'A handbag would be quicker,' Bowers said. 'Did you find one with yours?'
'Mine?'
'Your stiff.'
A pause.
Diamond made a huge effort to sound untroubled. 'Er - it was hidden, but yes.'
'So you knew pretty soon who she was?'
'Right.' He put the lid on the smiling skull before it
unsettled him more. 'What about those clothes you mentioned?'
'We found a few. Want to see?' Bowers turned to a stack of cardboard storage boxes. 'These would tell you she's over thirty even if the bones hadn't. More Country Casuals than Top Shop.' He opened a box and took out two transparent zip-bags, each containing a shoe that didn't look the latest in snazzy dressing, even to Diamond's untutored eye. 'Size seven, squat, narrow heel. No bimbo wears things like this.'
Bowers opened another box and lifted out the tattered remains of a green padded coat in some man-made fabric. 'Ripped to shreds by the foxes. The fact that she was wearing a thing like this means she was probably shot last winter, or the spring.'
'It also makes it likely the shooting happened outdoors,' Diamond said more for his own benefit than anyone else's.
'Agreed.'
'What was she wearing underneath?'
'Woollen stuff for warmth, a thick pink jumper, though not much has survived. Black woollen skirt. Very little left of it. Imitation leather belt. Black tights. And Marks and Spencer underwear, same as yours and mine, I dare say'
'Speak for yourself.'
There was a break in the dialogue while Bowers marked his chart with the latest find. The police work all seemed highly efficient except that each time a train went past one of the screens blew down and several of the search party had to shore it up again.
'What do you think?' Bowers asked, when the chart was updated. 'Any chance of a link between your stiff and mine?'
The force of that word struck home harder this time and it took some strength of will to let it pass. Bowers had no idea how close he was to being smeared all over his precious chart. 'It's a long way from Bath, of course,' Diamond succeeded in saying after a pause. 'The two shots to the head are the common factor, plus the sex and approximate age of the victims. Middle-aged women aren't killed this way. Mind, there are some differences in the m.o. Yours was hidden from view, mine left on the ground in a public park. She was found very soon after the shots were fired.'
'Who was she?'
'My wife, actually.'
Bobby Bowers gave a nod, then in a double take, a wide-eyed stare. 'Did you say . . . ?'
Diamond answered with formal precision, as if giving evidence, 'Her name was Stephanie. She went to the park to meet someone known as 'T', according to her diary. She was gunned down in broad daylight'
'Christ, I read about this.' Bowers raked a hand distractedly through his hair. 'Bloody hell. Didn't connect you.'
'Well, you wouldn't. You'd expect someone else to be on the case, and he is.'
This drew a frown from the young DCI. There is only so much you can take in at a time, even when you're a fast-track superintendent in a polo shirt and jeans.
With a candour that actually surprised himself, Diamond explained, 'I'm here unofficially, acting on my own. Way out of line, I know, but I mean to find out why my wife was murdered, and who did it'
There was a forced interruption as a train went by.
Then, from Bowers: 'Have you found out anything of use?'
'Here? Not yet.'
'Are you working with the team on your wife's case?'
'Wish I was. Protocol doesn't allow it.'
'So you're doing a Charles Bronson?'
Diamond grinned faintly. 'Better not put it in those terms.'
'I'm glad you told me. I might have said something really tasteless. You don't mind me asking - were you and your wife—?'
'Happily married? Yes.'
'But you must have some theories why she was killed.'
'How much time have you got?' He was relieved the young DCI had taken it so calmly. That generation was less hung up on protocol, thank God. In the next five minutes he sketched out the main facts of the case, pausing only when another train thundered past. At the end of it, he said, 'If you hear all this again from a certain DCI McGarvie, do me a favour and try and sound interested.'
