Diamond Solitaire

'The damage to the front room. It looked impressive at first, as if there'd been a fight, but what did it amount to in breakages? One smashed TV screen. The shelf unit had tipped across the sofa and some books and things were on the floor, a chair was overturned and lying across a table and that was it'

'The phone was pulled from its socket,' Eastland added.

'True-but it wasn't damaged. To me, the scene looked as if it had been staged by a rather fastidious owner who didn't want to damage his living room more than was necessary.'

'You think that was staged?'

'I think it's more than likely.'

'Aren't you forgetting the bloodstains?'

'No, I haven't forgotten them. First, consider the state of the bedroom where the child was held. Immaculate- apart from the ballpoint There was no other evidence that Naomi had ever been there. Not so much as a hair on the pillow. Wouldn't you expect some sign that she'd been removed from there in a hurry?'

'Maybe she was already downstairs when the fight started,' said Eastland.

'Dressed in her coat and shoes and everything? They're not in the house.'

'Whoever took the kid must have taken her things.'

'Picked them up with his bloodstained hands and helped her into her coat? Does it sound likely?'

'Do you have a better explanation?' asked Eastland.

'Then there's the matter of the car,' Diamond continued as if the question hadn't been put. 'How did the assailant-what do you call him, the prep?-how did he travel to the house. On foot? If he came in a car, where is it, because he couldn't have driven two vehicles away from the house after the attack.'

'Two perps,' said Eastland doggedly. 'One drove his car, one drove Leapman's.'

'Taking Leapman with him?'

'Yeah.'

'All right-then why was it necessary to take Leapman as well as the child?'

'Maybe they killed him. There's enough blood, for sure. They got rid of the body.'

'To hinder your investigation, do you mean?'

'Sure,' said Eastland. 'They carried him to the garage, loaded him in the car and then opened the garage door and drove out with the body in the back. That way they avoided carrying him out into the street in the view of the neighbors.'

'And that's how you see it?'

'Do you have a better explanation?' Eastland asked for the second time.

'Let me take you back a bit,' said Diamond. 'Leapman definitely took the child to his house at some stage. We found the ballpoint where I said it would be. We agree on that, right?'

'Uh huh.'

'Look at this from Leapman's point of view. Yesterday when David Flexner arranged to meet me at the ferry, Leapman was listening. Either the office or the phone was bugged. He has links with organized crime and he alerted his criminal friends and asked them to meet me and dispose of me, while he created a smoke alarm diversion at Manflex Headquarters to delay David Flexner. Is that a reasonable inference from the facts as we know them?'

'It's conceivable.'

'Conceivable? I was dumped in the river. You won't question that?'

'No, I don't question that.'

'Leapman must have believed I was dead, but he still had a problem, because you-the cops-brought David Flexner in for questioning the same night. He couldn't understand how you made the connection, but he knew how dangerous it was. It was getting too close to home. And home was where he was holding Naomi.'

Eastland was waking up. 'He didn't want the cops calling. This is not a good time in his life to get arrested.'

'Right. If he's going to cash in on PDM3, it's essential that the conference goes ahead. Are you with me so far?'

Eastland only gave a shrug and said, 'Let's say I've been listening.'

'Now, Leapman isn't the spokesman for PDM3. He's just the Vice Chairman. It isn't absolutely necessary that he puts in an appearance at the conference. David Flexner and the professor can handle it. The only thing liable to ruin the day-and the big hike in his shares-is if he-Leapman-has a visit from the cops and is found to have the child in his possession. That would be a disaster.'

'So?'

'So he arranges to disappear. He will take the child with him, leaving no evidence that she was ever in the house. First he dresses the child and puts her in the car. Then he tidies her room so well that you wouldn't know she was ever there.'

'Unless you were smart enough to look under the mattress,' said Eastland in a bland tone that didn't amount to mockery, but wasn't respectful either.

Diamond's eyes narrowed, and one of them hurt. The black eye was still swollen. He sensed that he was being sent up, but he refused to be deflected. 'Then he fakes the attack. Tips over several items of furniture and smashes the TV screen.'

'How about the blood? You telling me it was ketchup?'

'No.'

'Self-inflicted?'

'I don't know.'

'That's a switch.'

There followed an interval when neither man spoke. Diamond needed to draw breath and Eastland was gathering himself to demolish the theory. 'It's one hell of a scenario to build on one ballpoint,' he said finally. 'In a nutshell, you believe Leapman arranged the scene himself, leaving us to deduce that he was beaten up and probably murdered?'

'Yes. I think you'll find that the only prints are his own. Probably he wore gloves to handle the baseball bat and the phone.'

Eastland supplied unexpected support here. 'It's true that whoever handled those objects wore gloves. That much we have established. And you think Leapman is alive and well? He drove off with the kid sometime before we arrived?'

'That's it'

'Where to?'

'I've no idea, but at least we know who to look for. We can put out a description.'

'We circulated details last night,' Eastland said with a yawn.

'No response?'

'None.'

Diamond didn't have to be told about the problems tracing cars in New York.

'What's your reaction, then?'

'To what?' said Eastland.

'To what I've just been telling you.'

'I don't buy it.'

And that was that

They arrived at the Sheraton Center and shared an elevator to the third floor with a throng of people wearing name tags marked with the Manflex logo. The conference was to be in the Georgian suite. Young women in red blazers and white skirts were handing out information packs. Diamond took one and saw with grim satisfaction that an amendment sheet was included: Mr. Michael Leapman, Vice Chairman, will not, after all, be chairing the session with Professor Churchward. His place will be taken by the Chairman, Mr. David Flexner.

Seated inconspicuously towards the back, Diamond and Eastland watched David Flexner enter, accompanied by the professor, a slim, brown-suited man with cropped hair who took a chair beside the podium. Flexner was the first to speak. He addressed his large audience confidently, unaffected, it seemed, by the alarms of the previous twenty- four hours. After welcoming everyone, he briefly outlined the history of Manflex under his father's management, listing the principal drugs for which the firm was known. This was a stage of the proceedings when a few