‘A terrible experience,’ said Stenning.
They were standing at the desk in the hotel waiting for the receptionist to finish telephoning. ‘Where is Ian?’ asked Stenning.
‘Gone off somewhere with Liz,’ McGill smiled. ‘Have you come up with an answer to the question I asked? What happens if Ian marries her?’
Stenning shook his head. ‘That will take a great deal of thought.’
The receptionist came off the telephone and took keys from a board. ‘Mr Stenning. Dr McGill. There’s a letter for you, Dr McGill.’
‘Thank you.’ McGill tossed the letter lightly in his hand. ‘Care to join me in a drink?’
‘I think not,’ said Stenning. ‘I think I’ll take a short nap.’
Stenning went to his room and McGill went into the bar. He ordered a drink and then opened the letter. As he unfolded the sheets a cheque slipped out and fluttered to the bar counter. He picked it up, glanced at it, and his eyes widened as he saw the amount it was made out for. He laid down the cheque and his brows drew together as he read the first page of the letter. He flipped over the sheet and read absorbedly, the drink untasted at his elbow. He arrived at the final page then, turning back to the beginning, he read it all through again. Then he sat on the bar stool and looked ahead of him broodingly, which unnerved the bar-tender who happened to be at the focus of his blank stare.
‘Anything wrong with your drink, sir?’
‘What?’ McGill roused himself. ‘No, give me another — and make it a double.’ He picked up the glass and swallowed the neat scotch in one gulp.
When Ballard arrived McGill was waiting for him and steered him into the bar. McGill crooked his finger at the bar-tender. ‘Two more doubles. We’re celebrating, Ian.’
‘What’s there to celebrate?’
‘Guess what I’ve got in my pocket?’
‘How could I possibly guess?’ Ballard looked at McGill closely. ‘Mike, are you drunk? You look like a boiled owl.’
‘In my pocket,’ said McGill seriously. ‘In my pocket I have a steamroller. It arrived air mail from Los Angeles.’ He took the letter from his breast pocket and waved it under Ballard’s nose. ‘Read it, my friend. Read it and weep. I don’t feel like cheering even though it’s the saving of you.’
‘I think you are drunk.’ Ballard took the envelope and opened it. He glanced at the cheque and said, ‘What the hell is this? A bribe?’
‘Read,’ urged McGill.
Ballard started to read the first page and then, frowning, glanced at the bottom of the last page to find that the letter was from the American, Miller. Its contents were appalling.
‘Dear Dr McGill,
‘I have been wanting to write this letter for a long time but I have been putting it off because I guess I was scared. What happened has been on my conscience ever since the avalanche which caused so many deaths, including that of my good friend, Ralph Newman. A friend sent me newspaper clips about the inquiry into the Hukahoronui disaster. On reading the clips I relived that terrible experience and I know I have to speak up. I am having this letter notarized so that it may be used in evidence if you think it necessary, but I send it to you in the hope that you will not think it necessary. I leave it to your good judgment.
‘Early on the morning of that dreadful Sunday I went skiing with Charlie Peterson. There was a mist in the valley but he said there would be sun on the higher slopes. I was a bit nervous because I had heard talk of avalanches at the hotel, but Charlie laughed at me and said that someone was pulling my leg. We went up into the hills at the head of the valley and did some skiing but the slopes were not very good there, and Charlie suggested that we go to the slopes nearer Hukahoronui. This we did.
‘We finally arrived at the top of the west slope above the town and we saw a sign there saying that no skiing was allowed. I wanted to turn around and go another way, but Charlie said the land was Peterson land and that no one could stop him from doing what he wanted on his own land. He said all this talk of avalanches was nonsense and there had never been one in Hukahoronui. He laughed when he said the sign had been put up by boy scouts and it was just about their mark.
‘We had quite an argument up there on the mountain. I said the scouts must have been told to put the sign there and I guessed it was you who had told them. I said that maybe you were right about the danger of an avalanche. Charlie just stood there laughing and there was something funny about him right at that time. He said that an avalanche might be a good thing and anything that could get rid of Mr Ballard couldn’t be all bad.
‘He went on about Ballard for quite a while, a lot of real wild talk. He said that Ballard had killed his brother and stolen the mine from his father and that it was about time someone stopped him from stealing the whole of Hukahoronui. He ranted on like this for maybe five minutes, then he said the mine wouldn’t do Ballard much good if it wasn’t there.
‘I told him he was talking crazy and asked him how he could make a whole gold mine disappear. Suddenly he shouted, “I’ll show you!” and took off down the hill. He wasn’t going very fast and he kept jumping up and down very heavily. I went after him to try to stop him, but suddenly there was a crackling noise like French fries in the pan and Charlie gave a shout. I stopped and saw him jumping sideways up the hill.
‘Nothing seemed to happen at first and then I saw the snow cracking where Charlie had been. A lot of cracks zigzagged very fast and a bit of snow went up into the air. Then the slide started. Charlie and I were safe because we were above the fall. We just stood there and watched it happen and I’ve never seen a more awful sight.
We watched it go down into the mist over the town and I started to cry. I’m not ashamed of that. Charlie shook me and said I was a crybaby. He said to keep my mouth shut. He said if I told anybody about it he would kill me. I believed him when he said that — he was crazy enough for anything.
‘I asked him what we were going to do and he said we were going into town to see what had happened. He said it was just a lot of feathery stuff that had gone and it had probably just given the people a good scare, though he hoped it had done for the mine. He laughed as he said that. So we went into the town and saw the dreadful thing that had happened.
‘Then Charlie threatened me again. He said that if I as much as blinked an eyelid in his direction the world would not be big enough; he would search me out and find me wherever I was.
‘As God is my witness this is the truth of what happened that Sunday morning. I am deeply ashamed of my silence and I hope this letter will go towards making amends. I suppose there will be a public fund for the families of the victims because there usually is. I enclose a check for $10,000. This is nearly all my savings and I cannot afford more.’
Ballard looked up. ‘For God’s sake!’
‘It’s like holding an unexploded bomb, isn’t it?’
‘But we can’t use this.’
‘Why not? Stenning would just love you.’
‘To hell with Stenning. I wouldn’t do that to anybody. Besides...’
His voice tailed away, and McGill said, ‘Lover’s Lane must run straight and narrow? Ian, you have the Ballard Trust right in the palm of your hand.’
Ballard stared at the drink in front of him. He put his hand out, but only to push it away in a rejecting gesture. He turned to McGill. ‘Mike, tell me something and tell me honestly. Before the avalanche we were making every preparation possible. We expected an avalanche, didn’t we? Does this really make any difference?’ He tapped for emphasis on the bar counter and, as the bar-tender came running, he shook his head violently in negation. ‘You exonerated the pilot of that plane — you said the snow was ready to come down. Do you still believe that?’