“You must have done half the course by then.”
“Much too fast and I was in a pitiful state. I was thinking I was going to collapse in the tunnel and what he’d do if I was helpless. It preyed on my mind.”
“You were under huge stress.”
Reliving it, she drew a sharp breath and brought her hands together with fingers intertwined. “I decided my only option was to drop out of the race and that’s what happened.”
“Where was this?”
“Before we reached the viaduct at Tucking Mill. You go over that and you’re thirty feet above ground so you can’t escape. We were on a winding footpath in the Midford Valley among trees and bushes. He’d gone a few yards ahead of me. I don’t know why. To ambush me when we reached the tunnel perhaps. Anyway, I took my chance and left the footpath and ran out of sight behind some trees. Two other women in the race saw me and laughed, thinking it was a call of nature, I suppose. Actually I just threw myself down and wept.”
“But you’d got away from him.”
“It was very emotional. I felt some relief, of course, but I was devastated to have given up after all the training.”
“Did you think of joining the race again?”
She shook her head. “I was sure he’d be waiting for me if I did, and probably in the tunnel. I was terrified of going in there. I knew my race was over and I needed to think how I would get home from there. It’s very remote.”
“I know it,” Ingeborg said. “I can’t think how you’d get out of there unless you went back the way you came.”
“You mean the half marathon route? I couldn’t do that, facing all the runners as they came towards me, and their comments. I suppose I could have waited until it was over and they’d all gone past, but it would take a long time, maybe another hour or more, and I was already shivering and I needed to move from where I was. The sides of the valley looked awfully steep.”
“They are.”
“I had a rough idea where I was. If I climbed the slope to my right I’d be going towards Bath. Somewhere up there was Combe Down. That’s what I did. I started up the slope.”
“Rough going, I’m sure.”
“I got scratched, but I wasn’t thinking about that. Every step was taking me away from my tormentor.”
“He didn’t follow you, did he?”
“I couldn’t tell, but the thought of him was driving me. By the time I reached the top, I was spent. I flopped down and tried to recover some strength. All kinds of negative thoughts were running through my head, but now that I’d got away from the man, I was shattered that I’d failed to finish. All those sponsors had trusted me and I’d have to tell them.”
“I’m sure it’s happened before. The sponsors can’t ask for their money back, can they?”
“But I didn’t collapse or anything. I copped out.”
“That isn’t true,” Ingeborg said.
“But it is. Let’s be honest. I ran away. I’m going to have to admit it. Some of my sponsors follow everything on social media and I’ve been giving updates on my training and everything. As soon as the results were announced online they’d look to see where I came and find my name was missing. They’ll believe I took their money by false pretences. How can I announce I quit because of some man who grabbed my butt? I was mortified. I still am.”
“He assaulted you and you’re not the first,” Ingeborg said in a salt-dry tone Diamond knew well, holding back her impatience. “He’s a predator. You were a victim, not a fraud.”
“A fraud is what I feel like.” She was getting breathless again and the tears were ready to flow.
Blatantly heading off more emotion, Ingeborg said, “What happened next? We don’t know where you’ve been since Sunday.”
Belinda’s self-contempt ran deep. “I’m a coward. I wanted to hide from him, from everyone. Like I said, I got to the fields at the top and took off my shirt with the number and hid it. I had another layer underneath. Oh, and I untied the chip from my shoe and threw it away. I was thinking if I disappeared no one would know I’d failed.”
“Did you have your smartphone with you?”
“What’s that got to do with it?”
“Sat nav.”
“I didn’t think of that. It goes with me everywhere. That shows the state I was in.”
“And then?”
“After I’d recovered enough to walk again, I made my way towards Combe Down village and came to a road.”
“That would be Summer Lane.”
“It was, and I saw a car drive by. I plucked up courage and waited for more to come along, hoping I would be able to spot a woman driver and wave her down and ask for a lift into Bath. I didn’t want to be alone with a man, dressed as I was.”
“Did you get lucky?”
“Eventually. A woman in a pale green Fiat. It had to be a woman’s car. There were decals of purple flowers on the bonnet. She was so sweet. I told her I’d dropped out of the race and wanted to get back into town and she drove me straight there.”
“Here, you mean? Spring Gardens Road?”
“No. I couldn’t face being questioned by Mrs. Hector. I asked to be put down outside the Francis Hotel.”
Diamond’s self-imposed silence came to an abrupt end. “The Francis? You went to the Francis?” He couldn’t have been more surprised if she’d been staying all week in his office in Concorde House. The hotel in Queen Square had been a second home to him when CID was based in Bath.
“It was about the only hotel I’ve heard of. I told them I’d been in the half marathon and needed to rest.”
“They took you on as a guest just like that?”
“I offered a deposit using tap and pay on my phone. I looked like a scarecrow, but they were very understanding.”
“You had no luggage.”
“I said I’d be fetching it later. I just needed to rest, which was true.”
“I bet you slept like a baby,” Ingeborg said.
“Not really. I was deeply worried still and my brain was fizzing, but at least I was resting my tired body. Late in the evening I used room service to get a meal and I did the same next day for breakfast.”
“And that was where you were all this time?” Diamond said in exasperation. She could at least have fled to the Outer Hebrides instead of being under his nose. He shuddered to think what they would make of this at the disciplinary hearing he would surely face. “Didn’t you hear we were searching for you?”
“It wasn’t on my phone.”
“I can’t get over this. You stayed all week in the Francis?”
“I went out and bought some clothes and personal items on the Monday morning.”
“Out shopping in Bath?” It was worse.
“I came back here as well.”
“You couldn’t have done. Mrs. Hector would have told us.”
“She wasn’t here. Every Tuesday morning without fail, she meets her friend Ivy in the cafe at Marks and Spencer for what she calls a chinwag, so I knew I could get in and collect a few things without being noticed.”
“I can’t understand why you went to all this trouble, staying hidden.”
Ingeborg said, “She explained, guv. She was going through an emotional crisis. She needed space to sort herself out.”
“I’m sorry,” Belinda said. “I didn’t expect anyone to miss me except Mrs. Hector and I didn’t know she’d go to the police.”
“We went to her.” He reached for the crutches. He’d heard enough.
“This man,” Belinda said, “has he done this sort of thing before?”