'For what? Nobody's in the frame.'
'Are you saying I've mishandled it?'
'I'm saying this isn't the time to shut up shop.'
'Gentlemen,' Georgina called them to order. 'I don't want this to get personal. We're all under stress, me included. Headquarters are the paymasters, and I have to listen to them. Curtis, you're going to have to manage with six officers and two civilians.'
McGarvie swayed like a boxer riding a punch.
Georgina went on in the sock-it-to-them style she had to use with these obstreperous characters, 'You'd better decide who you want to keep. Peter, it's no use looking at me like that. I know how you feel. This is no reflection of how strongly we care about your loss and how keen we are to bring this murderer to justice. The commitment is still there. We have to face realities. Policing is about—'
'With respect, ma'am,' Diamond interrupted, 'I don't need reminding about priorities and neither does he. We both knew this was on the cards.'
'Right, then.'
'But why did you call me in?'
'You have a moral right to hear it.'
'Thanks.' He hesitated. 'I thought you might invite me to take a fresh look at the evidence.'
Georgina's lips tightened. 'That is not my intention, Peter, and you know why.'
'Off the record?'
'You're not to get involved. If you have any suggestions, you can pass them on now, and we'll be glad to look at them, but they won't get you on the team.'
He gave a slight nod, acknowledging the small, significant shift in Georgina's position. No longer was she treating him with suspicion, whatever the lingering doubts McGarvie harboured. 'So what's the focus now? Have we ruled out the Carpenters?'
Georgina looked towards McGarvie, who seemed reluctant to divulge the time of day while Diamond listened, but finally conceded, 'Our sources in Bristol haven't come up with anything. The word is that if some sort of revenge killing was authorised, Stephanie Diamond wouldn't have been the target.'
Georgina said, 'You mean they'd have targeted Peter?'
'Or the judge, or someone on the jury. Mrs Diamond would be well down the list'
She said, 'That would hold true for any of the criminal fraternity seeking revenge for a conviction.'
'Yes,' McGarvie said, 'unless the killing of Mrs Diamond was seen as like for like.'
'Meaning?'
'Someone who was deprived of their partner - and blamed Peter for it - decided he should suffer the same way.'
'This is the theory that a woman is responsible?'
'Or a man whose wife was put away.'
Georgina swung towards Diamond. 'When did you last arrest a woman for murder?'
He cast his mind back. 'Before you took over, ma'am. Ninety-four. But there wasn't a man in her life.'
'So for all practical purposes we're looking at vengeful women,' Georgina said. 'What about the one who scratched Peter's face?'
'Janie Forsyth.'
'She was shouting about a stitch-up, wasn't she? And she was Jake Carpenter's girlfriend.'
'I've interviewed her twice,' McGarvie said. 'The big objection to Janie as a suspect is her behaviour after the trial. If you're planning a murder you don't draw attention to yourself by screaming in the street and assaulting a senior detective.'
'She was in an emotional state,' Georgina said as if that was the prerogative of her sex. 'She could have got a gun and shot Stephanie. Let's remember the shooting happened the very next morning.'
McGarvie said, 'Let's also remember where it happened. Mrs Diamond went to the park by arrangement. We're confident of that. The diary shows she was due to meet the person known as 'T' at ten.'
'You're right, of course,' Georgina admitted at once. 'And she'd been in touch with 'T' for some days.'
'Just over a week.'
'You now believe the diary is reliable evidence?'
McGarvie coloured a little and avoided looking at Diamond. 'We were cautious at first, but we now accept that the entries were written by Mrs Diamond. And if the first contact was at least ten days before the murder—'
'Remind us what it said.'
''Must call T.' That was on Monday the fifteenth of February. It suggests a prior contact.'
'All of which makes it unlikely that the Carpenter verdict was the motive for the shooting.'
'That's my interpretation, ma'am.'
'Mine, too,' Diamond said. 'Early on, before the diary was found, I was sure they were behind it. Shows how
