Desmond Bagley - The Snow Tiger / Night of Error

‘Get away with it! God, he compounded with you. He ticked you off when he had to, but he didn’t stop you. I thought I’d split a gusset when he brought out the bit that Crowell had been subpoena’d. He agreed with Rickman and harpooned him in the same breath.’ McGill paused. ‘I don’t think Harrison likes Crowell.’

‘I don’t like him much myself.’

‘You’re not doing yourself much good with your family. That histrionic speech about the company dancing to strings pulled in the City of London won’t go down well with your uncles back home. Where did you learn to pull a trick like that?’

Ballard grinned. ‘Watching the Perry Mason Show.’ He shrugged. ‘It won’t make much difference. I’ve already decided to leave the Ballard Group.’

‘After a speech like that you’ll have to. I can’t see any Ballard company hiring you now. What will you do?’

‘Haven’t made up my mind yet. Something will turn up.’ He frowned. ‘I keep wondering what Stenning wants.’

‘Do you know him at all?’

‘Not well. The old man relied on him a lot, and I know why. He’s a tough old bird, about as ruthless as old Ben was himself. Ben told him what he wanted to do, and Stenning figured out a legal way of doing it. He’s as sharp as a tack.’

‘You say he’s old – how old?’

Ballard reflected. ‘He’ll be pushing seventy now, I suppose. He was much younger than Ben. One of the bright young men that Ben surrounded himself with in the early years.’

‘An old guy of seventy flying half way across the world,’ mused McGill. ‘Could be important, Ian.’

‘I can’t see how.’

McGill looked up. ‘Here comes someone else who is not doing herself much good with her family.’ He stood up. ‘Hi, Liz.’

Liz Peterson put her hand on Ballard’s shoulder. ‘Don’t get up, Ian. Hi, Mike.’

McGill drew up a chair for her and then sat down. He put out his hand and rubbed Liz’s dog behind the ears. ‘Hi, Victor; how’s the boy?’ The Alsatian lolled his tongue and his tail wagged vigorously.

‘I didn’t see you at the hearing this morning,’ said Ballard.

‘I was there. Wouldn’t miss it for anything. It’s just that I wasn’t sitting with the boys. I don’t like Lyall – he gives me the cold grues. Where’s Joe?’

‘Gone back to the hospital. Giving evidence this morning took it out of him.’

Liz tapped on the table. ‘My charming brother, Charlie, manufactures the bullets and Lyall fires them.’ She burlesqued Lyall’s accent. ‘“Did Mr Ballard drink heavily that night?” I damn near cheered when Joe fired that right back. It wounded Charlie to the heart.’

‘You’re not doing yourself much good with them,’ warned Ballard.

‘To hell with both of them,’ she said pleasantly. ‘I only stuck around because of Johnnie, and now he’s dead I’ll be leaving Huka. Maybe I’ll be leaving New Zealand.’

‘A fine pair you are,’ said McGill. ‘Don’t either of you believe in family ties at all?’

‘Not with that pair,’ said Liz. ‘I nearly gave Charlie a heart attack just now. I said that if anyone implied that Ian was drunk just once more I’d offer my services as your witness. I said that I can tell well enough when the man I’m dancing with is drunk, and that Ian wasn’t but that Charlie certainly was.’ She laughed. ‘I’ve never seen a man go red and white at the same time.’

‘I’d be careful, Liz,’ said Ballard soberly. ‘Charlie can be violent.’

‘Don’t I know it! I once had to crown him with a bottle. But I can handle him.’

McGill smiled satirically. ‘So unlike the home life of our own dear Queen,’ he observed.

Ballard said, ‘Thanks for the support, Liz. Ever since the avalanche I’ve been depressed, but now the depression is lifting. I’ve made a couple of decisions and now the way ahead seems a lot clearer. You’ve had a lot to do with it.’

‘I bring more than support, sir – I bring information. Rickman and Lyall are cooking up something together. I was driving past the company office just now when they both came out together, laughing fit to bust.’

‘Watch it, Ian,’ warned McGill. ‘It’ll be a pincer movement.’

‘Thanks, Liz,’ said Ballard.

She looked at her watch. ‘I think I’ll sit with the boys this afternoon. I might learn something more. See you at the hearing.’ She stood up. ‘Come on, Victor.’

As she walked away McGill said, ‘The prettiest spy I ever did see.’ He finished his coffee and looked around for the waitress. ‘We’d better be going, too. By the way, what are these couple of decisions you’ve made?’

‘You’ve heard one – I’m leaving the Ballard Group.’

‘And the other?’

‘I’m getting married,’ said Ballard placidly.

McGill paused, his wallet half way from his breast pocket. ‘Well, congratulations. Who’s the lucky girl?’

Ballard dabbed at his mouth with a napkin. ‘Liz Peterson – if she’ll have me.’

‘You must be insane,’ said McGill. ‘Who’d want Charlie as a brother-in-law?’

MacAllister was an electrical engineer, stolid and given to precise answers. When Harrison asked him when the power lines were cut, he answered, ‘Two minutes and seven seconds to midnight.’

‘How do you know?’ asked Professor Rolandson.

‘There is a recording device on the circuit breakers. When they kicked out the time was recorded.’

Harrison said, ‘What did you do?’

‘Established where the break was.’

From Rolandson: ‘How?’

‘I put a current on the line and measured the resistivity. That gave a rough idea of the distance to the break. I put it as a little short of Hukahoronui.’

‘And then?’

‘I rang my opposite number in Post Office Telephones and asked if he had the same trouble. He had, and he confirmed my findings. I then sent out an inspection crew.’

‘With what result?’

‘They rang me nearly two hours later to say that they had found the trouble. They said it was due to a fall of snow. A Post Office crew was also there and my men had used their portable telephone.’

‘They just said it was due to a fall of snow?’

‘Yes, sir. It didn’t seem reasonable to me that a fall of snow could cut the cables so I asked for further information. The entrance to the valley of Hukahoronui is by a cleft or gap, and my men said the gap was filled with snow to a height farther than they could see in the darkness. I know the place, sir, and I asked if the river which runs out of the valley was still flowing. My man said there was a little flow but not very much. I assumed there would be flooding on the other side of the snowfall so I immediately notified the police.’

‘Very quick-witted of you,’ remarked Harrison. ‘But why the police?’

‘Standard instructions, sir,’ said MacAllister stolidly.

‘Did you take further steps?’

‘Yes, sir. I went to the scene of the break in the cable. It was snowing quite heavily as I set out and conditions became worse as I proceeded. When I arrived at the break it was snowing very heavily – something like a blizzard. On my truck I had a spotlight but there was too much back reflection from the falling snow to show how high the blockage in the Gap was. I also investigated the flow of the river and found it to be minimal. I judged the situation serious enough to telephone the police again.’

‘And what was the reaction from the police?’

‘They noted the facts as I gave them, sir.’

‘Nothing more?’

‘They told me nothing more.’

‘You say you could not tell the height of the blockage. Obviously you could not tell the depth – how far back it extended into the Gap?’