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 café.’
‘Did you meet anyone coming down? Down the ridge towards Llanberis?’
‘No, I didn’t. But if they were quick they mighthave 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 café, 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 hismouth 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
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 café.’
‘Did you meet anyone coming down? Down the ridge towards Llanberis?’
‘No, I didn’t. But if they were quick they mighthave 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 café, 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 hismouth 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
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