The Snow Tiger / Night of Error. Desmond Bagley

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СКАЧАТЬ Zealand Division and I didn’t see him to recognize until he came back in 1943 when I was four years old. My mother wanted him to stay – a lot of the men who came back in ‘43 refused to return to active service – and there was a bit of a quarrel between him and my mother. In the end it was academic because he was killed in the avalanche here. I saw it happen – and that’s all I got to know of my father.’

      ‘Not a lot.’

      ‘No. It hit my mother hard and she turned a bit peculiar. Not that she went round the bend or anything like that. Just peculiar.’

      ‘Neurotic?’

      ‘I suppose you could call it that.’

      ‘What form did it take?’

      Ballard stared past the whirling snowflakes eddying in the wind beyond the open garage doors. ‘I think you could say she became over-protective as far as I was concerned.’

      ‘Was that what Charlie meant when he said she wouldn’t let you out in the snow for fear you’d catch cold?’

      ‘Something like that.’

      ‘He made another crack about you wouldn’t go on a slope steeper than a billiard table.’

      Ballard sighed. ‘That was it. It was made worse because my mother was the schoolteacher here. She tried to run the farm herself but she couldn’t, so she sold off most of the land to old Peterson, just keeping the bit the house was on. To earn a living she took the job of schoolmistress. She was qualified for it. But there I was – in the middle. Over-protected and regarded as a teacher’s pet into the bargain.’

      ‘“Don’t go near the water until you learn how to swim,”’ quoted McGill.

      ‘You don’t know how true that was, Mike.’ There was an edge of bitterness in Ballard’s voice. ‘Like all kids everywhere we had our swimming hole over by the bluff behind the Petersons’ store. All the kids could swim well except me – all I could do was dog-paddle in the shallows and if my mother had known about that she’d have given me hell.’

      He took out a packet of cigarettes and offered one to McGill who produced a lighter. Inhaling smoke, he said, ‘I was twelve when it happened. It was in the spring and Alec Peterson and I were down by the river. Alec was the fourth of the Peterson brothers. There was a lot of melt water coming down from the mountains – the river was full and flowing fast and the water was bloody cold, but you know what kids are. I dipped in and out of the shallows – more out than in – but Alec went farther out. He was tough for a ten-year-old, and a strong swimmer.’

      ‘Don’t tell me,’ said McGill. ‘He got into trouble.’

      ‘I think he got cramp,’ said Ballard. ‘Anyway, he let out a yell as he was swept out into the main stream. I knew I wouldn’t have a hope in hell of getting him out, but I knew that river. It swirled around the bluff and on the other side there was an eddy where anything floating usually came ashore. It was common knowledge among the kids that it was a good place to collect firewood. So I belted across the bluff, past the Peterson store as fast as I could run.’

      He drew on the cigarette in a long inhalation. ‘I was right. Alec came inshore and I was able to wade in and grab him. But on his way around the bluff he’d bashed his head on a rock. His skull was cracked and his brains were leaking out and he was stone dead.’

      McGill blew out his breath. ‘Nasty! But I don’t see how you could be blamed for anything.’

      ‘Don’t you? Well, I’ll tell you. Two other people heard Alec when he yelled but they were too far away to do anything. And they saw me running like hell. Afterwards they said they’d seen me running away and leaving Alec. The two witnesses were Alec’s brothers – Charlie and Eric.’

      McGill whistled. ‘Now I’m beginning to see.’

      ‘They made my life a misery for the next four years. I went through hell, Mike. It wasn’t just the Petersons – they set all the other kids against me. Those were the loneliest years I’ve ever spent. I think I’d have gone nuts if it hadn’t been for Turi’s son Tawhaki.’

      ‘It must have been tough.’

      Ballard nodded. ‘Anyway, when I was sixteen years old Ben appeared in the valley as though he’d dropped from the sky. That was when the preliminary exploration was made for the mine. He listened to the local gossip, took one look at me and another at my mother, and then they had a flaming row. He beat her down, of course; very few people could withstand Ben. The upshot of it was that I went back to England with him.’

      ‘And your mother?’

      ‘She stayed on for a few years – until the mine started – then she went back to England, too.’

      ‘And latched on to you again?’

      ‘More or less – but I’d learned the score by then. I’d cut the apron strings.’ Ballard flicked his cigarette butt out into the snow.

      There was a brief silence before McGill said, ‘I still don’t get it. Grown men don’t behave like Charlie’s behaving because of something that happened when they were kids.’

      ‘You don’t know Charlie,’ said Ballard. ‘John’s all right and, apart from what he believes about the mine, so is Eric. But for one thing, Charlie and Alec were very close – Alec was Charlie’s twin. And for another, while you can’t call Charlie retarded, he’s never really grown up – he’s never matured. Only last night you said he sounded like a schoolboy.’

      ‘Yeah.’ McGill stroked the side of his cheek. He had not shaved and it made a scratching sound. ‘Anyway, I’m glad you told me. It makes things a lot clearer.’

      ‘But there’s nothing much any of us can do about it.’ Ballard prodded at the starter again and the engine caught with a steady throb. ‘Let’s go up to the Gap.’

      He drove into town, and as they were passing the Supermarket, McGill pointed to a car just pulling out. ‘Looks as though he’s leaving, too.’

      ‘That’s John Peterson.’ Ballard accelerated to get ahead and then waved Peterson down.

      As Peterson drew alongside McGill wound down the side window. ‘Going far, Mr Peterson?’

      John said, ‘I’ve an early business appointment in Christchurch tomorrow, so I thought I’d leave early and get in a couple of rounds of golf there today.’ He laughed as he waved at the snow. ‘Not much chance of golf here, is there?’

      ‘You may be disappointed,’ said McGill. ‘Our information is that the Gap is blocked.’

      ‘Blocked? Impossible!’

      ‘We’re just going to have a look. Maybe you’d like to tag along behind.’

      ‘All right. But I think you’ll find yourself mistaken.’

      McGill closed the window. ‘As the White Queen said – I can think of six impossible things before breakfast. Carry on, Ian.’

      They drove up the road that rose towards the Gap and which paralleled the river. As the headlights’ beam swept across the ravine which the river had cut СКАЧАТЬ