‘In case it was from an old flame of mine? More junk, I expect. Or someone wanting money.’ He remembered seeing the envelope the previous day. ‘I’ll pick it up, then.’
He went through to the office.
His desk hadn’t looked so tidy for at least a week. Just that one letter remained in the in-tray. He picked it up.
He opened it and withdrew the slip of paper it contained.
Short and to the point:
27
He invited Paloma over. If he didn’t speak to someone outside the CID fishbowl, he wouldn’t get much sleep. In case she got the idea that romance was in prospect, he warned her it was cheese and cream crackers and there was a reason why he didn’t want to go out for a meal.
She arrived with a bottle of kaolin and morphine. ‘I heard what you were saying, and I think I know what this is about,’ she told him. ‘This is an old-fashioned remedy and really effective.’
‘I don’t have diarrhoea,’ he said. ‘I prefer to eat in tonight, that’s all. I’ve opened a bottle of Merlot. I’m touched by your kind thought, but mine has a better flavour than yours.’
‘Mine may have a better kick,’ she said.
‘And it could still come in useful,’ he said.
She had also called at the cleaner’s and collected the first of his two suits. He was going to need it in the morning.
He showed her the ‘You’re Next’ note and a shiver went through her. She didn’t need telling about the similar one found in Harry Tasker’s card-wallet. They’d discussed it when he was feeling bruised after the team meeting a couple of days before.
‘But I heard on the car radio that you arrested someone.’
‘We have,’ he said, ‘and all the evidence shows he’s the sniper. This looks to me like a practical joke.’
She was appalled. ‘Joke?’
‘Black humour. It’s a police thing. No one is immune from it. I dish it out sometimes and I must expect it back.’
‘Well, I don’t remotely understand what’s funny about it,’ Paloma said, ‘but if that’s all it is, some kind of joke, can’t you make a show of laughing it off?’
‘That was my first reaction.’
‘And?’
‘And I’d like to. The difficulty is that there’s a small chance it’s genuine, sent by the same individual who sent the note Harry Tasker received. As the SIO, I’m bound to take it seriously and treat it as evidence.’
‘That’s what your joker intends.’
‘Probably.’
‘Does it look the same as the first note?’
‘Just about identical. The only difference is that there was no envelope with Harry’s note. He may have destroyed it. The slip of paper is the same size, the wording is the same and so is the font. Easy to copy, of course. They’ve all seen it.’
‘If it’s meant as a joke, can you be certain it came from inside the police station? Calling you Detective Diamond instead of your proper rank is odd. Would one of your own team address you like that?’
‘Normally, no. As a way of bamboozling me, I wouldn’t put it past them.’
‘Could some bloody-minded member of the public have sent it?’
‘The first note hasn’t been made public — except to you.’
She smiled faintly. ‘I’m innocent. I have better ways of winding you up. Why is it being kept a secret?’
‘Sometimes we keep information back so as to have something known only to the killer and ourselves. My team has seen the first note and so have Jack Gull and his deputy, a mental giant called Polehampton. The “Detective Diamond” bit looks like an attempt to divert suspicion — as if it must be from the killer himself, always assuming the killer is an outsider.’
‘And it can’t be from the killer because he’s in custody.’
‘Since early this morning, yes.’ He felt his skin flush as he revealed the flaw in his logic. ‘But I have to tell you that the letter was on my desk unopened for most of yesterday. I saw it myself and didn’t open it. The last forty- eight hours are a blur.’
Paloma took a moment for thought. ‘He was still at liberty when the letter arrived on your desk?’
‘He knew we were on his trail by then. It’s hard to believe he would have come to Bath Central police station and delivered a death threat by hand. I’m ninety-nine per cent certain it’s a hoax.’
‘The first note wasn’t a hoax,’ she said. ‘The threat was carried out.’
He remained sceptical. ‘I’m not even sure if that first note was what it seemed. There may have been some innocent explanation for those two words, like a reminder to Harry from his mates to stand a round of drinks. We talked about this in CID. This was the team meeting I told you about. Made me about as popular as a birdwatcher on a nudist beach.’
‘Haven’t they got over that by now?’
‘I still sense some soreness. You see, it was the note that acted as the catalyst, my suspicion that some police officer could have written it. If they’re taking revenge, this is a neat way of doing it.’
‘ “Neat” is not the word I’d use.’ She took a sip of the wine. ‘Bear with me, Peter, and please look at this another way — the one per cent chance that the note isn’t a hoax. Have you spoken yet to the man you arrested?’
‘Plenty. The problem is he’s saying nothing in return. We suspect he’s a foreigner with a poor command of English.’
‘I doubt if he wrote the note, then. You need to be up with the language to use the apostrophe correctly. Plenty of native speakers get it wrong. Your average foreigner would leave it out altogether and spell it Y-O-U- R.’
He raised his thumb. ‘Good thinking. You’ve disposed of the one per cent. It looks certain this is just to teach me a lesson.’
‘Do they know you’ve opened it?’
‘The team? They will now. Keith Halliwell made sure I looked at it before I left the office.’
She tilted her head in surprise. ‘You’ve often said Keith is your main support. Would he play a mean trick on you?’
He weighed the question. Already he was thankful he’d invited her over to help him get the incident into perspective. ‘Put like that, I’m less sure. I’ve known Keith longer than anyone. I’d say it’s unlikely — except …’ He stopped and cast his mind back. ‘Except that he was leading the protest at the meeting, that is until Ingeborg took over and said I was ordering a witch-hunt. It was an issue of principle for Keith, standing up for his colleagues. Right at the end I asked him to supply me with a list of police personnel from the three stations and he virtually refused, said I was putting him in an impossible position. I backed down and said I’d do it myself. In all our years together I’ve never known him to defy me. I could see how deep it went.’
‘If it affected him like that,’ Paloma said, ‘I can’t believe for a moment he’d take revenge with a practical joke. He’ll be as bruised as you are. It’s obvious he has a high regard for you.’
‘I’ve always thought of him as rock solid.’
‘And he is. You’ve got to see that, Peter. He was right. You did put him in an impossible position. It’s a good thing you had the sense to climb down. Things have improved since, haven’t they?’
‘By degrees. We’re back to normal, just about.’
‘Did he actually watch you in the act of opening the envelope?’
Diamond shook his head. ‘I was alone in my office. He didn’t see my reaction and neither did anyone else.’
