘My stuff is still in the car. At least, I think it is. I hope Jerry hasn’t got my wine.’
‘Mother, if I have, you know it’s safe with me,’ Jerry said as he joined them.
‘“Eat, drink and be merry,”’ she said, winking at Diamond.
‘That’s somewhere in the good book, isn’t it?’
‘And you know how it goes on?’ Jerry said.
‘Never get into a quoting contest with my son,’ she said to Diamond.
‘All I can quote is the official caution,’ he said, ‘and I try not to do it among friends.’
Jerry let them into his flat. The first impression was that it could do with some lighter wallpaper. The heavy maroon in the hall set off a couple of pictures to nice effect, but only after the lights over them were switched on. They were views of cathedrals. That figures, Diamond thought. They wouldn’t be reclining nudes.
The kitchen where they took the bags looked as if no one used it. Every surface was clean and uncluttered.
‘Put your frozen stuff away and then Peter can ask you his questions,’ Paloma said. ‘He’s still working, unlike you and me.’
‘Listening to you,’ Jerry said, ‘anyone would think I was still about nine years old.’
‘Darling, you are, to me,’ Paloma said, winking at Diamond.
