Diamond Dust

wrong you can be.'

'You have another theory.' Georgina spoke this as a statement. Whether she got it from intuition or the nuances of his tone, she spoke from confidence.

He wavered. He hadn't meant to bring Dixon-Bligh into this without more evidence, but the man was so elusive it was becoming clear back-up would be needed to stay on his trail. 'I don't know about a theory. Her first husband was called Edward Dixon-Bligh. I'm not certain of this, but she may have called him Ted.'

It was as if he'd just said the word 'walk' to a pair of dogs. They sat up, ears pricked, eyes agleam, and if they'd hung out their tongues and panted, they could not have looked more eager.

They continued to give him undivided attention while he told them everything - well, almost everything - he knew about Dixon-Bligh, and Steph's unhappy first marriage. The one thing he did not reveal was the thump he'd given the man the last time they'd met.

This new avenue of enquiry so intrigued them that nothing was said about Diamond defying the injunction to stay off the case. By now, Georgina and McGarvie knew they couldn't stop him doing his solo investigation.

'Did you ask him if he'd been in touch with her?' McGarvie said.

'He denies it, of course. Says the last time they spoke was two years ago when he found a photo of her parents and returned it.'

'And you think he's short of cash?'

'Either that, or he's on the run. He quit the Blyth Road flat at the end of February for a place no better than a tip.'

'The week of the murder?'

'Yes. And Westway Terrace looked a very temporary arrangement to me. He's moved on from there.'

'Where to?'

'Don't know. I haven't kept tabs.'

'We can ask the Met. Does Dixon-Bligh have form?'

'Not that I've heard of.'

'Does he strike you as capable of murder?'

He weighed the question, trying against all the odds to be impartial. 'He did the 'I'm a reasonable man' bit. Said he'd put any bitterness behind him. Blamed himself and his affairs for the break-up. Called himself a selfish bastard. Said he was sorry about the way she died, but to turn up at the funeral would have been hypocrisy. I'm not the best person to ask, you understand, but listening to him, I had this feeling he was laying it on.'

Georgina said, 'He doth protest too much, methinks.'

Delving deep into the small cellar of quotes once laid down for his Eng. Lit. exam, Diamond said, 'Wasn't it the lady who protested too much?'

'Immaterial. I was making a general point.'

McGarvie, floundering, asked, 'Which lady?'

'Don't try me,' said Georgina sharply. 'Was he ever violent to her?'

'She never mentioned violence to me,' Diamond had to admit. 'She spoke very little about him.'

McGarvie, trying to recoup, thought fit to point out, 'As an ex-officer in the RAF, he'd have had weapons training.'

Georgina pulled a face. 'In the catering branch?'

'As part of his general training, ma'am. They all go through that. He may also have been issued with a handgun at some point in his career. A foreign posting in a war zone. Did he serve in the Gulf?'

'Couldn't tell you,' Diamond said.

'He's got to be interviewed as soon as possible,' Georgina decided. She asked McGarvie in an accusing tone, 'Why hasn't his name come up before this?'

There was some injured virtue in his answer. 'I was told he dropped out of her life a long time ago, and when he didn't attend the funeral . . .'

'It should have rung a warning bell, Curtis.'

* * *

Back in the office, still uncertain if it had been a wise move to put them onto Dixon-Bligh, Diamond listened to his voice-mail. The first voice up belonged to his old oppo, Louis Voss.

'Peter, I may have something for you. Could you call me back pronto?'

He closed the office door first. Then learned the hot news Louis had got from his computer, about a dismembered body found on the railway embankment near Woking. 'That's no big deal on its own,' Louis told him equably. 'Desperate people sometimes lie on railway tracks to kill themselves, but this doesn't sound like a suicide. This one has two bullet holes in the skull, and first indications are that it's a woman around forty.'

23

For once Diamond did the approved thing: phoned the CID Headquarters at Surrey and asked if he might visit the scene. Making his pitch to a cautious-sounding inspector, he explained he was 'involved' in a case of fatal shooting that might conceivably be linked to the Woking incident.

Needless to say, his own CID wouldn't have regarded this as the approved thing. For the time being he preferred not to have them involved. McGarvie would be better employed trying to trace Dixon-Bligh.