The tactic worked. Diamond dropped his opposition. 'Villains with old scores to settle? Here, you mean? In Bath?'
'Let's start here, any road. I remember the case that made your name here, the body in Chew Valley Lake, but that wasn't your first.'
He nodded. 'There were five before that, three domestic, the others drugs-related. Far as I know, all of the killers are banged up.'
'The kid who murdered Mrs Jackman?'
'Bore me no grudge.'
'The con who escaped from Albany?'
'Back inside.'
McGarvie displayed a more than superficial knowledge of Diamond's career as he went through the principal investigations of recent years. He must have studied the files overnight. You couldn't fault the man's thoroughness. But as Diamond had warned at the outset, nothing useful came out of it. The killers he'd put away had been mainly loners, not one of them connected with organised crime in the way the Carpenters were.
'What about your private life?'
'My what?'
'People you know outside the job.'
'You're thinking I pick fights with the neighbours? I haven't got the energy. I pay my bills on time - well, Steph does. Call at the pub for a quiet pint once in a while, and I mean quiet. They don't know who I am. Come home, feed the cat, mow the lawn - the daily grind.'
On cue, Raffles came around the door, sized up the visitors, decided DC James was the softer touch and began pressing his side against the young man's shins. James tried to ignore it.
'Forgive me - I have to ask this,' McGarvie said. 'Your marriage. Was it going well?'
Diamond said with a slight break in his voice, 'It was all right.'
'No possibility that she—'
'None.'
For a while the only sound was the cat's purring as it continued to lean against James's trousers.
Finally McGarvie said, 'I have this major problem with the Carpenter theory. If it's a contract killing, as we suppose, why did they target your wife?
Diamond shrugged. He couldn't understand it either, and he had nothing to contribute.
'Can I feed him?' DC James asked.
'What?'
'The cat. He's hungry.'
Diamond hadn't even noticed. 'If you like. The tins are in the kitchen. Shelf over the cupboard.'
When the two older men were alone, McGarvie once again raised the possibility that Steph had a secret life Diamond had not been aware of. 'We work long hours, get home tired. It's not surprising if our women don't always tell us everything that happened.' Seeing Diamond's expression he spread his hand and held it up. 'Don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting she had a relationship. Just the possibility that she got into something she didn't want you to know about, something slightly dodgy that got out of control.'
Diamond glared. 'Such as?'
'I don't know. I'm guessing. What do middle-aged women get up to? Gambling?'
'Not Steph.'
'She didn't owe money to anyone?'
'Forget it. She wouldn't borrow a penny.'
'I suppose she didn't do drugs?'
'This is bloody offensive.'
'Would you mind if we searched her bedroom?'
'Christ - what for?'
'Peter, I haven't the faintest idea what might turn up, but it needs to be done.'
'Now?'
'It's as good a time as any.'
He stared out of the window. 'I'd tell you if there was anything.'
'But have you been through her things?'
Of course he hadn't. That would be a breach of trust. They'd always respected each other's privacy. He was damned sure Steph had nothing to hide from him.
Being brutally honest with himself, if he were investigating some other woman's murder, he'd insist on a proper
