Scarcely believing what he was hearing, Diamond said, “Maybe you’re not aware there was a fatal accident up the road.”
“Of course I am. I couldn’t help hearing it, but an emergency is an emergency. Your job is to get here as soon as possible.”
Everyone had their own ideas on Diamond’s job this morning. “Could I have your name and address?”
“Don’t you know already?”
“When an emergency call is received, we’re more concerned with the situation and where it’s happening than who the informant is.”
“And now you want to know? Heaven help us. Well, I’m Cedric Bellerby and it’s obvious where I live, in Beckford Gardens.”
“Which number, Mr. Bellerby?”
“Bellerby Lodge, the one with the flagpole. Where are you speaking from? You can probably see it from where you are.”
He spotted the Union Jack fluttering high above the rooftops towards the Hampton Row end. He must have walked past without noticing. A fine detective he was.
“I can now. As you’re at home, we’ll come and see you.”
“Now that the horse has bolted.”
Diamond acted as if he hadn’t heard. In his time he’d locked horns with bigger beasts than Cedric Bellerby. “Be with you in two or three minutes and if you can run to a coffee-or three-we’ll be grateful. It’s been one of those mornings.” He ended the call before there was any comeback.
So all three arrived on the doorstep of Bellerby Lodge, a modest-sized bungalow considering its owner’s air of importance. When the man appeared, he, also, was modest-sized except for a black moustache you could have fitted to the hose of a vacuum cleaner. He looked the visitors up and down before allowing them in.
The interesting thing about the front room was two pairs of binoculars on the windowsill. Otherwise it was the conventional three-piece suite, bookcase, TV and fitted carpet. “You said something about coffee,” their host told them, “but this won’t take more than a couple of minutes if all you want to hear about is the degenerate with no clothes. He’s long since made his escape.”
“We’ll have the coffee first, then,” Diamond said cheerfully. “Mine is white with two sugars and the others like it black without.”
Outfoxed, Bellerby sighed, shook his head and disappeared to the kitchen. Diamond immediately picked up a pair of binoculars and tried them. They weren’t cheap goods. He trained them on the site of the collision more than a hundred yards away and got a sharp image of Dessie, clipboard in hand, taking paces across the road.
He passed the glasses to Ingeborg to have a try. She held them to her eyes for a few seconds before handing them to Halliwell.
The sound of a throat being cleared heralded Bellerby’s arrival with the tray.
“Put them down, Keith,” Diamond said. To Bellerby he added, “He can’t keep his hands to himself. Always fidgeting with things. Are you a birdwatcher, sir?”
“I have them for the magnificent view.”
“Of your neighbours?”
He screwed up his face in disapproval. “The valley, from the back of the house.”
“But you keep them here, on the windowsill?”
“Not usually. I was observing the goings-on after the car crash.”
“And did you see the naked man through the binoculars?”
“That was earlier.”
“Before dawn?”
“I’m an early riser.”
The coffee was handed round. Halliwell had replaced the binoculars on the windowsill.
“Your 999 call was timed at six-fourteen,” Diamond said. “Not much light, was there?”
“One set of glasses is for night vision.”
“Really? What do you study after dark?”
“Wildlife mostly. Foxes, badgers, deer.”
“And naked men?”
Bellerby glared back. “It’s never happened before. That’s why it was such a shock.”
“Take us back to when you first caught sight of this offensive spectacle. Where were you-in here?”
“The back bedroom.”
“With the wonderful view?”
“Yes.”
“May we see?”
He clicked his tongue. “I thought this was just routine, following up on my call.”
“We’re investigating what you saw, Mr. Bellerby, and what happened after. Do you live alone?”
“What’s that got to do with it?”
“If there’s a lady in the back bedroom, she may not welcome three strangers coming in.”
“My wife and I separated years ago.”
Diamond thought of a comment but chose not to make it. “That’s all right, then. Lead the way, would you? We won’t spill our coffee on the carpet.”
Bellerby tried to make a stand. “I don’t see the need.”
“But I do. We want to know all about this emergency.” He took a couple of steps towards the doorway and there was a momentary stand-off. “Don’t even think about obstructing us. It won’t go down well.”
The moustache twitched but its owner backed down, as Diamond had calculated. They were led into a room that may have been built as a bedroom but had no bed. It was better described as an observatory. In front of a large picture window were two cameras on tripods and a telescope mounted on a revolving dais with a seat that also rotated, like a gun position on a warship.
“Well equipped.”
“It’s my hobby.”
Diamond stepped up to the window and the view was every bit as spectacular as Bellerby had claimed. The houses along here had been built at the top of the escarpment overlooking the river and with the naked eye you could see much of northern Bath, the tiers of crescents rising to the dark green of Lansdown on the opposite side.
“Stunning. You had an eye to the location when you moved here.”
“It was a factor, yes.”
“And you didn’t expect to look out on a buck-naked man? Neither would I. Very off-putting. Where was he when you first spotted him?”
“Down there to your right,” Bellerby said after some hesitation.
“Down where?”
He pointed.
“The Georgian lido?” You wouldn’t have guessed Diamond spoke with the authority of a man who had been reminded of its existence less than an hour ago. “They’re spending millions of lottery money refurbishing it, aren’t they? It will surely become a tourist attraction-the oldest open-air swimming pool in Britain, I was told. I daresay the naked man had sneaked in for an early morning dip.”
Bellerby said nothing.
“Rather him than me,” Diamond went on. “Too damn cold this time of year. Crazy people do it all the year round. I worked in London years ago and they used to break the ice on the Serpentine to have their daily swim. Is he one of your neighbours?”
“I’ve no idea,” Bellerby said, tight-lipped.
“You’d know if he was. With that powerful telescope you must have got a good sight of him and all his particulars.”
“I wasn’t using the telescope at the time.”
“I forgot. You had the night-vision binoculars. The image wouldn’t have been so sharp. Have you seen him before-or any other secret bathers?”
“No.”
“Still, it could become a regular thing. You don’t want that sort of how-d’ye-do going on in this beautiful valley. Is there local opposition to what’s happening to the old lido?”
After a long pause, as if aware he was being drawn into dangerous territory, Bellerby said, “Some of us aren’t overjoyed.”
“I’m with you there,” Diamond said. “Trippers, people hiring the place for parties, booze, loud music and God knows what else going on in your own back yard. It’s sure to be a pain. But if you try and stop it now, you’re up against the great and the good of the city. There’s a trust and all this money being invested.”
Bellerby started backtracking. “I don’t know why you’re making an issue of this.”
“Because I need to understand why a naked man was a full-blown emergency. Some people might treat him as a laugh, or at worst a blot on the landscape. You called 999 and asked for the police.”