there’s likely to be legal action, you have to be certain.’
‘The medics will tell her?’
‘Have to.’
‘And it can’t have been an accident,’ Diamond said. ‘The lawyers will be aware of that. You don’t add caustic soda to face powder through carelessness. This was deliberate.’
‘And vicious,’ Ingeborg added, her voice thick with emotion.
When they left, they took the towel with them in a sterile box that served as an evidence bag. It would go to the forensics lab at Chepstow for them to run their own tests.
In the car, Diamond said, ‘Are you okay?’
‘I thought I was going to throw up when he told us,’ Ingeborg said. ‘I can handle a murder scene, but this is worse, considering we just spoke to the victim. What a thing to come to terms with, learning you were hated this much by somebody.’
‘I know. It’s repulsive and impossible to justify. But our job is to find out why it was done and who is responsible.’
‘Okay, guv. I won’t let it do my head in. What do we do about this?’
‘We’ve got enough now for a search warrant to get into Denise’s house and seize her make-up kit. And we need to know a whole lot more about her.’
‘Do you want to call Keith?’
He called CID on Ingeborg’s phone and got Dawkins, that windbag, announcing that the department was at his service, as if it was menswear in Jolly’s.
‘Diamond here. Is Keith in the office?’
‘Keith?’ From the bemused way Dawkins repeated the name, it could have been Julius Caesar.
‘DI Halliwell.’
‘Would he be the gentleman with sideburns?’
Diamond gripped the phone harder. What could have possessed Georgina to dump such a nutcase in CID? ‘That’s Leaman. If he’s there, hand the phone to him.’
‘He is not.’
‘This is urgent, Fred. Is anyone with you?’
‘There is another officer with a more restrained haircut and by what you said I can only deduce he is DI Halliwell.’
‘Put me onto him, for God’s sake.’
Halliwell was on message at once. He said he’d organise the warrant directly. There was no shortage of local magistrates to contact.
‘Any success tracing her car?’
‘She owns a silver Vauxhall Corsa. It’s not on the street right now. The neighbours say that’s where she parks it when she’s at home. They’re pretty sure it wasn’t there overnight. I’ve got the registration and put out an all units as agreed.’
‘What’s the address?’
‘Excelsior Street in Dolemeads. By the time you get back here, the warrant should be ready.’
‘We’ll join you as soon as we can.’
He updated Ingeborg.
She said, ‘I can’t think why Denise would do something as dumb as this. She’d know we’ll soon catch up with her.’
‘We’ve yet to find out the background,’ he said. ‘I sense a history of ill-will behind this. You get people with a grudge and they lose all sense of proportion. This could have been a personal spat with Clarion, or something quite different, like a grievance against the theatre.’
‘So she scars Clarion for life?’ she said on an angry, rising note.
‘Stay cool, Inge. Up to now, nobody has said a word against Denise.’
‘Because she’s only known to us as a functionary. The dresser. We’ll find out a whole lot more shortly.’
They got to the end of the Keynsham by-pass and started the Bath Road stretch of the A4. Ingeborg was driving too fast by Diamond’s reckoning. ‘You can take it more steadily now,’ he said. ‘We’ve made good time. I haven’t heard what you dug up on Clarion.’
‘I can talk as I drive, guv, and I’m inside the speed limit.’
‘Not my limit.’
‘It’s open country for some way ahead.’
‘I’ll look at the country. You keep your eyes on the road. Does she have any obvious enemies?’
‘I can only go by what’s on the internet and in print. She’s not controversial, like some pop stars.’
‘Relationships?’
