'The diary.' The tired eyes widened.
'She had an appointment in the park the day she died.'
'Who with?'
'Someone she called “T”.’
McGarvie looked around the incident room. 'Did you hear that, everyone? This is the breakthrough.' He looked animated for the first time in a month. 'Any thoughts?'
Diamond shook his head. 'Like I said, she hadn't mentioned a thing.'
'Boyfriend?'
'Some boyfriend, if he put a bullet through her head.'
'Sorry. I've got to cover every angle. And you think Warburton took the cash?'
'I'm sure of it'
'And tossed the bag in the vase?'
'He told me he did. Took me to the place. There was only forty quid. If you're thinking of charging him, don't. He gave me his co-operation.'
'I'll handle this my way. I still want to speak to him. Look, I'm grateful you found this.'
'But . . .' Diamond said.
'You know what I'm going to say?'
'Save it. I'm not trying to take over. I'll keep my distance.'
'That's not good enough, Peter.'
'It's the best you'll get.'
Specially, he thought, when I'm ahead of you.
He turned right outside the police station and walked the length of Manvers Street and beyond, where it became Pierrepont Street. At the far end he turned left into North Parade Passage, and straight to Steph's hairdresser, called What a Snip.
He asked for Jan. She was with a client.
'If it's about an appointment,' the receptionist said with a dubious look at Diamond's bald patch, 'I can do it from the book.'
'You can show me the book. And you can tell Jan to break off and speak to the police.'
She went at once.
Steph's name was in the book for one-thirty on Wednesday, February the seventeenth.
'Does this tick beside her name mean she definitely came in?' he asked Jan when she appeared.
'She did. Mr Diamond, I can't tell you how shocked I was when I heard what happened,'Jan said. She was the senior stylist and manager, meaning she was all of twenty-one with the confidence of twice that, blond, elfin, with eyes that had seen everything and dealt with every kind of client. You wouldn't mess with Jan. Steph must have liked her.
'I want you to cast your mind back to that Wednesday. I'm sure she chatted as you were doing her hair.'
'A bit, yes.'
'Can you remember any of what was said?'
'That's asking. The weather, naturally. My holiday in Tenerife. The night before's television, I expect. And the kind of cut she wanted.'
'Did she say anything about the reason for the hairdo?'
'Not that I remember.'
'Try, please. She wasn't one for regular appointments, as you know. She only booked you when she had something coming up. Did she mention what it was?'
She shook her head. 'I would have remembered if she'd said anything. People often do, and I like to know about their lives. But I never ask if they don't want to say. I don't believe in being nosy.'
'Are you sure she didn't tell you something and ask you to keep it.to yourself? - because if she did, it's got to come out now. You don't have to spare my feelings, Jan. I need to find her killer before someone else is murdered.'
'And I'd tell you if there was anything to tell, but there isn't'
He believed her.
The phone was beeping and the cat mewing when he came through his front door. He ignored the phone, but Raffles got fed. Then he heated some baked beans, cut the stale end off a loaf and made toast, topped with tinned tomatoes and a fried egg that smelt fishy. Looked at the post without troubling to open anything. The solicitor, the bank, the funeral director. They could wait. In less than twenty minutes he was out again, driving to Bristol.
He called at two pubs in the old market area and asked for John Seville, an informer he'd known and used a few times. No snout is totally reliable, but Seville was better than most. The problem was that nobody had seen him since the Carpenter trial. Bernie Hescott, hunched over a Guinness in the Rummer, was definitely second best.
'Haven't clapped eyes on him in weeks. I wouldn't like to think what happened. He was too yappy for his own good, I reckon.'
'Maybe you can help.' Diamond showed the top edge of a twenty-pound note, and then let it slide back into his
