‘That’s what Jacob said, so did the barman. Liz didn’t deserve to die. It’s up to me to make it right.’
‘I thought we had a police force in this country.’
‘If she’s as influential as you say, there’ll be no proof, will there?’
‘You don’t need proof. But are you capable of action?’
In that room, two men who had never killed discussed the possibility. Of the two of them, Armstrong knew that he was the one most likely to do so.
‘Why are you here?’ Palmer asked again.
‘I need to consider the options. Either I help you, or I let this woman’s family deal with you. What’s it to me?’
‘I don’t need help, just a name.’
‘You can’t stay here. Come with me, and we’ll find somewhere quiet and out of the way. You need protection; for now, that’s all I know.’
‘I can’t trust you,’’ Palmer said.
‘I can’t blame you. I’ll make it easier for you.’ Armstrong took out a heavy stick that had been in his pocket and smashed it down on Bob Palmer’s head. The man collapsed onto his bed.
Armstrong looked out of the window, saw the Mercedes down below. ‘Come up here, the second floor,’ he said to Wolfenden on his phone.
Wolfenden freaked out at the sight of Palmer slowly regaining consciousness on the bed, blood on his face.
‘Clean him up. We don’t want blood in Mr McIntyre’s car, do we?’
‘I don’t like this,’ Wolfenden said.
‘The man’s had an accident. We need to get him to the hospital.’
Wolfenden was almost wetting himself with fear. He did what he was told.
As the two men, one on either side of Palmer, helped him down the stairs and out past reception, the woman looked up.
‘He’s not feeling well,’ Armstrong said as he passed across four fifty-pound notes. ‘Keep the room for him.’
‘I hope he gets better,’ she said.
Armstrong knew he had been right. It was the sort of place where you took women, where you hit men, where anything was possible for a price.
‘You’re driving,’ Armstrong said.
In the back seat, Gareth Armstrong and Bob Palmer. Palmer’s belongings were still up in the room, as were his car keys.
Chapter 29
Diane Connolly was shocked when two police inspectors presented themselves at the hospital out on Porthpean Road in St Austell.
‘I don’t usually leave my car down at the station in their car park. Well, actually never. It’s not far from where I live, and it’s expensive, but it was my friend Gale. We keep in touch, friends at school, but she’s gone her way, I’ve gone mine. I’m on nights at the hospital most of the time, but I reorganised my shifts. We said we’d meet up in London for the day. She’s off overseas, and I hadn’t seen her for a few years, so we agreed to meet up, have a few drinks, hit the shops in Oxford Street.’
‘It’s a long way to go just for a day,’ Inspector Mike Doherty said.
Jim Greenwood and Doherty had known each other for a few years, occasionally meeting up for a drink, the chance to talk about crime and policing. Doherty had to admit that he was slightly envious of his friend. The man had a murder investigation, something he had hankered after for quite some time. In St Austell, nothing much happened. Just the tourists coming through, heading out to the Eden Project eco domes, three miles out of the town. A few drugs now and then, the occasional burglary.
‘I took the early-morning train up, first class. I thought I’d treat myself, and I was running late. I hopped on it at the last moment, left my keys in the ignition, the door unlocked. Stupid thing to do, wasn’t it?’
‘We’ve all done it one time or another,’ Greenwood said.
‘When I got back, I was surprised the parking fee wasn’t as much as I thought it would be. But now we know, don’t we?’
‘We sure do,’ Doherty said. At 10.05 a.m., your car was driven out of the car park. It returned at 2.16 p.m. that afternoon.’
‘Whoever took it had a lot of nerve,’ Diane Connolly said.
‘We’d agree with you on that. How was the woman to know that you wouldn’t be back until late at night?’
‘I was on the last train back, didn’t get in till around nine thirty in the evening. We had a good time, the two of us. Gale and I hit the shops, spent more money than we should have, a few drinks. By the time I got on the train I was tipsy, I can tell you that. Slept most of the way back, got off the train, went home, a shower, a bite to eat and back to work. By the time I hit my bed fourteen hours later, I was out for it.’
‘When you left the car,’ Greenwood said, ‘did you speak to anyone or see anyone?’
‘I was rushing, I know that. There was a car parked next to me, red, I think it was. I said hello to the woman, she nodded back.’
‘We can confirm that it was the woman who took your car. Did she know that you wouldn’t be back till late?’
‘I might have mentioned it to her. I was excited, a day out, first-class, meeting up with an old friend. You know how it is. I could have said to her that I was off to London, coming back late.’
‘Would you recognise her again if you saw her?’ Doherty asked.
‘I doubt it. I wasn’t looking that closely and it was still dark, a bit chilly.
