followers.’
Ingeborg took in a long breath. ‘Would he put out a contract on his own son?’
‘It’s not impossible. I didn’t detect much love between them.’
They were driving down Widcombe Hill where the road narrows before it joins the A36 south of the railway station.
‘So will you report what you found?’ Ingeborg asked.
‘All those guns? Of course.’
‘Now?’
‘Soon as we get back.’
26
Jack Gull was in the incident room with DI Polehampton peering at mugshots on a computer screen.
‘Family history?’ Diamond said as he walked in.
‘Piss off, Peter,’ Gull said without looking up.
‘What’s this about, then?’
It was Polehampton who answered. ‘Looking for a match with our friend in the cells.’
‘Hasn’t he told you who he is?’
‘He’s still playing dumb, unfortunately.’
Still with his gaze on the screen, Gull said, ‘So here we are checking every sad fuck arrested for possession of firearms over the past five years.’
‘You’ve got his prints. You must have checked the PNC.’
‘Nothing matches. He’s not in the system.’
‘So why bother with this lot?’
‘No system is infallible, that’s why, not even the Police National Computer.’
‘You must be desperate.’
‘Did he say anything to you when you were lying on top of him?’
‘Not a word,’ Diamond said. ‘Maybe he is mute.’
‘Maybe he was enjoying it.’
Polehampton laughed. Diamond did not.
‘Seriously, Jack, he could be handicapped.’
‘No chance. He can make sounds all right. He’s a fucking teddy bear. Jump on him and he squeaks.’
‘Is that what you tried — jumping on him?’
‘Would I do that?’ Gull said, turning to look at Diamond. He did a double take at what he saw and then grinned broadly. ‘Jesus Christ, are you auditioning for Midsomer Murders dressed like that?’
‘Both my suits are at the cleaner’s. I hope you haven’t used violence on this man.’
‘He’s got a voice for sure. Squeaks, but won’t squeal — yet.’
‘Some teddy bears talk if you treat them right.’
‘Okay, Mr. Nice, you try.’
Diamond shook his head. ‘He’s yours.’
‘But you nicked him.’
‘Only when he made a run for it. I wasn’t sure if he was the guy we were looking for. I’m still not certain.’
‘You can be now.’ With relish, Gull told him about the finds in the river at Avoncliff. ‘He’s your demon motorcyclist, Peter. When the search closed in he dumped the bike and helmet in the river. He kept the gun for longer. Decided to get rid of it when he spotted the stake-out around his bolt-hole. That must have been the splash you heard.’
This all made sense. Difficult to see it any other way. The confidence was draining from Diamond. ‘Where is it now?’
‘The G36? Already gone for ballistic testing. They’ll dry it out and get it firing again, no problem. These are army guns built for battlefield conditions.’
‘You’re not serious about wanting me to see him?’
Gull’s tone changed abruptly. ‘He’s the Somerset Sniper, for Christ’s sake. He shot your man in Walcot Street. He ran you down and put you in hospital. You should be on your fucking knees begging for a session with him.’
‘Do the forensics match up?’
‘You bet they do. His prints were taken last night when he was brought in and we got an eighteen-point match.’ In fingerprint scoring, this was an inner ring. Sixteen points of similarity would be enough for the courts.
‘A match with what?’
‘The beer can in the pillbox. Every fucking thing he’s handled. And the shoeprints match up too. The trainers he was wearing last night were definitely the same ones the sniper wore in that garden at Wells. It’s not just the tread pattern on the soles. The wear marks make a shoe impression unique, all the cuts and scratches in the rubber.’
Diamond said in a spat of annoyance all his own, ‘You don’t have to lecture me on shoe evidence, Jack. I wasn’t born yesterday.’
‘It means we’ve got the bastard bang to rights.’
There was no denying the boast if the forensics were that good. Up to now, there had been doubt whether the man Diamond had caught at Avoncliff was the same individual who had slept in the pillbox. But you can’t argue with quality fingerprint and shoe evidence. Diamond had obviously got his thinking wrong, hopelessly wrong. Instead of treating the case as an out-and-out manhunt, as Gull had, he’d tried to be clever, divining motives that didn’t exist and looking for suspects close to home. In the process he’d misread the signs and alienated his team. Self-reproach bore down on him like a tsunami.
Bullheaded in defeat, unwilling to cede Gull the triumph, he said, ‘But you don’t know who he is.’
‘We’ll find out.’
‘Or why he did it.’
‘Obvious. He’s down on cops. You want to see the look in his eyes.’
‘Have you told the press?’
‘Put out the usual short statement last night — “a man arrested and helping us with our enquiries”. You can’t keep a news story like this under wraps.’ Gull flexed his arms. ‘I’ll have to face the hacks again in the next hour. Then of course they’ll be screaming for a name.’
‘Didn’t he have anything on him?’
‘Some loose change, that’s all.’
‘You’ll have taken his DNA?’
‘Nothing like it in the database.’
‘Any scarring, tattoos, vaccination marks?’
‘Bit of a birthmark on the right hip. Fat lot of use that is if no one ever sees it. No other marks.’
‘Teeth?’
‘I’m not going down that route. Tracing dental records is bloody impossible unless you know which dentist to ask. One day we’ll all be computerised and then it’ll be child’s play. That’s a long way off.’
‘It’s down to old-fashioned persuasion, then?’
‘Down to you, mate, and your winning ways. Give me a shout when he’s ready to talk.’ Gull returned to the images on the computer.
Diamond started walking towards his office. ‘I can give it a go. First I’d better get through to Portishead.’
‘Headquarters?’ Gull was all ears again, staring over the screen at Diamond. ‘What for? I’m your Headquarters man. You’ve got me.’
‘It’s too big for you.’
