'I thought this all went on computer.' Diamond glanced about him as if in need of advice, really just taunting the hapless inspector, who was so desperate to impress that he made an easy target. 'We have umpteen thousand quids' worth of hardware in there. Why don't we have a print-out in front of us?'
'The data has to be keyed in first, sir.'
'You don't have to hammer us with jargon. I thought the main advantage of using the blasted things was to speed up the investigation.'
'It is, Mr Diamond – but the input is a manual function.'
'Skip it, then. I've already cast an eye over the reports myself. I found nothing remarkable' – he paused – 'with one notable exception.'
For a moment it seemed as if no one was willing to provide Diamond with the cue he wanted. Then Inspector Croxley found the silence too stressful. 'What was that?'
Diamond announced in a throwaway tone, 'As a result of one of the interviews, we have learned that Geraldine Jackman was still alive on the morning of Monday, 11 September. She made a phone call. John, be so good as to repeat what you learned from Mr and Mrs Plato.'
'Well, it appears that -'
'No,' Diamond interrupted him. 'Facts, if you don't mind, not appearances.'
A ripple of tension showed in Wigfull's jaw as he made another start. 'Mrs Valerie Plato told me that she took a call some time between ten and ten-thirty. The caller claimed to be Geraldine Jackman.'
'Is there any doubt?' Diamond pounced on the possibility.
'Not so far as I'm aware, sir,' Wigfull said tightly. 'But I don't know for a fact that the voice on the phone was Geraldine's. I have to take the Platos' word for it.'
'Go on.'
'She asked to speak to Roger, the husband. He was at home that morning. Roger Plato came to the phone, and his wife remained in the room. At this point, with your permission, sir, I should like to refer to my notes.'
Diamond couldn't be certain whether this was deliberate sarcasm. Nobody was so foolhardy as to smile.
Notebook open, Wigfull continued, 'Mrs Jackman stated that she was sorry to be a nuisance, but she needed some help. She said there had been a spot of bother with Greg -Professor Jackman – and she needed to get away from the house for a few days, to clear the air, as she put it. She wanted to know if she could come and stay with the Platos. Well, Valerie Plato was at her husband's side and she made it very clear that she wasn't having that woman under her roof.'
'Why not?' Halliwell asked. His ignorance was excusable. As the least experienced officer, viewed with suspicion for his quasi-American style, he had been delegated a series of doorstepping jobs that had kept him out of the incident room all week.
'Plato had been knocking around with her,' Wigfull answered.
'Is knocking the operative word?'
'Valerie Plato thought so. Roger strongly denies it.'
'With a name like his?'
'Actually I believe him,' said Wigfull. 'I questioned him separately. He said it wasn't that serious, just a pairing-off because their respective spouses didn't usually go to the parties. He said Gerry Jackman wasn't looking for a lover.'
'Maybe Valerie Plato sized it up differently.'
Diamond said irritably, 'We could spend the rest of the morning saying maybe. Get back to the phone call.'
'That was it, really,' said Wigfull. 'Plato told Gerry Jackman it wasn't convenient for her to come and stay, and she rang off.'
'In an angry frame of mind?'
'Apparently not. She must have guessed she was on a loser when Valerie picked up the phone first.'
'And that was all she said about the row with Jackman, that she'd had a spot of bother and wanted to get away from him to clear the air?'
'Yes. She didn't sound unduly distressed, according to the Platos.'
'Did she phone anyone else after that? What did we get from the other interviews last night?' Croxley, asked in his west of Ireland accent.
'Sweet Fanny Adams,' said Diamond in the less lilting sound of South London.
'So the call to the Platos was the last evidence that she was alive?'
'The last we have.' Diamond spread his hands, inviting contributions.
An uneasy silence. If brains were storming, the lightning was slow to strike.
He scanned the faces. 'In that case, gentlemen, in the absence of anything more brilliant, it looks as if we're forced to fall back on the Diamond method of investigation – good, old-fashioned doorstepping. Get your lads out to Widcombe, Halliwell. I want reports on everything and everybody seen in the vicinity of John Brydon House on Monday, 11 September. Check the neighbours, the milkman, the newspaper boy, the postman. Got it?'
'Sir.'
'Well, what are you waiting for?'
Halliwell left the meeting fast, no doubt with a sense of relief.
'And now what else?' Diamond demanded of the rest of his team.
'I could be out of order here, sir,' Dalton guardedly prefaced what he was about to suggest, 'but I think it's worth finding out how Valerie Plato spent the rest of that day. Rightly or wrongly, she seems to have been suspicious of Gerry Snoo's intentions, this famous television star making a pitch for her husband. The call could have made her pretty desperate when she heard Gerry openly asking to move in with them.'
Diamond turned to Wigfull. 'He thinks the Plato woman is a suspect. What do you say to that?'
The theory earned a grudging nod. 'It's not impossible. She's the quiet type, reasonable-looking, but not what you'd call glamorous. She may have panicked in a fit of jealousy, I suppose.'
'Does she have an alibi?' Dalton asked.
'Does she have a car?' said Diamond.
'A car, yes. A Volvo. Being in the property business, they're quite well off. He drives a Rover. As for the alibi, they were both at home until about one, and then Roger left to do a valuation. Valerie went shopping in the afternoon.'
'No alibi,' said Dalton.
'Hold on,' said Wigfull. 'If she went shopping, presumably people in the shops will have noticed her.'
'And if she went to a supermarket?'
'She may have kept the till receipt.'
Dalton shrugged and withdrew from the discussion.
'How was she when you spoke to her?' Diamond asked Wigfull. 'Did she appear nervous?'
'Not particularly. Reserved.'
'And the husband?'
'He was more jumpy, but then he would be, with his wife at his side, thinking he was lying about the relationship.'
'Did you get the impression that they'd had a row about it?'
'I'd put money on it.'
'And yet you seem to be playing them down as possible suspects.'
'Yes, sir. But you might want to talk to them yourself.'
'Thank you for that advice, John,' Diamond said with sarcasm. He leaned back in the chair and rested his palms on his stomach, as if to measure the span. 'Gentlemen, I don't mind telling you I am not exactly blown away by your – um – input.'
Doggedly, Wigfull defended his corner. 'I believe the Platos told me the truth, sir. It's worth pointing out that their statement fits in with Professor Jackman's '
'Go on.'
'It supports what Jackman told us about the Jane Austen letters that went missing. If Geraldine did take them, as he suggests, she wouldn't have wanted to face him on his return from Paris. So it's not surprising that she started phoning around for some place to lay up for a while '
