'True?'
'Confirmed, yes.'
'It took eleven hours to get that out of him?'
'The old tyres left a set of prints outside a betting shop that was torched the previous evening.'
'Back on the protection game?'
'Apparently.'
Diamond gave a sigh that was almost sympathetic. 'We can't win 'em all, can we? I helped trace Dixon-Bligh, as you know, but it was too late.'
Now McGarvie waded in. 'You knew he was wanted for questioning. If you'd informed me about this beach hut at West Wittering, I would have collared him.'
'I honestly didn't think about the beach hut until I was at the safe house.'
'You're trickier than a cage of monkeys.'
Georgina continued with the tongue-lashing. 'The whole point is that your actions would have undermined a prosecution against this man. It's lucky for you he's dead.'
This time he was silent. He'd made all the points he wanted.
Georgina banged on for a few minutes more, saying she'd considered formally disciplining him and it was only because of the tragedy of Steph's murder that she chose to be compassionate.
He didn't thank her.
He was on the point of leaving when she seemed to relent a little, maybe deciding she'd taken too strong a line. 'It's brought closure, anyway, Peter.'
'What do you mean?'
'The man is dead.'
'That's closure?' he said in a flat voice.
'In the sense that we can draw a line under the investigation. I realise it doesn't put an end to your personal grief.'
He was silent.
Georgina asked, 'Did you have any suspicion Dixon-Bligh was involved with this Arab group?'
'Not till I was told, ma'am.'
'The manner of his death - removing his tongue -seems particularly brutal. I'm told it's considered a just punishment for an informer. In their society a thief has his hand cut off.'
'I've heard.'
'There's no question that it was an act of revenge by the diamond robbers?'
'That's the strong assumption.'
'They'll be out of the country by now.'
'I expect so.'
'Difficult, bringing international criminals to justice. Still, it's the Yard's problem, not ours. We're left with some tidying up of our own. It's time for some co-operation between you two. Curtis will need chapter and verse from you, every bit of evidence that seals Dixon-Bligh's guilt. It has to be written up before we can close the file. I rely on you, Peter, to pass on your findings. It will be hard for you, I appreciate, but a necessary duty.'
'Bit of a turnaround,' he commented.
'What?'
'You warn me off, tell me not to show my face in the incident room, and now you want me to tell him how it was done. Cool.'
Not merely cool. In that atmosphere you could have preserved a mammoth for a million years.
'Well, I've got good news for you, Curtis,' Diamond filled the silence. 'You won't have to put up with those findings of mine, because they don't exist.'
'Just what do you mean by that?' Georgina asked.
'Dixon-Bligh didn't murder my wife.'
'For God's sake, Peter.'
'Will you hear me out?'
She sighed and leaned back in her chair.
Diamond said, 'I almost convinced myself he was the killer when I heard he was a junkie. It provided the selfish, blinkered, crazed motive I was looking for. But something didn't fit. I also learned yesterday that he was a chef at the Dorchester.'
Georgina took a deep, audible breath. 'We know about that.'
He nodded. 'But you didn't follow it up.'
'What do you mean - 'follow it up'?'
