o
were supposed to have been printed by the Germans to upset our economy.’
Cooper frowned. ‘What has this got to do with anything?’
‘Listen to me. When 1 first went up to the crash with Ted, we heard two of the airmen talking to each other. They were talking in a foreign language. So we knew they were German.’
‘No, it would have been the two Poles you heard,’ said Cooper. ‘It was Zygmunt Lukasz and Klcmens Wach. They were speaking Polish.’
‘I know that now.’ said Malkin, alreadv starting to get irritated.
‘ ‘ v C* O
‘That’s why we stayed away from the crew, you see. Not that we would have known what to do if we’d found anyone injured. We were going to find a phone and call the police, but then we saw the
4- 12
bags that had been thrown clear of the wreckage. Ted stopped to take a look inside. And we found the money/
Malkin paused. He looked across the moor towards the side of Rlackbrook Reservoir and opened a Held gate in the drystone wall before he continued.
‘Ted said there were millions of pounds. It took us days to count the notes, but there wasn’t that much. We could barely carry the bags between us. I was only little, remember, and I soon got tired. We planned to hide them before we called the police. We reckoned everyone would think the bags had been thrown
V O
into the reservoir in the crash, because there were plenty of other bits of the aircraft lying all around the edge of the water.’
‘I understand all that,’ said Cooper. ‘So what went wrong?’
Malkin still stared at the reservoir. ‘We saw the light,’ he said. ‘Out on the ice.’
‘A light?’
‘It was way out in the darkness, and we knew it was in a place no human being could possibly be. It was as if the light was floating in mid-air. You get daft ideas at times like that, but the first thing we thought of was the spirits that are supposed to be on the moor. We thought of ghosts. Even Ted was a bit scared, I think.’
Malkin seemed almost to be reverting back to his childhood as he spoke. Cooper could picture him as the excited, terrified little boy, in awe of his older bother. It wasn’t all that hard to imagine how the young George Malkin must have felt. There had been times in his own past when Cooper had become almost sick with excitement at some adventure that Matt had got him into.
‘And then we heard a voice calling for help,’ said Malkin. ‘It was weak, and there was a funny echo to it. We stood and watched the light moving, and we knew it must be one of the crew from the
o o’
crashed plane. But we didn’t think he could be alive at first. We thought it was his ghost, just a light and a voice. He was calling for help in English, but we weren’t fooled. We’d heard them speaking in their own language, so we knew they were German.’
Cooper closed his eyes. ‘They were Polish,’ he said.
But Malkin didn’t hear him. He was far away, re-living a moment that was permanently etched in his memory. Fiftyseven years had done nothing to weaken his recollection. He
+ 13
was talking now as if it didn’t matter whether Cooper were there or not.
‘Then Ted said the airman must he near the edge of the reservoir. He said the dam wall was behind him, Because we could hear the echo when he shouted. So we watched the light lor a little while longer. I’ve never felt so cold in my life, hut part of that was the fear. I knew if we waited much longer, 1 wouldn’t he ahle to carry the hag any further. 1 started to look round for somewhere to hide it, hut there was nowhere near. There was only snow. And then Ted said: “He’s on the ice.”’
‘The reservoir was frozen over, wasn’t it?’ said Cooper.
‘At that far side, it was. The airman was walking across the ice, follow ing the dam wall.’ Malkin paused. ‘I was worrying ahout the money. The man on the ice was the one thing that seemed to stand hetwccn the money and us. He would know it was missing. I said we should put the hags hack, hut Ted told me not to he stupid. I said the airman would reach the water hoard road, that he would he ahle to walk to the phone hox half a mile away. But led said: “He won’t reach the road.”’
Cooper opened his mouth to ask a question, hut changed his mind. It would he a mistake to interrupt now. The story was approaching a conclusion. He could feel it in Malkin’s increasing tension, see it in the lines around his mouth, a tightening rictus of (ear. Cooper could tell he had memorized every word that had been spoken as the two brothers stood clutching the leather hags, listening to a voice calling for help.
‘And then ve both heard it the cracking,’ said Malkin. ‘It was clear in the night air, and it sounded so loud. It was like the sound of two pieces of metal being tapped against each other, and a little crunch of something breaking. Then the light disappeared. One second it was there, then it was gone. There was no shout or cry from him, not even a splash of water. Maybe a reflection of the flames on a piece of ice as it tilted on the surface. But then the ice fell back, and he was gone.’
Cooper shuddered, imagining the shock of icy water closing over his head. McTeague would have been dressed in heavy flying boots and a parachute harness. Trapped under a layer of ice, he would have been dead within seconds.
414
Now Irontongue had disappeared in the mist, which was rapidly approaching across the moor, racing towards Hollow Shaw, turning the air heavy with the expectation of rain. Cooper could feel the dampness on the back of his neck.
“I didn’t understand what had happened,’ said Malkin. ‘Not until later. When we went up and looked at the reservoir next morning, I saw it was only on the east side that the water was frozen enough to walk on. It had a covering of snow, so it wouldn’t have felt any different to a piece of level ground to a man in the dark. It’s bloody hard work walking across that moor at any time, let alone in snow and in the dark. There arc doughs everywhere
