‘That’s to be expected. He knew it better.’
‘Agreed, but there is another construction.’
Halliwell said, ‘He didn’t want anyone else finding out?’
‘Correct. Well, Harry’s dead, and he can’t object any more. I want two of you on that beat tonight, meeting people, finding what they know.’
‘Tonight?’ Ingeborg said.
‘Around ten, when the low lives come up to feed. I’ll tee it up with the beat manager. This is a job for you, Paul. And Inge.’
‘Me?’ she said. She obviously had other plans for the evening. In Diamond’s murder squad, you could never count on anything.
‘You’re quick to spot evasion. Walk the same beat Harry did, call at the same pubs and clubs and get a sense of whether he ever demanded backhanders in return for protection, or silence or information.’
‘What if Jack Gull makes an arrest before then? Some forensic results are in that I think you ought to see.’
‘We’ll still be stumped for a motive. This could be it. Meanwhile I’ll talk to our contacts at Wells and Radstock and see if by any chance the earlier victims were on the take.’
A little later, Keith Halliwell stepped into Diamond’s office. The big man was studying yet another list, this time of officers who had served with Harry Tasker in the past and also had firearms experience. Guiltily, he turned it face down.
‘Do you seriously rate Sergeant Stillman as a suspect, guv?’
‘Why? Is there something else I should know about him?’
‘He’s a good guy. If a volunteer is wanted, he puts up his hand. Doesn’t mind doing an extra shift to help out. They’re saying in uniform that he was dog tired on Sunday morning when he fell asleep in the car.’
‘It’s no excuse, as you and I know, Keith.’
‘No one thinks he could have shot Harry.’
‘He’s an AFO. He knows how to handle an assault rifle. I want to find out next if he was issued with one recently.’
Halliwell sighed softly. ‘He’d need a motive.’
‘He wasn’t Harry’s best pal, I can tell you that.’
‘Harry was an awkward cuss, guv. Didn’t get along too well with anyone in uniform. You can’t blame Stillman for being cool about him.’
‘I’m not blaming anyone at this stage,’ Diamond said. ‘There’s more to come out, I’m sure. This is in confidence, Keith. I’ve been going over lists of firearms officers from way back, people who served with Harry and the other victims. Prior to 2004, as we know, you could do a five-day course and plenty did. It looked good on your record. So there’s a fair number of names.’
‘Anyone we know?’
‘Harry, for one.’
‘Harry did the course?’
‘When he was based at Helston. One of twenty-three names supplied by Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, PC Tasker. He could have upgraded here and done the five-week course at Portishead, but he never did. He wasn’t ambitious any more.’
‘Unlike certain other people?’
Diamond gave him a sharp look. ‘Who do you mean?’
‘Ken Lockton, for one. If he hadn’t gone it alone, we might have caught the sniper.’
‘I wasn’t going to say that.’
‘Guv, did Ingeborg show you that forensic report?’
‘On the shoe marks found at Avoncliff? She handed me a copy, true. She didn’t have much to say. She’s not a happy bunny.’
‘But this new evidence seems to wrap it up.’
‘Yes?’ He couldn’t have made the word sound any more negative. ‘We still don’t know who the sniper is.’
‘True, but this is a definite link with the killing at Wells.’
‘Keith, I’ve been in this game too long to use the word “definite” about anything. It’s new information, I grant you.’
Sensing that Diamond’s pride was on the line, Halliwell didn’t push the argument any further. He cleared his throat. ‘About tonight, guv.’
‘All these years and I thought you’d never ask.’
Halliwell did his best to humour the boss by smiling. ‘I’m thinking about young Gilbert and Ingeborg walking Harry Tasker’s beat. They said nothing to me about this, but is it safe, do you think?’
Diamond frowned. ‘They’re grown-ups. They’re cops.’
‘I know, but Harry was murdered on that beat.’
‘He was in uniform and so were the other victims. If the sniper wants more blood, he’s not going to kill coppers in plain clothes. He’ll move on to some other town and target another poor blighter on the beat. That’s the pattern, Keith. He doesn’t vary it. To come back to your question. Yes, those babes are going to be safe.’
19
‘I feel like a traitor, doing this.’ Ingeborg said to Paul Gilbert. ‘It’s muckraking, that’s what it is, and it’s so much worse because Harry is dead. He can’t defend his reputation.’
‘That’s for sure.’
‘I’ve got a lot of respect for the guv’nor, as you know, but this time he’s screwed up.’
‘There is one thing about it.’
‘Tell me,’ she said in a world-weary tone. ‘I’m all ears.’
‘Up to now, he’s been saying the sniper could be one of us, a cop. If I understand him right, he’s come round to thinking it could be an outsider after all. You and I are trying to find out if Harry was bent, right?’
She sighed. ‘I get you. If it turns out to be true, and Harry was shot because he was on the take, the killer has to be some lowlife he was threatening.’
‘And that’s got to be preferred to one of us.’
Ingeborg didn’t appear any happier. ‘It still leaves us doing a filthy job. Why can’t he see what everyone else does — that there’s an evil guy out there who is killing cops and doesn’t care who they are?’
They’d reached George Street, into the second hour of their trek around the beat that Harry Tasker had done so often that he’d claimed it as his own. Finding people willing to speak was easier than they’d expected. Most had heard about the murder and a few had actually met Harry. No one had so far said a word against him.
Gilbert, too, had doubts, but more about the practicality of the task. ‘Even if Harry bent the rules a bit, who’s going to tell us? As soon we mention he’s the lad who was murdered, they only want to say nice things about him.’
‘I’ve written some of them down, ready to quote back at you-know-who,’ Ingeborg said. ‘ “An old-fashioned bobby, like you lot used to be.” “Firm, but fair.” “Good with the teenagers.” None of that squares with what Mr. D suggested.’
‘But are they sincere, or are they telling us what they think we want to hear?’
Ingeborg flicked some hair back from her shoulder. ‘Not much we can do about that.’ She wasn’t usually so resigned. The tug of loyalties was getting to her.
Gilbert decided it was up to him to suggest a change of plan. ‘Two of us together is a bit heavy. Listen, why don’t I stand back and watch you from across the street? People might speak more freely to you if you’re on your own.’
‘I shouldn’t think so.’
‘The blokes will.’
