On Beulah Height - Reginald Hill 11 стр.

Pascoe smiled and glanced surreptitiously at his watch. Local history was fine, but he had responsibilities in the here and now which wouldnt wait.

Im sorry, Im holding you back, said Mrs Shimmings.

Hed forgotten she was a head teacher with an eye long trained for the tell-tale minutiae of behaviour.

Nothing I can do till my men arrive, he assured her. Please, carry on.

Well, Marion, thats Bennys mother, and old Mrs Lightfoot never really got on. She wasnt a country lass, Saul had met her at a dance in town, and now with him gone, there was nothing to keep her in Dendale. It was no surprise when she got a job in town and took the children off. Benny came back from time to time to see his gran. I gathered he wasnt happy. Not that he spoke much to anyone, he was becoming more and more withdrawn. Then it seems his mother met up with a new man. He moved in. I think that ultimately they got married, but only because theyd decided to emigrate Australia, I think it was and being married made things easier. Benny didnt want to go. The night before they were due to leave, he took off and came to his grans. Marion came looking for him. He refused point-blank to go back with her and old Mrs Lightfoot said he could stay with her. So thats what happened. I daresay there were a great number of other things said that shouldnt have been said. Net result was the family left and Benny settled in at Neb Cottage. As far as I can make out, he dropped right out of school. The truancy officer came round several times, and the Social Services, but at the first sight of anyone vaguely official, indeed anyone he didnt recognize, Benny would take off up the Neb, and in the end they more or less gave up, though Im sure they found some face-saving formula to regularize the situation.

How do you regularize truancy? wondered Pascoe.

You dont. Time does that, said Mrs Shimmings. I think they must have heaved a mighty sigh of relief in the Education Office when Benny passed his sixteenth birthday. But the psychological damage was done. Benny was wary, elusive, introverted, solitary, devoid of social skills in other words, in the eyes of most people, plain simple.

And could he have been responsible for the disappearances? he asked.

Sex is a strong mover in young men, she said. But before the attack on Betsy Allgood, I had serious reservations. After that, however

She shook her head. You were quite right what you said before. In the end, I think a lot of folk were glad to get out of Dendale, glad to see it go under water. The more biblically inclined saw it as a repeat of the Genesis flood, aimed at drowning out wickedness.

Nice thought, said Pascoe. But wickedness is a strong swimmer. And how did you feel, Mrs Shimmings?

It seemed an innocent enough question, but to his distress he saw her eyes fill with tears, even though she turned away quickly to hide them and went to the teachers desk.

Funny, she said. While I was waiting for you, I went into our little library and this was the book I picked out.

She took a book from the desktop and held it up so he could see the title.

It was The Drowning of Dendale.

I know it, said Pascoe. My wife has a copy.

It was, as he recalled, a coffee-table book, square-shaped and consisting mainly of photos with very little text. It was in two parts, the first entitled The Dale, the second The Drowning. The first photograph was a panorama of the whole dale, bathed in evening light. And the epigraph under the subtitle was A happy rural seat of various view.

Paradise Lost, said Mrs Shimmings. Thats how I felt, Mr Pascoe. It may have been spoilt, but it was still like leaving Paradise.

A horn blew outside. Glad of a diversion from this highly charged and, he hoped, totally irrelevant display of emotion, Pascoe went to the window.

A horn blew outside. Glad of a diversion from this highly charged and, he hoped, totally irrelevant display of emotion, Pascoe went to the window.

They were arriving, all kinds of vehicles bearing everything necessary for the Centre. Furniture, telephones, radios, computers, catering equipment, and of course personnel. Must be like this in a war, he thought. Before a Big Push. Like Passchendaele. So much hustle and bustle, so many men and machines, failure must have seemed inconceivable. But they had failed, many many thousands of them needlessly killed, one of them his namesake, his great-grandfather, not drowning in mud or shattered by shell-fire, but tied to a post and shot by British bullets

He said, Well talk again later, Mrs Shimmings, and went out to take control.

SEVEN

So whats this? Narcissism, or the artists response to just criticism?

Elizabeth Wulfstan pressed the pause button on her zapper and turned her head to look at the man whod just come in.

The years had been good to Arne Krog. Into his forties now, his unlined open face framed in a shock of golden hair and a fringe of matching beard kept him looking more like Hollywoods idea of a sexy young ski-instructor than anyones idea of a middle-aged baritone. And if, in terms of reputation and reward, the years had not been quite so generous, he made sure it didnt show.

She said, Most of what you said was right. Makes you happy, does it?

She spoke with a strong Yorkshire inflexion which came as a surprise to those who knew her by her singing voice alone.

It makes me happy that you have seen your error. Never mind. It will be a collectors disc when you are old and famous. Perhaps then, to be contrary, you will make your last recording of songs best suited to a young, fresh voice. But preferably in the language in which they were written.

I wanted folk to understand them, she said.

Then give them a translation to read, not yourself one to sing. Language is important. I should have thought someone so devoted to her own native woodnotes wild would have understood that.

Dont see why I should have to speak like you just to please some posh wankers, she said.

She smiled briefly as she spoke. Her face with its regular features, dark unblinking eyes, and heavy patina of pale make-up, all framed in shoulder-length ash blonde hair, had a slightly menacing mask-like quality till she smiled, when it lit to a remote beauty, like an Arctic landscape touched by a fitful sun. She was five nine or ten, and looked even taller in the black top and lycra slacks which clung to her slim figure.

Krogs eyes took this in appreciatively, but his mind was still on the music.

So you will change your programme for the opening concert? he said. Good. Inger will be pleased too. The transcription for piano has never been one she liked.

She talks to you, does she? said Elizabeth. That must be nice. But chuffed as Id be to please our Inger, its too late to change.

Three days, he said impatiently. You have the repertoire and I will help all I can.

Thanks, she said sincerely. And Id really like your help to get them right. But as for changing, I mean its too late in here.

She touched her breastbone.

He looked exasperated and said, Why are you so obsessed with singing these songs?

Whyre you so bothered that Im singing them?

He said, I do not feel that, in the circumstances, they are appropriate.

Circumstances? She looked around in mock bewilderment. They were in the elegant high-ceilinged lounge of the Wulfstans town house. French windows opened on to a long sunlit garden. Faintly audible were the rumbles of organ music under the soaring line of young voices in choir. If theyd stepped outside they could have seen a very little distance to the east the massive towers of the cathedral whose gargoyled rain-spouts seemed to be growing ever longer tongues in this unending drought.

Didnt think you got circumstances in places like this, said Elizabeth.

You know what I mean. Walter and Chloe

If Walter wanted to complain, hes had the chance and hes got the voice, she interrupted.

And Chloe?

Oh aye. Chloe. You still fucking her?

For a moment shock time-warped him to his early forties.

What the hell are you talking about? he demanded, keeping his voice low.

Come on, Arne. Thats one English word no one needs translating. Been going on a long time, hasnt it? Or should I say, off and on? All that travelling around you do. Must be great comfort to her you dont let yourself get out of practice, but. Like singing. You need to keep at your scales.

He had recovered now and said with a reasonable effort at lightness, You shouldnt believe all the chorus-line gossip you hear, my dear.

Chorus line? Oh aye, I could give Chloe enough names to sing the Messiah.

He said softly, Whats the point of this, Elizabeth? What do you want?

Want? Cant think of owt I want. But what I dont want is Walter getting hurt. Or Chloe.

That is very filial of you. But you work very hard at that role, dont you? The loving, and beloved, daughter. Though in the end, alas, as with all our roles, the paint and wigs must come off, and we have to face ourselves again.

He spoke with venom, but she only grinned and said, You sound like you got out the wrong side of bed. And you were up bloody early too. Man of your age needs his sleep, Arne.

How do you know how early I got up? Am I under twenty-four hour surveillance then?

Woke with the light myself, being a country lass, she said. Heard your car.

It could have been someone elses.

No. Youre the only bugger who changes up three times between here and end of the street.

He shrugged and said, I was restless, the light woke me also. I wanted to go for a walk, but not where Id be surrounded by houses.

Oh aye? See anyone you know?

He fingered the soft hair of his beard into a point beneath the chin and said, So early in the day I hardly saw anyone.

She said, Give us a knock next time, mebbe Ill come with you. Listen, now youre here, couple of things in the Mahler you can help me with.

He shook his head wonderingly and said, You are incredible. I tell you, I think you made a mistake to sing these songs on your first recording and that you will be making another to sing them at the concert. You ignore my advice. You make outrageous accusations, and now you want me to help you to do what I do not think you should be doing anyway!

This isnt personal, Arne. This is about technique, she said, sounding puzzled he couldnt make the distinction. I might think youre a bit of a prick, but Ive always rated you a good tutor. Mebbe thats what you should have gone in for instead of performing. Now listen, Im a bit worried about my phrasing here.