‘Thanks, but I won’t.’ Rogers said. He passed a mint to Diamond. ‘Does Kate live alone?’
‘As far as I know, yes.’
‘Are you going to nick her?’
‘If necessary.’
‘Is she on the run?’
‘Would I be driving at this speed if she was?’
‘I was told you don’t do more than forty in any situation.’
Diamond looked ahead without even the suggestion of a smile. ‘You’re well informed. There’s a stretch of dual carriageway coming up. They can all overtake if they want. We’ll get there soon enough. We’re not far off now.’
Two minutes later, all the brake lights started going on. Both lanes of the carriageway were blocked as far ahead as he could see.
‘Shouldn’t have spoken. What’s this about?’ he said. ‘One of those idiots who just overtook us, I wouldn’t wonder.’
Everything came to a complete halt.
‘Could be road works,’ Rogers said.
‘I don’t think so.’ He’d heard the two-tone wail of an emergency vehicle from behind. ‘Can they get by?’
An ambulance snaked a route through the stationary traffic.
Diamond switched off the engine and took out his phone. After speaking to traffic division he informed Rogers that the problem was half a mile ahead, almost in the town. ‘Some idiot managed to turn his car over and the fire service are using their cutting equipment. Fancy a game of I Spy?’
‘Perhaps I
‘Live dangerously.’ Fitness was Rogers’ thing, Diamond decided.
He dialled CID for an update and was pleased when Ingeborg answered. She was better than any of the team at summing up what was happening, and was just back from interviewing the chairman of the board at Melmot Hall.
‘Learn anything new?’ he asked.
‘Yes, and I would have called you if you’d kept your phone on.’
‘You’re in danger of nagging the boss, Inge. I was driving.’
‘You’ve got someone with you who could take a call, guv. Anyway, this will make you sit up. Melmot told me Kate is working her notice. He sacked her a week ago.’
‘Melmot sacked Kate?’ he said more to himself than Ingeborg, to gain a couple of seconds while the implications sank in.
‘He said there had been problems with her before, not doing the job properly.’
‘Now he tells us.’
‘She’d clung on because of her relationship with Shearman, who always backs her and says the criticism is unfair. But when Mel mot was approached about the state of the wardrobe room he went to see it for himself and was so appalled that he fired her.’
‘It was a dog’s breakfast when I saw it,’ he said, ‘but I’ve no experience of these places.’
‘You can’t run a theatre wardrobe in such a mess. Everything has to be in place and organised.’ That was one of Ingeborg’s favourite refrains. She was right, of course, whether it was a theatre wardrobe or a CID office.
‘Shearman was silent about this when I questioned him.’
‘He would be.’
‘He did say at one point that her heart isn’t in it any more. That should have alerted me. He doesn’t give much away.’
‘Do you want to know who the whistle-blower was?’
‘Go on.’
‘Denise Pearsall.’
He gave a whistle of his own. ‘That could be the clincher. Melmot told you this?’
‘He said she took some photographs of the wardrobe room with her phone and went to see him with them.’
‘She was asking for trouble, shopping her boss.’ The facts were slotting in like the last pieces of a jigsaw. ‘Kate must have known who dropped her in it. You can’t keep stuff like that to yourself. This is dynamite, Inge. It means she had a red-hot motive for revenge on Denise. And if she thought Denise had mentioned any of this to Clarion, she had a strong reason to kill Clarion as well.’
Ingeborg sounded a note of caution. ‘Before we get carried away, guv, let’s not forget Shearman. He’s Kate’s lover. He could have killed Denise. In his case, there was a personal element because Denise ignored him, went over his head and complained to Melmot.’
‘Point taken. And he was the best placed of everyone to murder Clarion.’ He pressed back against the headrest and released some of the tension with a huge sigh. ‘Whoever it is, we’re onto them. When I get to see Kate, I’ll
