The Tooth Tattoo(50)

Diamond himself appeared soon after and called for silence. ‘We’re going public with these pictures of the victim. Someone in the city must have spotted her. She was here in Bath at least one day – the day she was killed.’

‘Not necessarily, guv,’ Leaman said in the irritating singsong he used when he knew he was right.

‘What do you mean?’

‘She could have been murdered in Exeter and brought here by the killer and disposed of in the river.’

‘She never reached Exeter.’

‘We don’t know that for certain. Her so-called friends told her father she didn’t reach there, but one of them could have killed her and driven to Bath with the body. We ought to check the Exeter end.’

Diamond backtracked fast. ‘You’ve got a point. Christ, what’s the matter with me, not spotting that? The Exeter lot definitely have to be questioned. There could be some falling-out we haven’t heard about.’ He looked right and left for help, like a floundering swimmer. ‘Paul, did we get their names from Mr. Hitomi?’

‘He didn’t actually name them, guv.’

‘Get through to him now. No, better text him. We need the correct spelling.’

‘Will do,’ Gilbert took out his iPhone.

‘Want me to call Exeter CID?’ Halliwell asked.

‘What – ask them to do the job? We’ll handle this ourselves. Even if these friends are innocent as newborn babes it’s possible they can tell us stuff about Mari her father doesn’t know.’

Leaman couldn’t resist rubbing in his small triumph over Diamond. ‘Equally she could have been killed in some other place and brought here: Bristol, Swindon, Devizes – ’

‘All right. We get the drift.’

‘Shouldn’t we put out a countrywide alert?’

‘That’ll happen willy-nilly. The press are sure to go national on these pictures. They’re quality photos and they tell a story. If she was seen in any place from here to John o’Groats we’ll get to hear of it.’

‘Better expect some mistaken sightings, then.’

‘That’s inevitable. I still favour Bath as the location – there was local knowledge at work – but we’ll keep an open mind.’

‘Why would she have come to Bath?’

‘Why do thousands of tourists come every year? You’re forgetting this city is known all over the world. Her father said he reckoned she came as a tourist.’

And now, with Diamond shown up once as fallible, Keith Halliwell pitched in. ‘He could be wrong. She could have come for some other reason.’

‘Such as?’

‘Something she didn’t want to tell her father about.’

‘Go on.’

‘Looking up an ex-boyfriend.’

‘Japanese?’

‘British, American, Japanese – who knows? Someone she knew in Yokohama who is now working or studying in Bath. Mari has set her heart on reviving the relationship. But it turns out he’s living with someone else, may have a child as well. Mari is hurt and angry when she finds out.’

‘Straight out of Madame Butterfly,’ Leaman murmured, annoyed that someone had stolen his thunder.

Halliwell wasn’t being put off. ‘She threatens to tell the new partner about his past. They have a row, it gets violent and he kills her.’

‘Quite a theory,’ Diamond said.

‘You did ask.’

‘I’m grateful. And there could be some simple and obvious reason for coming to Bath that nobody has mentioned.’

‘What’s that?’

An interruption from Paul Gilbert saved him. ‘Guv, Mr. Hitomi will be texting the names in the next few minutes.’

‘Excellent. While we wait we can decide which of his pictures to release to the press.’

This didn’t take long. They chose three: a close-up of Mari in Hitomi’s house, a street picture with arms outstretched and the shot of her wearing the backpack looking over her shoulder at the camera.

The names of her friends came through soon afterwards: Taki Kihara and Mikio Nambu. Both were ex-pupils of Yokohama High School studying physics at Exeter University.

‘Exeter.’ Diamond turned to Ingeborg. ‘How long would it take you to drive there – a couple of hours?’

‘Probably less. Depends who’s sitting beside me.’

Smiles all round. Diamond’s dislike of high speeds was well known. Even he managed a twisted grin.

‘Tee it up with the physics department. We’ll go this afternoon.’ He continued doggedly with the briefing. ‘One thing Mr. Hitomi confirmed is that Mari was into classical music in a big way. We already knew there was Beethoven on the iPod. It now turns out that her mother in Yokohama is a violinist who studied to a high level at some music college in Tokyo.’