She insisted on driving him to Bristol Headquarters in the morning. The treatment had eased the back pain appreciably, but she wanted to be certain he didn’t go into spasm after a few miles in heavy traffic. He agreed it wouldn’t make a good start to ask his new team to carry him inside.
She drove his car confidently through the notoriously confusing one way system to Trinity Road. He was able to get out unaided. His mind had been on what he’d say and he hadn’t thought how Paloma was getting back.
‘The train,’ she said when he finally asked. ‘I know my way to Temple Meads.’
He nodded. ‘This place confuses me.’
‘Don’t let it show.’
He grinned his thanks and went inside.
When Diamond looked in, the day shift had gathered for what was known in the trade as morning prayers, but there was nothing worshipful about it. The duty inspector was reporting on an early morning drugs bust in Bedminster. He stopped in mid-sentence, glared at the visitor, and said, ‘Can I help you?’
‘I expect so,’ Diamond said, and introduced himself.
Some of them straightened up. One actually checked his hair.
The inspector’s manner changed from sniffy to servile. ‘Would you like to address the meeting, sir?’
‘What I’d really like to address is the porcelain, before I meet the top brass,’ Diamond said. ‘Which way is it?’
The lower ranks enjoyed that. He was off to a good start.
Twenty minutes later he sat down with a bigger challenge, his CID team, twelve detectives ranging from a muscleman with a silver earring to a veteran with bifocals. He had to be careful here. For all he knew, the owner of the silver earring might be the inspector. You could never be certain in CID. He told them his own name and suggested they started with name and rank when they spoke.
No one did – yet.
He needed an icebreaker. He picked up a set of crime scene photos from the desk in front of him and commented that someone had made a useful start.
A slim black guy gave the slightest of nods.
‘And you are…?’
‘Septimus Ward, DI, sir.’
‘The senior man?’
Septimus Ward nodded a second time. No hint of a smile. It was up to Diamond to win this lot over. Par for the course, he thought. They feel the same way about me as I feel about coming to this place.
‘You’re the experts here, being local, so I’m in your hands. How much can you tell me about the victim, Rupert Hope?’
Some looks were exchanged. No one seemed willing to say anything.
He added, ‘There was nothing found on him. If he possessed a mobile or a wallet or credit cards, they’d long since been nicked. He was a university lecturer, and that’s about all we know.’
This was so different from the briefings he gave in Bath. There, Ingeborg or John Leaman would have waded in by now and offered something, if only to hear the sounds of their own voices. Instead, he was doing all the talking.
‘Does anyone here know any background?’ he asked.
Septimus, the inspector, relented a little. ‘He was from these parts, born in Kingswood and went to Clifton College.’
‘Not one of the Bash Street kids, then.’
Septimus may not have heard of the Beano. He stayed on script. ‘He did his university studies here, took a higher degree at Oxford and then came back as a history lecturer. I don’t think he has any close family left living in Bristol.’
But at least there was communication now. A little of the ice had cracked. ‘The parents are in Australia,’ Diamond said. ‘I do know that much. They were concerned about not hearing from him after he went missing so we can assume he was still on good terms with them. He lived in a flat in Whiteladies Road.’
‘Alone?’ another man asked.
It was such a boost to get another contribution that Diamond ignored his own directive about name and rank. ‘Apparently, yes.’ ‘No relationships?’
‘None that we know about.’
‘Gay?’
‘No one has mentioned it.’ Now he sensed what was going on. They wanted to know where he stood on the issue of homosexuality. Fair enough, he thought, but there wasn’t time for all that. ‘Let’s get digging, then, everything we can get on this man: his life history, family, friends, enemies, daily routine, work habits, night life. As well as staff at the university who worked with him, we’ll be interviewing students, looking in particular for anyone with a reason to dislike him. I gather he was friendly and good at his job, which means anyone with a grudge should stand out. Septimus…’
‘Sir.’
‘Thanks for that, but “guv” will do. You can divvy up the duties. We need statements from his landlord and neighbours. Anything of note about visitors in recent weeks, changes to the routine and so on. Every last thing they know: where he shops, how he gets about, who cuts his hair, the whole bag of tricks. Another team goes through the flat looking for anything about recent contacts: letters, scribbled notes, phones, address book, computer. The third and fourth team do the university, talk to the other lecturers and students, look in his office or locker, or whatever they have. By tonight I want to know this man better than I know myself; his personal history, friends, contacts and potential enemies.’
‘Does it have a name, guv?’ Septimus asked.
‘Does what have a name?’
‘This operation. We’ll get more respect if we give it a name.’
He’d heard before about Bristol giving names to everything. ‘You can call it what you like as long as you do a good job.’
‘Operation Cavalier?’
‘If you like. Cavalier it is.’
‘Do you want to be out and about yourself, guv?’
A loaded question. Talk about respect. He could earn some for himself by leading from the front. In time, he remembered his bad back. ‘No, someone has to get this place up and running. And I’ll need an office manager.’
Silence.
Some heads turned. They were looking at the beefy owner of the earring. He said, ‘Fair cop. You’ve got me bang to rights.’
This caused amusement.
‘What’s your name?’ Diamond asked, uncertain where he was going with this. He suspected he was being set up.
‘Chaz… guv.’
‘Can you take this on, Chaz?’
‘Sure.’
After the rest of them had quit the room Diamond asked Chaz his rank and learned that he’d made it to sergeant, indicating that somebody rated him. ‘Do you know what this involves, Chaz?’
‘Common sense, isn’t it? We need staff. Someone to take calls, two or three computer operators to file the statements, an indexer, an action allocator and probably an admin officer as well.’
Encouraging.
‘And can you get them?’
