Читать книгу The Snow Tiger / Night of Error - Desmond Bagley, Desmond Bagley - Страница 20
ОглавлениеIan Ballard swam another length of the pool and then climbed out. He walked to the canvas chair where he had left his towel and began to rub himself down. It was good to relax after spending all day at the Inquiry. He poured himself a beer and checked his watch before slipping it on to his wrist.
Mike McGill came sauntering across the lawn and held out an envelope. ‘Business as usual. Old Harrison must have got over his tantrum. This will be your notification to attend; I’ve had mine.’
Ballard opened the envelope. McGill was right; the letter was from Reed, the Secretary to the Commission. He dropped it on the grass next to his chair, and said, ‘So we go on. What comes next in the evidence?’
‘The first avalanche, I suppose.’ McGill grinned and spread a newspaper before Ballard. ‘Eric has got his name in print.’
Ballard looked at the black headline bannered across the front page:
‘IGNORANT BLACK MAN’ JIBE
He shook his head. ‘He’s not going to like that.’
McGill chuckled. ‘Think he’ll come after me with a gun?’
‘Eric won’t – but Charlie might,’ said Ballard soberly. ‘He’s crazy enough to do it.’
McGill laughed and sat down on the grass. ‘Got yourself a lawyer yet?’
‘No.’
‘You’d better start looking.’
‘I’ve discovered I have an unsuspected talent,’ said Ballard. ‘I can defend myself very well.’
‘You did all right with Turi, and you got Lyall to walk out on a limb before you sawed it off. Not bad going for a novice.’
‘Mr Ballard?’ Ballard looked up and saw the young man from the hotel office. ‘A telegram just came. I thought it might be important so I brought it right out.’
‘Thanks.’ Ballard ripped open the envelope. ‘It’s a cablegram from England.’ He scanned it rapidly and frowned. ‘Now why should …?’
‘Trouble?’
‘Not really.’ Ballard handed the cable to McGill. ‘Why should a man suddenly fly half way across the world to see me?’
‘Who is Stenning?’
‘A friend of my grandfather.’ Ballard looked at the pool abstractedly.
McGill began calculating. ‘He says he’s leaving on the night flight. It doesn’t really matter whether he comes east or west, it’s still about forty hours to Auckland. Then he’ll have to catch an internal flight down to here. Say two full days – that means Saturday afternoon.’
‘The Commission won’t sit on Saturday. I’ll meet Stenning at the airport.’
‘You’d better have a message awaiting him at Auckland so you can arrange to meet him here.’
Ballard nodded. ‘Old Ben said something about Stenning the last time I saw him. He said that if anything were to happen to him or the company then I should get in touch with Stenning. Then he said to forget it because Stenning would get in touch with me fast enough. It seems as though he really meant it.’
‘Who is Stenning, apart from being your grandfather’s friend?’
‘He’s a lawyer.’
‘Then he’s arriving just in time,’ said McGill. ‘Just the man you need.’
Ballard shook his head. ‘He’s not the right sort of lawyer. He specializes in taxes.’
‘Oh, one of those boys.’ McGill chuckled. ‘He’s probably come to confess all – that he slipped up on sorting out the death duties bit, and instead of three million from the old man you’re just going to get three thousand.’
Ballard grinned. ‘I’m not going to get three cents. Ben warned me about that. He said that he’d educated me and I’d have to stand on my own two feet as he’d done at my age. I told you that all his money is tied up in some trust or other.’ He stretched. ‘I’m beginning to feel chilly. Let’s go inside.’
‘It’s warmer in the bar,’ agreed McGill.
