Diamond Dust

'You mean he would have been seen dragging her to his car?' Bowers cupped his hand over his lighter to get a cigarette going and exhaled a long sigh of smoke that seemed to express the difficulty he was having with this crime scene. 'Why wasn't he seen shooting her?'

'He?'

A pause. Bowers raised an eyebrow. 'You don't really suspect this killer is female?'

'I'm keeping an open mind - or trying to. But you asked about the risk of being seen. I've given thought to that,' Diamond said, more comfortable talking practicalities. 'You'd think a public park in broad daylight would be a stupid place to murder someone, but this was a cold morning in February at a time of day when most people were already at work - and I've checked more than once. It is deserted here around that time.'

'Do you think he - or she - worked that out?'

'Probably.'

'So he could have moved the body if he'd wanted to.'

'To a car, you mean?'

'The car park is right here behind us.'

Diamond was dismissive. 'No chance. Its use is totally different. By that time of the morning it's busy, three- quarters full and with cars coming in all the time. The people aren't coming this way. They're going down into town for shopping and looking at the tourist sites. You couldn't carry a body to a car without being seen. Besides, there are cameras, and, yes, every tape has been checked.'

Bobby Bowers raked a hand through his crop of dark curls. 'I seriously wonder if we're right to link these two shootings.'

'Tell me why.'

'Your wife was certain to be found in a short time. It was a bold, professional hit, as if they didn't care who heard the shots. But my shooting has all the signs of being covert. The killer took pains to move her to a clever hiding place. The body might never have been discovered. If he's so brazen about murder A, why go to all the trouble of concealing murder B?'

Diamond had no explanation. 'Have you spoken to DCI Weather?'

'Only to confirm identification. That was enough for starters. He was in shreds, as you must have been.'

'God only knows how I would have coped with chewed-up bones. I suppose he identified her from the clothes?'

'Yes. The bones were no help. Her dental records were sent for. They match.'

'When will you interview him?'

'It's being done as we speak, by the two DIs you met at the scene. I'll know more after I've heard the tape.'

'Will you see him yourself?' Diamond asked.

'Sure to.' A feral glint invaded Bowers' eyes for an instant.

Diamond's sympathy went out to Weather. 'He'll get the third degree like I did, the husband being the first suspect.'

Bowers declined to confirm this. He said, 'I don't know about the treatment you were given.'

Diamond enlightened him, and at the end of it said, 'I was saying Stormy Weather can expect the same.'

'Depends.'

'But you don't rule it out.'

'Would you, in my position?'

The chill of evening was in the air and the first lights were visible in the Crescent. Without either man suggesting enough had been said, they returned silently across the turf to the car, leaving the scene to darkness and the snogging schoolkids.

At home with a mug of tomato soup in his fist and a chunk of bread on his lap he watched the nine o'clock news on TV. Nothing. Maybe they had run the Woking story the previous night. He didn't watch much these days. The news seemed as remote from real life as the soaps.

He'd delayed for as long as he could manage. He reached for the phone and pressed out the number he'd obtained that morning from the incident room.

'DCI Weather?'

'Who is this?' The voice was defensive.

All too vividly he remembered being under siege by the press. 'Peter Diamond. I don't know if you remember me. We have a couple of things in common. I'm deeply sorry to hear about your wife.'

There was no response at all. But what do you say in the circumstances? 'So am /'? 'No problem'} 'Thanks'?

Diamond waited, then said, 'We served together, you and I, at Fulham, back in the eighties.'

'That's right,' the voice became a touch less combative, yet still drained of animation. 'And your wife has been shot like mine. They told me.'

'So I know how you feel. It's hell.'

'Worse.'

'Look,' Diamond said, 'may I call you by your first name? It's so long ago I only remember—'