Read Online Never Go Back by Robert Goddard - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Robert Goddard
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what the sense is.’
‘Very profound.’
‘No. Just true.’
‘Yeah. I suppose so. Well, you’d better get on. I don’t want you catching cold on my account.’
‘I’ll see you later, then.’
‘OK. ‘Bye.’
She turned and ran on down the slope towards the church. Harry watched her go, then set off slowly in the opposite direction.
—«»—«»—«»—
Erica was right, of course. Everything did make sense. But Harry was a long way from deducing how. When he got back to Kilveen Castle, he found Dangerfield gathering the Clean Sheeters together for the excursion he had planned for them. ‘The show must go on,’ he declared optimistically.
But the cast for the show was undeniably reduced. With Askew dead, Chipchase absent, Lloyd performing his civic duty at a mortuary in Dundee, Dr Starkie opting out for reasons of his own and Erica sending a message to the effect that she did not wish to cramp the boys’ style, just seven were left to embark on Dangerfield’s mystery minibus tour of Deeside.
They had scarcely strayed beyond Lumphanan during Operation Clean Sheet apart from fortnightly excursions into Aberdeen on the train. Their knowledge of Kilveen’s wider surroundings was thus zero. Dangerfield took them on a scenic drive west, up the valley into the foothills of the Cairngorms as far as Braemar, where they sought out the hair-of-the-dog drink that several of them badly needed and Harry bought a postcard to send to Donna and Daisy. On the way back, Tancred specially requested a stop at Crathie, so that he could satisfy his royalist sentiments by gazing at the turret-tops of Balmoral Castle, which was all of the castle he could gaze at above its screen of trees. Dangerfield switched to the south bank of the Dee at Ballater so that he could show them one of his favourite salmon-fishing spots. Then it was on to Aboyne — and lunch at the Boat Inn.
So far, no-one had mentioned what must have been at the forefront of all their thoughts. That changed as they started on the beer, however, and soon theories were being swapped as to how Askew’s suicide could be explained. Since Dangerfield and Wiseman had not actually met him, they had to rely on the others for insights into his state of mind at the time. Judd gave it as his opinion that Askew was exactly as he had always been — subdued, introspective, unpredictable. Tancred, on the other hand, said he was surprised and yet not surprised by what Askew had done. ‘If I’d had to nominate one among us as a suicide risk, it would have been Crooked. There was always something slightly unstable about him.’
Harry sought to avoid putting forward a theory himself. The truth was that he did not have one. He kept trying to imagine Askew pushing down the window in the train door as far as it would go, then heaving himself out into the battering rush of air. But the image would not stick. Another, more macabre yet oddly more plausible version of events intruded. In this, Askew was already unconscious from a blow to the head as an unknown figure pushed the window down and propelled him through the gap to his death on the track below. Put on the spot by Wiseman, however, Harry said nothing of this. ‘I don’t know what happened to him,’ he maintained. ‘I simply don’t know.’
—«»—«»—«»—
Dangerfield’s choice of afternoon destination was Craigievar, the pink-hued masterpiece of Deeside castle-building on which the architects of Kilveen had clearly based their work. Tancred and Wiseman derived more pleasure from a tour of the apartments than the rest, for whom details of Scottish baronial plasterwork held limited appeal. All in all, Harry and the others gave a poor impersonation of historically sensitive tourists, but put away a National Trust tea with gusto.
—«»—«»—«»—
Nobody mentioned Lloyd, but Harry assumed he was not alone in wondering how poor old Jabber’s trip to Dundee had gone. It was only a matter of time
‘Very profound.’
‘No. Just true.’
‘Yeah. I suppose so. Well, you’d better get on. I don’t want you catching cold on my account.’
‘I’ll see you later, then.’
‘OK. ‘Bye.’
She turned and ran on down the slope towards the church. Harry watched her go, then set off slowly in the opposite direction.
—«»—«»—«»—
Erica was right, of course. Everything did make sense. But Harry was a long way from deducing how. When he got back to Kilveen Castle, he found Dangerfield gathering the Clean Sheeters together for the excursion he had planned for them. ‘The show must go on,’ he declared optimistically.
But the cast for the show was undeniably reduced. With Askew dead, Chipchase absent, Lloyd performing his civic duty at a mortuary in Dundee, Dr Starkie opting out for reasons of his own and Erica sending a message to the effect that she did not wish to cramp the boys’ style, just seven were left to embark on Dangerfield’s mystery minibus tour of Deeside.
They had scarcely strayed beyond Lumphanan during Operation Clean Sheet apart from fortnightly excursions into Aberdeen on the train. Their knowledge of Kilveen’s wider surroundings was thus zero. Dangerfield took them on a scenic drive west, up the valley into the foothills of the Cairngorms as far as Braemar, where they sought out the hair-of-the-dog drink that several of them badly needed and Harry bought a postcard to send to Donna and Daisy. On the way back, Tancred specially requested a stop at Crathie, so that he could satisfy his royalist sentiments by gazing at the turret-tops of Balmoral Castle, which was all of the castle he could gaze at above its screen of trees. Dangerfield switched to the south bank of the Dee at Ballater so that he could show them one of his favourite salmon-fishing spots. Then it was on to Aboyne — and lunch at the Boat Inn.
So far, no-one had mentioned what must have been at the forefront of all their thoughts. That changed as they started on the beer, however, and soon theories were being swapped as to how Askew’s suicide could be explained. Since Dangerfield and Wiseman had not actually met him, they had to rely on the others for insights into his state of mind at the time. Judd gave it as his opinion that Askew was exactly as he had always been — subdued, introspective, unpredictable. Tancred, on the other hand, said he was surprised and yet not surprised by what Askew had done. ‘If I’d had to nominate one among us as a suicide risk, it would have been Crooked. There was always something slightly unstable about him.’
Harry sought to avoid putting forward a theory himself. The truth was that he did not have one. He kept trying to imagine Askew pushing down the window in the train door as far as it would go, then heaving himself out into the battering rush of air. But the image would not stick. Another, more macabre yet oddly more plausible version of events intruded. In this, Askew was already unconscious from a blow to the head as an unknown figure pushed the window down and propelled him through the gap to his death on the track below. Put on the spot by Wiseman, however, Harry said nothing of this. ‘I don’t know what happened to him,’ he maintained. ‘I simply don’t know.’
—«»—«»—«»—
Dangerfield’s choice of afternoon destination was Craigievar, the pink-hued masterpiece of Deeside castle-building on which the architects of Kilveen had clearly based their work. Tancred and Wiseman derived more pleasure from a tour of the apartments than the rest, for whom details of Scottish baronial plasterwork held limited appeal. All in all, Harry and the others gave a poor impersonation of historically sensitive tourists, but put away a National Trust tea with gusto.
—«»—«»—«»—
Nobody mentioned Lloyd, but Harry assumed he was not alone in wondering how poor old Jabber’s trip to Dundee had gone. It was only a matter of time
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