bed, the pillow plumped and all the clothes put away. The bedside drawers contained no item more interesting than a bottle of herbal sedative pills.
From the sitting room, Wigfull called out, 'No answer phone, but there's an address-book here.'
Diamond confirmed that nothing of interest was secreted in the dressing-table drawers and was on his way through when the phone rang.
Wigfull put out a hand for it, then hesitated.
Diamond gave him the go-ahead with a nod.
The right way to deal with an incoming call at a possible crime scene was to listen and say nothing. If you spoke and the caller heard an unfamiliar voice, you could be sure they would slam down the phone if they had anything to hide.
Wigfull knew the procedure. He had the phone to his ear.
After listening briefly, he rolled his eyes and said, 'I'll put him on.' He handed the phone to Diamond. 'Keith Halliwell.'
Disappointing.
'What is it now?'
'Something new has come up, sir,' Halliwell told him.
'Another stiff?'
'Not entirely.'
'What do you mean-not entirely?'
'Not an entire body. We're talking parts. Some leg bones, a rib cage and a piece of an arm.'
Bones. With an effort he made a mental switch to the case Halliwell was working on. 'Not in the vault? We dug every inch of the vault.'
'No. The River Wylye, near Warminster.'
'That's Wiltshire.'
'It's only a half-hour drive.'
'It's not our patch.'
'With respect, sir, killers don't work to county borders like us.'
'What do you mean-'with respect'?' he rasped into the mouthpiece. 'I'm not questioning whether the bones are worth checking out. I'm trying to work out how we got onto them. Are they still available for inspection?'
'At Chippenham. I've just been speaking to CID there.'
'When you said a piece of an arm…'
'The radius.'
'Come again.'
'Radius. The long bone in the forearm. In my opinion…em, I wonder if you think it's worth comparing it with the hand we have, see if they join up at the wrist.'
'It's a long shot, considering our bones were in the cellar nearly twenty years.'
'These haven't just been found, sir. They were picked up in 1986 by some boys fishing.'
'And this is the first we've heard of it?'
'It didn't get much attention at the time.'
'It's going to get plenty now. When the press get to work on it, they'll tell us Frankenstein's monster is roaming the country ripping people apart. Get it organised, then,' Diamond said mechanically, more interested in the way this came to light. 'Was this your idea, Keith, checking old files?'
'I can't take the credit, sir.'
'Don't depress me. You got it off a flaming computer.'
'No. It's one-up to the human race. Someone had the bright idea of checking newspapers. They found this report in the files of the
'Nice work. One of our rising stars in CID?'
'Actually it was a tip-off.'
'Oh, yes? From a member of the public?'
'Not exactly.' Halliwell's stonewalling was ominous.
A chill note of reserve crept into Diamond's voice. 'Anyone I know?'
'You do know her actually. Ingeborg Smith.'
Diamond sighed in a way that confirmed the inevitable. 'Something else to put in the job application.'
'She'd like to tell you about it herself. I told her if she looked in here again about five-thirty…'
'Thanks a bunch, Keith.'
Muttering, he put down the phone and shifted his thoughts back to the immaculate home life of Peg Redbird. The address book Wigfull had found was helpful only in the sense that it contained about three hundred entries. Peg had not been short of contacts.
'We'd do just as well knocking on doors,' he said. 'What we want first is an itinerary of the last hours she was alive-the last day, in fact. The only information we have so far comes from Joe Dougan.'
'And I wouldn't put any reliance on that,' Wigfull sourly added.
'But do you agree with me?'
'About what?'
Some subtle power-play was in progress here. Diamond wanted more than a consultative role. He was willing to cede the nuts-and-bolts work to Wigfull and his team whilst reserving the crucial decisions for himself. 'Knocking on doors.'
'Of course I agree.'
'Then will you get a door-stepping team on the job, or shall I?'
'Leave it to me,' said Wigfull, thinking this was the opening he needed. 'You've got enough on your plate.'
'Enough on my plate? You know me, John. No table manners at all. If I see something tasty on another fellow's plate, I help myself, whether mine is full or not.'
BY USING the back door of the nick, he avoided being waylaid by Ingeborg. She would be out front somewhere, wanting her pound of flesh for providing the breakthrough in the case. He wasn't ready to admit such a thing. Ingeborg had given him one false lead already-Violet 'Tricks' Turner-and the bones from the River Wylye might prove to be another.
So he gave Ingeborg the slip-and that was how he met the Assistant Chief Constable coming out to the car park with Councillor Sturr. A polite exchange of words was inescapable.
The councillor said with a smile as slick as his three-piece pinstripe, 'Fancy meeting you, superintendent. Only just now I was reminded of your comforting remarks at the PCCG meeting. The Assistant Chief Constable tells me you have another violent death to investigate. Ironic, isn't it? Rather bears out my point that Bath is a dangerous place to live these days.'
'One swallow doesn't make a summer,' was the best Diamond could think to say in reply.
'Quite a high-flying swallow, Peg Redbird. The antiques trade is not going to like this. They're a close-knit group, as I'm sure you're finding out, and they'll expect some rapid action from you.'
'People always do,' said Diamond. 'Rapid can mean hasty, and hasty can mean faulty, so I don't let it get to me.'
'Well, if I can be of service…'
'I don't suppose you can, sir, unless you were in the area of Walcot Street last evening.'
'I'm not offering myself as a witness. I meant in my official capacity, backing your efforts.'
'Much appreciated, sir.'
'I was on the other side of town,' Sturr volunteered, in case there was any doubt, 'at a rather enjoyable 'At Home'.' He smiled at Georgina Dallymore.
'Of course you were,' said Diamond.
'If you want to know who I was with…' Sturr was milking this for more than it was worth.
'I saw you leaving together.'
'So it seems I can't help you after all.'
'Shame. I'll have to widen the net.'
For this ill-considered quip, Diamond received a cold stare.
Sturr shook hands with Georgina and strolled across to his car.
