'Dear God. I'd better come and speak to him.'
'With respect, ma'am, I don't think he's fit to speak to anyone just now.'
'Where is he exactly?'
'Kneeling beside his wife.'
'Poor man ... I don't think he has any other family, does he?'
'None that I've heard of.'
'Close friends?'
'Outside the police? I wouldn't know.'
'It's up to us to help him through, then.'
Difficult. Halliwell doubted very much if Diamond wanted the ACC to help him through, but he'd told her already to stay away and he couldn't keep repeating it. He looked towards Diamond and saw him reach for the plastic covering and replace it over his wife's face. 'I'm going over to him now, ma'am. He may be ready to leave.'
Diamond stood up, paused for a moment more beside the body and then walked across to Halliwell. His eyes had the unfocused stare of the freshly bereaved, but he was able to find words now, and he made it clear that he wasn't thinking of leaving. 'What have we found, then?' he asked in a flat voice.
'Not much so far, sir. It looks professional.'
'You're searching for the bullets?'
'Of course.'
'And the cases? If they used an automatic . . .' He lost track of the sentence for a moment, his voice breaking up. Then he managed to control it. 'The weapon could still be around. Get some back-up. All this area has to be combed. Every yard of it.'
'Right, sir. Can the photographers get their pictures now?'
'I'm not stopping them.'
The hiatus was over. He was making a huge effort to show he was capable of carrying out the familiar routines. He checked that the police surgeon had been by to certify death, and Halliwell confirmed it.
'And the pathologist?'
'On his way, sir.'
'Middleton, I suppose?'
'Sir.' Halliwell found himself slipping in that 'sir' far more than usual. Normally he was more relaxed with his old boss. 'I'd just like to say—'
'No need,' Diamond cut him short. 'We understand each other. Take it as said.'
The cover was removed entirely from the body for the photographs and video record. More sightseers had gathered behind the police tapes to watch. A violent death in broad daylight was a rare event in Bath. Stephanie Diamond was fully clothed, yet it still seemed offensive that she should be an object of ghoulish interest. Her husband knew if he told them to move on, more would take their places.
So the painstaking process continued. The body was on the grass to the rear of the old bandstand, obscured from Royal Avenue, the road that crossed the lawns below the Crescent. The Victorian shrubbery nearby fringed the car park and trapped the litter that blew across the open lawns. The search for traces of the killer would be a long job.
The forensic team arrived in their vans. While they were putting on their sterile overalls, Halliwell hurried across to warn them who the victim was. Diamond didn't want sympathy from anyone, but he could be spared the backchat that went with the job.
The next twenty minutes passed slowly and mostly in silence, with the white-suited figures clustered around the body.
Someone must have tipped off that old motormouth, Jim Middleton, the forensic pathologist, before he arrived - a merciful act. He said nothing. Just put out a hand and rested it briefly on Diamond's shoulder in a gesture of support. Then took the taped route to the corpse and studied the scene. Diamond followed.
'Has anyone touched her?' Middleton asked.
'The police surgeon,' Diamond said. 'And forensics. And me. She hasn't been moved.'
Middleton crouched for a closer inspection. 'Bullet wound to the frontal, almost dead centre. Very close range. You shouldn't be here, you know. You're too involved.'
'I can handle it.'
'I don't doubt you, old friend, but that isn't the point.'
'This is the work of a hitman,' Diamond said, ignoring the criticism.
'Do you know something?'
'I'm talking about the bullet wounds.'
'Two, to be sure, you mean? I wouldn't read too much into that. They look very deliberate, measured almost, but that's speculation. Could equally be some crazy with a gun who happened to point the muzzle towards her and pull the trigger twice.' Middle ton crouched and peered closely at the powder burns around the neat hole the bullet had made in her forehead. 'Are you sure you want to be here?'
Diamond didn't answer, but remained where he was.
