The Dead Hand of History by Sally Spencer Page B

it was just what Walker had wanted. Now, from his viewpoint, she was being the typical hysterical woman, and that made him feel as if he had the upper hand.
    â€˜What brought you to this bakery in the first place?’ she asked, in a much calmer voice.
    â€˜I came in my Ford Escort,’ Walker said. He waited for Paniatowski to explode again, and when it became plain that she wasn’t about to, he continued, ‘The reason I’m here is that I’ve identified the hand as belonging to somebody who works here.’
    â€˜And why didn’t you let me know that you’d developed such an important lead?’
    â€˜Tried to, ma’am, but you weren’t in your office, and nobody at the station seemed to know where you were.’
    â€˜I was at the mortuary,’ Paniatowski said.
    â€˜Oh!’
    â€˜Which, given the discovery of the second hand, shouldn’t have been too hard for you to work out.’
    â€˜Didn’t think of that, ma’am,’ Walker said.
    â€˜Anyway, even if you couldn’t find me, why didn’t you call me on my radio?’ Paniatowski asked.
    â€˜I tried that as well, ma’am. I couldn’t get through to you.’ Walker laughed. ‘But that’s hardly surprising, is it?’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜Well, since you were at the mortuary, you were in a dead zone.’
    â€˜I like a man with a good sense of humour,’ Paniatowski said, between clenched teeth.
    â€˜Do you, ma’am?’ Walker asked.
    â€˜Yes, I certainly do. So you will let me know if you come across any, won’t you?’
    He was lying about radioing her, of course, she thought. He had stumbled on a lead and rushed down to the bakery in the hope that he could solve this case on his own – thus making his new boss look a complete bloody fool.
    As if the case could be solved that simply!
    As if the killer, who had planned everything so well so far, would allow it to be solved so simply.
    She realized there was one important question she had still not asked. ‘So what was the lead which led you to this bakery?’
    Walker smirked complacently. ‘Fingerprints.’
    â€˜Fingerprints?’
    â€˜We took the man’s hand and fingerprinted it, and then we matched the prints against our records, and came up with a name.’
    â€˜You fingerprinted it before the medical examiner had had the opportunity to examine it?’ Paniatowski asked incredulously.
    â€˜Yes, ma’am.’
    â€˜Let me be clear on this. First you contaminated the evidence, and then you handed it over to the doctor?’
    Walker shrugged. ‘I wouldn’t say we contaminated it, exactly. When we’d finished, we wiped the ink off.’
    Well, that certainly explained the ink stains that Dr Shastri had found, Paniatowski thought.
    Was Walker really as stupid as he seemed? she wondered. Could anybody be as stupid as he seemed?
    â€˜And once you’d matched the fingerprints, you came straight here?’ she asked.
    â€˜That’s right, ma’am.’ Walker paused. ‘Well, not straight here, of course. As I’ve already explained, the first thing I did was to spend quite a lot of time trying to contact you.’
    â€˜What did you hope to achieve by coming here without me? Was it your plan to have the killer in handcuffs before I even knew what was going on?’
    â€˜Yes, of course it bloody was!’ the sergeant’s eyes said.
    â€˜No, ma’am, it wasn’t that at all,’ Walker told Paniatowski. ‘The way I saw it, I was just taking a bit of the donkey work off your shoulders and placing it on to my own.’
    â€˜So you didn’t expect to find the killer here?’
    â€˜Now that’s a different question entirely, if you don’t mind me saying so, ma’am. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the killer does work here.’
    And neither would I, Paniatowski thought – because