so very slowly, as though he’d got no weight at all… And he didn’t kick or lash with his arms; he just fell, and kept on falling. And those cliffs have a terrible echo. I can’t get his cry out of my ears.
‘I heard him strike, but I had turned my head: I couldn’t watch it, it was something obscene. Once, twice, and then he began rolling. He came to rest a few hundred yards from the llyn. But here’s something I didn’t give you in my statement, I was too confused at the time I made it. I remember hearing something before the cry, as though Fleece had first called or shouted at someone.’
Gently looked up from the map, his mind slowly refocusing: out of the riven Welsh sky, away from the rocky cockpit of Snowdon.
‘Did you hear what he shouted?’
‘Yes… I think I did. It was “No-!” — like that, as though he’d seen his danger. I may be rationalizing, of course, so I wouldn’t like to be too certain, but I did hear the sound. It made me start to raise my head.’
‘Where was he when you first saw him?’
‘He was just below the summit. Falling outwards and flattening, as though he’d gone over backwards.’
‘Did you see anyone else up there?’
‘No. I wouldn’t have forgotten that. But then I wasn’t looking for them… my eyes were fixed on something else.’
‘Carry on with your statement.’
Overton lit another cigarette. He drew on it heavily before continuing, driving the smoke through his nostrils.
‘After it happened… it knocked the steam out of me, I came over weak as a child. At the first shock I couldn’t believe it, it was as though I had watched it in a dream. But something had to be done, he might even still have been alive. People have taken tumbles like that and lived to dine out on it afterwards. So I bawled down to the others: I don’t remember what I said: then I kept on going up like a madman to get at the telephone in the cafe.’
‘Did you meet anyone coming down? Down the ridge towards Llanberis?’
‘No, I didn’t. But if they were quick they might have passed before I arrived there. And he was on the railway, too, wasn’t he? The railway is cut in below the track. The first person I saw was Heslington: he was coming round the cafe, eating an apple.’
‘What did he say?’
‘He wanted to know what all the panic was about. I was sweating, you can imagine, and just about winded. When I told him it gave him a shaking, I remember him goggling at me over the apple; I think he went up to take a look while I was breaking open a window. I phoned the police down in Llanberis. They rang the people at Pen-y- Gwryd. Mountain Rescue arrived within the hour and the police about half an hour later. Two of our blokes had worked across to Fleece, but… I don’t have to tell you. You’ve seen the report.’
Overton, with Heslington, had waited at the summit where they were joined at intervals by the others. Heslington had seemed rather quiet and had held back from the conversation. During the interval before the police came they had all gone up to inspect the summit, but according to Overton, who’d been one of the first, they’d found nothing there to account for the tragedy. Nobody, he thought, had gone on to the cairn, nor had anybody lingered about the spot. After some questioning, they’d descended to Llanberis and had given their statements at the police station.
‘What was the impression you formed of the business?’
Gently had folded his arms over the back of the chair; his pipe stuck forgotten from the corner of his mouth and his chin rested squarely on the arms in front of him.
‘You mean at the time?’
‘Yes. Waiting on the summit.’
‘It was confused… an inexplicable accident. When you’ve had such a shock you’re at a loss, you’re not logical. You feel you can’t rely on things making sense.’
‘You knew that Heslington had been up there, didn’t you?’
‘Yes, I did… but I simply didn’t connect it. I know Ray well. I’ve known him for years. I may have thought it would look bad for him, but anything else was too improbable.’
‘Yet you knew he was scarcely a friend of Fleece’s.’
‘Yes, I knew it.’ Overton rocked his shoulders as though to shrug away the imputation. ‘Now it doesn’t matter, so I don’t mind telling you, but they almost came to blows over the Kincaid question. But that didn’t affect the issue. I never doubted Ray for a moment. When he told me he hadn’t seen Fleece it was good enough. I knew he hadn’t.’
‘Though you had heard of the divorce pending?’
‘Divorce? What divorce?’
‘Fleece’s divorce of his wife. Citing Heslington as co-respondent.’
A silence followed. It was difficult to mistake Overton’s look of alarmed incredulity. His cigarette was held stationary, he sat perfectly still on his chair. For several moments he remained dumb, his eyes large and disbelieving, then they tightened and he made a little flicking motion with the cigarette.
‘Now I see where we stand. And I can tell you it makes no difference. I know Ray. If you suspect him, you’re being less intelligent than I thought you.’
‘I understand.’
Gently remembered his pipe; he straightened it out and put a match to it. He gave a side glance to Evans as though inviting him to try a question. The Welshman sat stolidly, however, blowing and drawing at his cheeks, and after a puff or two Gently added:
‘If we can go back to Everest for a moment…’
‘That’s what really counts, isn’t it?’ Overton’s relief was unconcealed. He drew in a grateful lungful of smoke and let it trickle through his lips.
‘I’d like to know if you can remember how that final assault came about. Was it according to your schedule, or was the schedule interrupted?’
Overton nodded. ‘I can guess what you’re driving at there. And the answer is yes. The schedule was definitely interrupted. As we’d planned it, Ray and myself were to have had the first crack at it, with Fleece and Kincaid as the support party if our attempt failed. But the weather looked like breaking up — did, in fact, the next day — and Fleece altered the arrangement so that he and Kincaid went first. He gave his greater experience as the reason. Which was sound enough as far as it went.’
‘I’m angling for impressions again. How did you feel about Fleece’s story?’
‘Well… I felt bound to accept it, though I thought he’d acted irresponsibly. In no circumstances ought he to have let Kincaid continue alone.’
‘What about Kincaid’s version; assuming that to be the true one?’
Overton shrugged. ‘Assuming it’s true, there can be no doubt about that. Fleece was intending to get rid of him. You can call it what you like.’
‘Could they have been separated by accident?’
‘Never. They went off on a rope.’
‘So that if Kincaid released himself, the rope would be left behind with Fleece?’
‘Yes, that follows.’
‘ And did he bring a rope back with him? ’
Overton’s stare was blank for a second, then it snapped into a sudden intelligence as the inference clicked home.
‘My God, no. We were one short. There was one missing the next morning.’
‘And it wasn’t Heslington’s and yours?’
‘It damned well wasn’t. It was Fleece and Kincaid’s.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
It had started to mizzle again as a matter of course; that sunshine had been far too fragile; now it had
