‘Not a problem. I’ll write them down if we can find a pen and paper. You should speak to the Sealed Knot people. They know more than I do.’
‘One of my team is with them tonight.’ He took a pen and notebook from his pocket and handed them to Davina. ‘While you’re doing that I’ll get more drinks. Same again, everyone?’
It was a cheap round. Sally and Wilfred said they were leaving for home shortly and Davina had promised to meet her father at the golf club.
Whilst waiting to settle his bill, Diamond found himself thinking about Sir Colin Tipping and things he had said that morning at the golf club when they rode in the cart ahead of Major Swithin. Some part of the conversation was niggling at his brain and he couldn’t grasp the relevance.
‘Are you a vet, sir?’ the barman asked.
‘God, no.’ He was still struggling to remember.
‘My mistake. Saw you with the others.’
‘No problem. I’m sure you get all sorts up here: golfers, race-goers, ramblers.’
‘The world and his wife, sir.’
Then the connection was made. He realised what he’d missed when scrolling through Ingeborg’s calendar of events. Now it was vital that he spoke to Davina’s father.
He was about to impose even more on Davina’s good nature – and Paloma’s. The opportunity had to be seized. The chance of an off-the-record chat with Sir Colin was too good to miss.
‘I don’t know if you’ll get any sense out of him,’ Davina said when he told her what he wanted. ‘He’ll have sunk a few whiskies by now. My job on a Friday night is to get him home.’
All the better if the whisky is talking, Diamond thought.
‘Not the evening you expected, was it?’ he said to Paloma as they walked to their cars.
‘I had my suspicions, if you remember,’ she said.
‘And you were right.’
She smiled. ‘I’m going to leave you with your horsey friends. You’ll do better on your own at this stage – unless you want me to call reinforcements.’
‘Send for the cavalry?’ He grinned. ‘I don’t think.’
They embraced and he promised to make it up to her.
In the car, he picked up his disregarded mobile phone and gazed at it in his palm. What was the hour now? If he knew which buttons to press, the thing could tell him. No doubt it could supply the latest cricket scores and the state of the pound against the dollar. All he used it for was to make the occasional phone call. Ingeborg was about to rue the day she had set up the menu for him and put her own number in the directory. Wherever she was, he reasoned, she should be capable of answering. Her evening training session would be well over.
‘Inge? It’s me – Diamond.’
‘I know, guv. You’re on my display.’
He had no desire to be on anyone’s display.
‘I can always tell who’s calling,’ she said.
‘Right, and it’s late.’
‘Must be important, I guess.’
He could hear a background buzz of voices and canned music. ‘Are you in company?’
‘Sure. Guess who I met at the drill.’
He didn’t have time for guessing games. ‘I was looking at that list of events on Lansdown, the one you compiled for Keith.’
‘Not only for him,’ she said. ‘It’s for everyone to use.’
‘Do you happen to remember working on July to August, 1993, the time we know for certain Nadia was in Bath?’
‘Now you’re asking. I just plodded through the years. At the time I didn’t know 1993 or any other year was important. I simply went through the Bath Chronicle jotting down anything I found.’
‘Mainly headlines?’
‘They were only meant to be a quick reference.’
‘Fine – like the re-enactment, which is on the list, both days, among lots of other stuff.’
‘Don’t ask me, guv. It’s a blur now.’ Her tone of voice told him she was having a good time and wanted to be shot of this call.
‘But I am asking. On one of the days, not long after the battle, you made a note that went “Hang-glider stolen”.’
‘Did I?’
She wasn’t usually this vague. He could picture her shrugging and smiling at her friends in the bar. ‘Are you listening, Inge? What I need to know – and it’s important – is if you meant a hang-glider as such, or the racehorse with the same name? At some point – and it could have been 1993 – a young stallion called Hang-glider belonging to Sir Colin Tipping was driven away and never seen again – like Shergar.’
‘Like what?’
‘Never mind.’ The kidnapping of Shergar must have happened before she was born. ‘A hang-glider or a horse?’
‘You’ve got me there,’ she said. ‘The horse that went missing made big news for some days, but offhand I couldn’t tell you its name or which year it was. I can check and call you back.’
‘There isn’t time. I’ll be with Tipping directly.’
‘Put it this way, guv. I have mental pictures of most of these incidents, but I can’t remember anyone nicking a hang-glider. I’m ninety per cent sure it must be the horse.’
‘I’ll go with that,’ he said.
He had to. Davina was getting into a sports car close by. The roar of her engine rattled the keys in Diamond’s car. He threw down the phone, started up and followed her the short distance up the road to the front of the club house.
‘I can’t say what state Fa will be in,’ she called as they both got out of their vehicles. ‘It’s my job to collect him so that he isn’t breathalysed. He used to collect me from parties when I was a kid, so I suppose I owe him this. Are you coming in?’
‘I’d rather see him apart from his friends when he comes out.’
‘Give me time to root him out, then.’
The notion of the golf club members being collected like kids after a party amused him, particularly when he saw two other women drive up and go inside. A couple of taxis were waiting as well.
Then a group of four emerged from the club house in loud conversation and he saw that Davina had accomplished her mission. Sir Colin looked reasonably steady on his feet. The others were Major Reggie Swithin and his wife, Agnes, the redoubtable woman Diamond had met at the pike drill. The noise was coming mainly from the major. ‘The night is young and I know of several excellent hostelries in the city,’ he was saying. ‘Where’s your spirit of adventure?’
‘You’ve had all the spirit you’re getting,’ his wife told him. ‘Come along, Reggie. Time to go home.’
There were more protests, but it became obvious that Agnes would get her way. She steered the major to their Land Rover, leaving Sir Colin and Davina in conversation near the entrance. Sir Colin looked across the car roofs to where Diamond was waiting. It didn’t take detective work to deduce what was being said.
Diamond went over. ‘Just happened to meet Davina in the Blathwayt,’ he said. ‘She mentioned she was driving you home and there was something I forgot to ask when we spoke before.’
‘My daughter’s hand in marriage?’ Sir Colin said, straight into his music hall routine. ‘So what are your prospects, young man?’
‘Fa, that’ll do,’ Davina said. ‘Mr Diamond doesn’t have time for fun and games.’
‘I don’t know about the “Mr”. He’s not what you take him for.’ ‘It’s all right. He told me he’s a policeman.’
‘Policeman, be blowed. He’s the genie of the golf course. You never know when he’s going to appear, but instead of granting your wishes he asks questions.’
‘Fa, that’s his job.’
‘Don’t I know it? He put me through the third degree the other day and ruined my chance of a decent round. Well, superintendent, what did you forget to ask?’
‘You told me about the horse that went missing.’
‘Hang-glider. Don’t remind me. I get tearful.’
‘Was that in August, 1993?’