you out here? You're drenched, man. Get that coat off and let's line up a drink for you.'
'Don't bother.'
A frown threatened Stormy's face momentarily, and then he recovered to say, 'This is Norma - as charming a lady as you'd meet anywhere. Norma, say hello one of my old workmates, Peter Diamond.'
Diamond said to the woman, 'Leave us alone, would you? We have things to discuss.'
She looked to Stormy - who leaned towards her and whispered in her ear. She picked up her coat and walked out of the bar, leaving her drink half-finished.
'What's up?' Stormy asked when Diamond was seated opposite him.
'You want to know what's up?' Diamond said in a hard, tight voice. 'Everything's up - for you. I came here not wanting to believe you murdered your wife.'
He stared back. 'You're not making sense, Peter.'
'Did you ever love her?'
'Patsy?'
'Trish. She liked to be known as Trish.'
Stormy gripped the tankard in front of him with both hands. 'Of course I loved her. Haven't I made that clear?'
'The story I got is that she wouldn't let you in the house.'
'I told you we had arguments sometimes. I made no secret of that.'
'You slept outside in a motor home.'
'Have you been talking to my neighbours?'
'Is it true, then?'
'Sometimes,' Stormy admitted. 'Model-making is my hobby. We spoke of this, didn't we? I keep my materials in the motor home. I can make a mess in there and nobody bothers, and if I want to work late I can.'
'So that's all it was?' Diamond said without irony, as if he was reassured. 'Your marriage was okay?'
'Absolutely.'
'And you got on all right with the in-laws?'
'I got on fine. I still do.'
'Visited them from time to time?'
'Often.'
'Strange,' Diamond said in a voice as dry as last week's bread, 'because when we were sitting in the car on Sion Hill in Bristol you told me you didn't know Bath at all -and it turns out Trish's people live in Brock Street.'
For a moment it seemed Stormy Weather hadn't taken in the point. He was still coming to terms with the realisation that his background had been investigated. 'In the car we were talking about the Brunei sites. All I said was I haven't seen them.'
'No. I asked if you'd been to Bath and you said not since you were a kid. That was a lie.'
Stormy didn't deny it.
For Diamond, these were pivotal admissions. The molten rage inside him threatened to erupt any second, yet he had to contain it to get the truth. 'What was the problem in your marriage? Was it the fact that you had no children?'
'Plenty of people don't have kids,' Stormy pointed out, rashly adding, 'You don't.'
Don't rise to it, Diamond told himself, don't rise to it. Keep the focus on him. 'You admitted to having affairs.
Had Trish given up on sex?'
'I don't see where this is leading.'
'This Norma I just met. How long have you known her?'
'Leave Norma out of it.'
'I can ask the barman or anyone else. I get the impression you're regulars here. Does she want to marry you?'
His silence was as good as a nod.
'But Trish wouldn't let you go, would she?' Diamond pressed on. 'She had things sorted as neat as a knitting pattern. The house to herself, all frills and pink wallpaper and nothing out of place. A good pension. A nice welcome any time she wanted to look up old friends at the nick. And this Mary Poppins image of a perfectly managed existence. No, she didn't want a divorce fouling up her tidy life.'
Stormy took a long sip of beer, transparently trying to appear calm.
'Your life was bleak, sleeping in the motor home and only allowed into your own house on sufferance. She wouldn't let go, and Norma wanted something more permanent. The pressure got to you.'
The calm was ebbing away.
'Like me, you knocked off a police weapon in those Fulham days when old Robbo was mismanaging the
