unlikely name of Gentle. Ned Gentle. He’s put a few unfortunates into A &E on Saturday nights. I sent him down for six months last time. He’d still be inside.’
‘I’ll check.’
‘If you don’t mind me saying so, you’ve turned rather pink.’
He could feel his face glowing. ‘I’m stopping presently. In your rambles over the last couple of weeks did you see Rupert Hope at all?’
‘How would I know?’ she asked. ‘Was his head bandaged?’
‘Probably not. How do I switch this thing off?’
‘Touch the red button on the screen.’
‘I can’t see it.’ All the controls were a blur.
She leaned right across him and touched the screen.
‘Thanks for that. It suddenly got difficult.’ He stepped off, panting.
Augusta White continued pedalling. ‘You’ll feel better after a shower. You don’t mind if I continue? I have another mile to go.’
He’d arranged to see Paloma at her house in Lyncombe that evening. She’d spent the afternoon in Winchester and would need cheering up, not because Winchester is a depressing city, but because the place she’d been visiting was the prison. As a comforter, he was not much help. Having driven there, he felt a sharp pain in his back when he tried to rise from the car seat. It was ridiculous, but he couldn’t get out. He had to sound the horn.
Paloma opened her front door and came out. With her help he got vertical and limped inside, where he explained about the session at the fitness centre.
‘What were you on?’ she asked. ‘The rowing machine?’
‘A treadmill,’ he said, ‘and I was only walking, for pity’s sake, and I’m used to that. I felt good at the time, a little wobbly at the end, that’s true. I didn’t expect this.’
‘You must have moved in a way you wouldn’t normally use. I can see the pain you’re in. You’ll need a couple of days off work.’
‘Some chance. I’m needed.’ He told her about the Rupert Hope investigation.
‘Peter, no one is indispensable.’
‘That’s exactly my point. They can replace me and I don’t want to be replaced. The boss is trying to elbow me off the case anyway. She’ll hand the whole thing over to Bristol CID. I’ve got to put in an appearance even if I’m on crutches.’
‘Crutches wouldn’t look good.’
‘You know what I mean. The show goes on.’
‘Then we have to get you mobile. Ice and heat.’
He winced at the prospect.
Paloma said, ‘If that doesn’t grab you, sunshine, I have some wicked- smelling liniment.’
‘Ice and heat.’
‘Take off your things, then, and I’ll get organised.’
She spread cushions from her sofa on the floor and he removed his shirt and trousers and lay face down in his blue striped jockey shorts. He was alone for about ten minutes and the ache eased enough for him to think how ridiculous he must look. His relationship with Paloma hadn’t reached the stage when anything goes.
She returned and the ice was applied. His intake of breath was like a rocket launch.
Paloma said, ‘This is what they do for injured footballers. It must be effective because they’re soon on their feet again.’
‘They use some kind of spray.’
‘I know, and these are packs of frozen peas, but you have to settle for what you can get. Same principle. If you were a millionaire footballer you’d have a medic and the spray, but you’re not, so you’ve got me and Captain Birdseye. Is it helping?’ ‘It’s going numb.’
‘Good.’
‘I don’t like to think what the hot part will be.’
‘Wet flannels heated in the microwave. Take it from me, you wouldn’t get better treatment if you flew first class to America.’
‘If I was flying first class to America, I wouldn’t be half naked on the floor.’
‘You’d get a massage if you wanted. Really. It’s part of the service.’
‘I’ll take your word for that.’
Paloma frequently made business trips to Los Angeles to advise on period costume designs for films. She was known to all the production companies out there. It was a mystery to Diamond why a high-earning professional was interested in an overweight Bath policeman who travelled in the tourist section if he ever had a holiday abroad.
She went to collect the flannels.
He wriggled a little on the cushions. The ice had definitely helped and he told Paloma when she came back. Then the first hot flannel was applied and he gave a fair imitation of a peacock screeching.
She said, ‘I hope there was a payoff for this. Did you get something out of the session on the treadmill as well as a stiff back?’
‘Less than I hoped for. I’m looking for witnesses. The Lansdown Society members spend a lot of time there keeping an eye on things, but they seem to miss all the violence.’
‘What’s the object of this society?’
‘To keep the place peaceful and unspoilt.’
‘They don’t seem much good at it if a man was attacked twice and murdered.’
‘I’m beginning to think it’s more about giving the members a sense of importance than making a difference. Let’s face it, Lansdown has never been all that peaceful. I wouldn’t mind betting the Iron Age saw plenty of brutality.’
‘Human sacrifice, according to something I saw on TV.’
‘There you go. Then we know about the Civil War battle, upwards of ten thousand men fighting it out with muskets and artillery. They reckon several hundred were killed, mainly on the royalist side. And in World War Two, the fighter planes were taking off from Charmy Down airfield. Bath had its share of the bombing.’ He was breathing more easily. ‘That feels better after the first shock.’
‘Good. I’d better apply the ice again.’
‘Are you sure you’re not enjoying yourself?’
‘This is the treatment, Peter. By alternating the heat and cold, we stimulate the blood and accelerate the healing. I can tell you something else about violence on Lansdown.’
‘You lie in wait up there and attack middle-aged men with frozen peas and hot flannels?’
She laughed. ‘Don’t tempt me. If you want to know, for centuries there was a fair up there every August. I happen to know about this because of a scene I dressed for a movie. I researched country fairs and found out that Lansdown was one of the biggest. It must have been a marvellous annual treat for the local people.’
‘Better than a car boot sale, I reckon.’
‘I suppose they were the historical equivalent. Trading was done, mainly of cattle, sheep and horses, but the showmen came too, with what we think of as fairground rides, and also fire-eaters, dwarfs, giants, bearded ladies, fortune-tellers, bare-knuckle fighters. Imagine what it was like for country people used to the dull routine of caring for crops and livestock.’
‘I liked fairs as a kid,’ Diamond said. ‘They brightened up our lives.’
‘But as children we were treated to any number of amusements like carnivals and fetes, holidays, cinema, television and pop music. In the times I’m talking about this was the one event of the year.’
‘And it came to Lansdown?’
‘I’ve got a book upstairs by Lord George Sanger called
