Much as he’d anticipated, the conviviality was at an end. High spirits and excited voices had been supplanted by a sense of shock. The guests were huddled in small groups in near silence. Some had their hands to their mouths. Some were actually crying. He could see uniformed police down by the pool.
But something was wrong. Everyone was staring in the same direction, towards the infinity pool.
Now he saw why.
Sally Paris was still at liberty.
She was standing barefoot and precarious at the end of the infinity pool, right on the vanishing edge. She had found a way of stepping along the hidden narrow wall that contained the great mass of the water and she’d ventured as far as it was possible to go. She had her back to everyone and was poised like a high diver above the almost vertical drop.
A suicide bid.
Diamond muttered an apology to Paloma, paused only to point to a bench under a tree, and started running down the slope of the lawn, asking himself how this had been allowed to happen. Why had nobody stopped her?
She must have started her perilous walk along the edge before the police arrived: the only explanation. Her guests had no reason to think she was a fugitive from the law. If the lady of the house chose to perform a balancing act on the tiled side of her own pool, who were they to stop her?
The first familiar face he spotted in the crowd was Keith Halliwell’s, creased in concern, sweaty, dusty and red-eyed, but so good to see.
‘Sorry, guv. We took longer than I said. When we finally got to the top she was already out there.’
‘Is she saying anything?’
‘Not much at all. Soon as anyone starts to move towards her, she turns her head and threatens to jump.’
‘What’s the other side?’
‘Immediately below her? A wall. If she goes over where she’s standing, she’s likely to break her spine on the rim of the catch basin. If she misses, she’ll fall another hundred feet down the slope we came up, easily.’
The sense of helplessness at the poolside was overwhelming.
Ed Paris was there, hands cupped to his mouth, appealing to his wife to come back.
She appeared indifferent. Actually she presented an amazing image. The artifice of the infinity pool suggested she was standing on water with her own reflection crystal clear beneath her.
‘This is sheer bloody lunacy,’ Ed shouted across the pool. ‘What’s got into you, Sally?’
He got no response.
Diamond needed a plan, and fast. He had all his back-up team available. Their reason for being here was to deal with a possible escape bid. In any other capture operation he’d be deploying the men, directing them to close in and make the arrest, but normal strategies wouldn’t work here. Policemen in uniform weren’t just superfluous, they were counter-productive.
Ed bellowed to his wife to see sense.
‘We can’t deal with it in front of this crowd,’ Diamond told Halliwell. ‘Get your men to move everyone away, right back and out of sight inside the house.’
Ed Paris gave another despairing shout. ‘You’ll kill yourself, Sal.’
‘Him, especially,’ Diamond said.
A familiar voice hailed him from behind. ‘Peter, this has got out of hand. Do something for pity’s sake. Lady Sally is my friend.’
Georgina.
This would not go down as the best afternoon of Diamond’s life. Did the twelve labours of Hercules include a lecture from the assistant chief constable? He took a deep breath and said, ‘It’s under control, ma’am.’
‘It doesn’t look like it. What can I do to help?’
‘You?’
‘You heard me. Shall I step along the edge of the pool and speak to her?’
Amazing.
She meant it, too. Behind the officious manner was a brave woman.
‘That’s a fine offer, ma’am, but I can’t allow it. We could lose both of you. There’s something else you can do.’
‘Tell me, then.’
‘Set an example and move up to the house. We’re in the process of clearing the poolside, taking some of the pressure off her.’
‘But can you save her from jumping?’
‘That’s my sincere hope, ma’am.’
Georgina didn’t act as if she was wholly confident, but others were already heeding the call and starting to move off. Sighing and shaking her head, she joined them.
Ed Paris was refusing to leave. John Leaman was with him and made the mistake of grasping his arm. Ed turned on him and all the stress exploded. ‘Don’t you dare bloody touch me.’
Diamond went over. ‘Leave it, John.’ With a tilt of his head he sent Leaman away and stepped closer to the troubled tycoon to speak in confidence. ‘Sir Edward, I’ve been talking to your wife. There’s distressing stuff in her past that made her resort to this, things bottled up from before you ever knew her.’
The already alarmed eyes widened even more. ‘What do you mean?’
‘There isn’t time to explain. She’s obviously at desperation point and she’s not going to be persuaded by anything you can say.’
Ed’s mouth tightened in disbelief, but he didn’t answer.
‘There’s a chance, just a chance, I can get through to her. Will you let me try?’
For a second or two more, Ed wrestled with the suggestion. It must have been obvious to him he wasn’t getting anywhere with Sally himself, but it was like a betrayal to give up. ‘She’s my whole life,’ he blurted out. ‘I couldn’t bear to lose her.’
Diamond wouldn’t give up. Ed, more than anyone, could ruin any chance of talking Sally down. He had to be persuaded to leave. ‘I’m asking everyone — that’s everyone including you — to leave me here to reason with her.’ He added, almost in a whisper, ‘Trust me. I can save her.’
Still the anguished husband lingered.
‘Please.’
‘My God, man, you’d better be right.’ With that Ed turned away and followed the general movement towards the house.
Relieved that something was being done, most people had responded quickly once the police had started issuing instructions.
In the remaining time it took for Diamond to be sure he was alone with Sally, he thought about what he would do to make this succeed. Ed’s words would haunt him for ever if this gamble ended in disaster.
Across the pool, nothing had changed. A faint breeze disturbed Sally’s white dress, but her stance was rigid.
He stripped to his boxers, left his clothes where they fell on the marble flagstones and stepped down the tiled steps into the blue water. Success or failure and nothing between — he was committed now.
The sensation of the cool water on his skin after the heat of the afternoon should have been bracing. He scarcely registered the change, intent on what he needed to do. The depth was a little over four feet. He bent his knees, submerged his back and shoulders and started a silent breaststroke up the centre of the pool.
No heroics. He wouldn’t be grabbing her legs and hoping she tipped backwards. She’d just as likely topple forward.
He swam to within ten feet of her and stopped. The depth was no different at this end, so he was able to stand with head and shoulders clear.
The next stage was steeped in danger, however he handled it. She would already be aware that the conversation behind her had stopped. Hearing his voice unexpectedly might startle her and that could be the end.
He said in little more than a murmur, ‘Sally, it’s all right.’
Plainly she didn’t hear.
He repeated the words, still with scarcely any volume, and her calf muscles twitched.
She didn’t change her stance or turn her back, but she rotated her head as far to the right as possible. It was the briefest of looks before she faced the front again and she couldn’t possibly have seen him. He was way outside her angle of vision. At best she might appreciate that the poolside was deserted now.