Peter Diamond - 09 - The Secret Hangman by Peter Lovesey Page B

lips and then withdrew them and exhaled. An ex-smoker feeling some tension, Diamond decided.
    He waited.
    When the answer came it was no help.’Who can tell what goes wrong in a relationship except the people involved? I made a point of not interfering.’
    ‘She didn’t confide in you?’
    ‘We’d speak, mother and daughter, but not about him. It’s not as if he was hitting her, or something.’
    ‘You’re certain of that?’
    ‘She’d have told me.’
    ‘There’s such a thing as mental cruelty.’
    ‘She dumped him for another man, didn’t she? That’s what did for her in the end.’
    ‘Just like that?’
    ‘She went through a bad patch, needed lifting emotionally, and Danny didn’t see it, or was too busy to notice. He was doing all the caring for the girls, and she’ – Amanda sighed – ‘she had time to look around. She met Ashley, and then the writing was on the wall so far as their relationship was concerned.’
    ‘Ashley had a more glamorous lifestyle?’
    ‘The grass is always greener.’
    ‘Danny took it hard, did he?’
    ‘Difficult to tell. As I said, he was so much quieter than Delia.
    You couldn’t tell what he was thinking. I can see it must have hurt him more than any of us realised.’
    ‘There was no outburst at the time?’
    ‘I wasn’t with them, so I don’t know for certain, but from what I knew of Danny he wasn’t capable of an outburst over anything. All his upsets were internalised. Seeing what happened, I can imagine that the hurt went deep. He must have brooded on it until it became an obsession. You can criticise people like Delia for letting their emotions run riot, but the quiet ones are the dangerous ones.’
    ‘He seems to have cut himself off from the family after the parting.’
    ‘Yes. I used to ask about him and she never had any news.’
    ‘Even if he was angry with Delia, you’d think he’d want to stay in touch with his children.’
    ‘Which is what I said to her more than once. She would just shrug and say he was welcome to spend time with them if he asked.’
    ‘So this wasn’t a case of a father denied access?’
    ‘Absolutely not.’
    Diamond watched a crow glide in the breeze above the weathercock on the spire of Holy Trinity. ‘Did you ever meet any of Danny’s family?’
    Amanda shook her head. ‘It’s not as if there was a wedding. That’s when you meet the other parents, isn’t it?’
    ‘Did she speak about his background ever?’
    ‘I think he was from East Anglia originally. He went to college and got a good qualification. I couldn’t tell you if it was a degree, but it was in zoology or something similar. He knew all about animals and birds.’
    ‘Was that his job – working with animals?’
    ‘Not directly, anyway. He spent a lot of time at home, on the computer, which was why he was always there for the children. But if you went for a walk with him he was very knowledgeable about the countryside.’
    ‘Was he interested in bats?’
    ‘What, flying bats?’
    What else did she think he was asking about – cricket bats?
    ‘He was, now you mention it. He’d go for a late-night stroll and Delia would tell me he was looking for bats.’
    Diamond wished Halliwell had been there to hear this.
    Amanda went on, ‘They give me the creeps and I’m sure Delia didn’t like them. He was self-employed, he did tell me that. It didn’t bring in a fortune, but they lived within their means, and Delia was earning as well.’
    ‘As a waitress?’
    ‘Yes. In those days she wasn’t at Tosi’s. She worked at several places, hotels mostly.’
    ‘The Hilton?’ he said, sensing a possible link.
    ‘I don’t think so.’
    ‘Getting back to Danny and his quiet ways, did you ever get the impression that he might be depressed, or even suicidal?’
    ‘Never. He was quiet, yes, but never depressed while I knew him.’
    ‘Mentally stable, then?’
    ‘I would say so.’
    He was silent again for a while, thinking over what she’d told