Read Online Elegy for Eddie by Jacqueline Winspear - Free Book Online

imagine what might have happened on the day of the accident. The conveyor seemed solid enough, but she could see how even the smallest locking of the cogs could jolt it out of true, so that the rolls of paper became unbalanced, perhaps causing one to lift up and eventually fall. She had not seen such machinery before, but it looked to her as if the whole contraption had been designed for smaller bales and should perhaps have been replaced to accommodate a heavier, more cumbersome load. She wondered if profits from larger bales had been so attractive that new investment had been delayed in the interests of the owner’s accumulation of wealth.
    She covered her ears, and in time rolls of paper with a diameter the height of a man began to shunt along towards the loading ramp, where they seemed to lumber onto the waiting lorries like animals to slaughter. She looked at her watch.
    “Was this about the same time that the accident happened? Eddie would come in about now, wouldn’t he?”
    The man nodded. “Yes, it was about this time.” He did not look at Maisie, keeping his eyes on the moving rolls of paper. Two men stood on the gantry looking down upon the paper rolls as they moved along the conveyor belt; more were watching from below. In an instant one of the men above waved to a man by the wall, who pulled a lever; the belt shuddered to a halt. The men clambered from the gantry down onto the belt and, using long iron poles, together levered one of the rolls, then climbed back to their places.
    “What happened? Why did they stop the rolls of paper?”
    “One of them was slightly off, so they manipulate the belt to get it on track again. It’s an easy job, and it’s the rules that no one goes down onto the belt while it’s moving.”
    “I see.” She paused as the machine lurched into life again and the rolls of paper continued on their way. “I’ve been trying to imagine how one of those rolls came down.”
    “Freak accident, Miss Dobbs.” Mills turned away from the window, and held out his hand for her to return along the corridor towards his office. “The belt buckled, reared up off the cogs, is what we believe, then it snapped back into place again, so we couldn’t find anything wrong with it when it was checked—and it was looked at thoroughly, mind you.”
    “Hmmm. But with those men down below, I’m surprised no one could have pushed Eddie out of danger or alerted him in some way.”
    “That’s a new procedure, on account of the accident. Everyone not directly involved in making sure the paper is on the belt has to keep away now, as soon as that horn goes off.”
    “And what about the men on the gantry? Is that a new procedure?”
    Mills shook his head. “No, they’ve always been there.”
    “Who was there on the day Eddie died?”
    “Oh, I can’t give you that information, Miss Dobbs. They’ve both been thoroughly questioned regarding their observations, and no fault has been attributed to their actions.”
    “Couldn’t they have stopped the belt if it was going out of control? Couldn’t the man who sounded the horn have been alerted?”
    “All new procedures, Miss. We can’t bring back Mr. Pettit, but we can make sure no one suffers in the same way again. Perhaps that will comfort his mother a little.” He looked at his watch. “Now, if you don’t mind, Miss Dobbs, I really must be getting on. This is a place of work, after all.” Mills paused again. “May I suggest you contact the firm’s solicitors for further information? And please let Mrs. Pettit know that we think of her, here at Bookhams. Eddie might not have been an employee, but he was well liked around the factory, and we’re very sorry that he was caught up in the accident. Terrible thing, it was. Terrible.”
    Maisie thanked the man, and had turned to leave when she stopped, and faced him again. “Oh, Mr. Mills, just one more thing, if you don’t mind. In one of the newspapers a manager was quoted as saying that Eddie