"Maclean, Alistair - 1970 - Caravan to Vaccares" - читать интересную книгу автора (Maclean Alistair)

'This is a dreadful place,' Cecile whispered.
'Well, I wouldn't like to live here all the time.'
Another few paces and she said: 'Mr Bowman.'
'Neil.'
'May I take your arm?' In these days he didn't think they asked.
'Help yourself,' he said agreeably. 'You're not the only person in need of reassurance round here.'
'It's not that. I'm not scared, really. It's just that you keep flashing that torch everywhere and I can't see and I keep tripping.'
'Ah!'
So she took his arm and she didn't trip any more, just shivered violently as if she were coming down with some form of malaria. By and by she said: 'What are you looking for?'
'You know damned well what I'm looking for.'
'Perhaps—well, they could have hidden him.'
'They could have hidden him. They couldn't have buried him, not unless they had brought along some dynamite with them, but they could have hidden him. Under a mound of limestone rock and stones. There's plenty around.'
'But we've passed by dozens of piles of limestone rocks. You didn't bother about them.'
'When we come to a freshly made mound you'll know the difference,' he said matter-of-factly. She shivered again, violently, and he went on: 'Why did you have to come in, Cecile? You were telling the truth when you said you weren't scared: you're just plain terrified.'
'I'd rather be plain terrified in here with you than plain terrified alone out there.' Any moment now and her teeth would start chattering.
'You may have a point there,' he admitted. They passed, slightly uphill this time, through another archway, into another immense cavern: after a few steps Bowman stopped abruptly.
'What is it?' she whispered. 'What's wrong?'
'I don't know.' He paused. 'Yes, I do know.' For the first time he shivered himself.
'You, too?' Again that whisper.
'Me, too. But it's not that. Some clod-hopping character has just walked over my grave.'
'Please?'
'This is it. This is the place. When you're old and sinful
like me, you can smell it.' 'Death?' And now her voice was shaking. 'People can't
smell death.'
'I can.'
He switched off the torch.
'Put it on, put it on!' Her voice was high-pitched, close to hysteria. 'For God's sake, put it on. Please.'
He detached her hand, put his arm round her and held her close. With a bit of luck, he thought, they might get some synchronization into their shivering, not as much perhaps as the ballroom champions on TV got in their dancing, but enough to be comfortable. When the vibrations had died down a little he said: 'Notice anything different about this cavern?'
'There's light! There's light coming from somewhere.'
There is indeed.' They walked slowly forward till they came to a huge pile of rubble on the floor. The jumble of rocks stretched up and up until at the top they could see a large squarish patch of star-dusted sky. Down the centre of this rockfall, all the way from top to bottom, was a narrow
patch of disturbed rubble, a pathway that seemed to have been newly made. Bowman switched on his torch and there was no doubt about it: it was newly made. He traversed the base of the rockfall with the beam of the torch and then the beam, almost of its own volition, stopped and looked on a mound of limestone rocks, perhaps eight feet in length by three high.
'With a freshly made mound of limestone,' Bowman said, 'you can see the difference.' 'You can see the difference,' she repeated mechanically. 'Please. Walk away a little.' 'No. It's funny, but I'm all right now.' He believed her and he didn't think it was funny. Mankind is still close enough to the primeval jungles to find the greatest fear of all in the unknown: but here, now, they knew.
Bowman stooped over the mound and began to throw stones to one side. They hadn't bothered to cover the unfortunate Alexandre to any great depth for inside a moment Bowman came to the slashed remnants of a once white shirt, now saturated in blood. Lying in the encrusted blood and attached to a chain was a silver crucifix. He undipped the chain and lifted both it and the crucifix away.
Bowman parked the Peugeot at the spot in the valley road where he had picked up Cecile and the cases. He got out.
'Stay here,' he said to Cecile. 'This time I mean it.' She didn't exactly nod her head obediently but she didn't argue either: maybe his training methods were beginning to improve. The jeep, he observed without any surprise, was where he'd last seen it: it was going to require a mobile crane to get it out of there.
The entrance to the Baumaniere's forecourt seemed deserted but he'd developed the same sort of affectionate trust for Czerda and his merry band of followers as he would have for a colony of cobras or black widow spiders so he pressed deep into the shadows and advanced slowly into the forecourt. His foot struck something solid and there was a faint metallic clink. He became very still but he'd provoked no reaction that he could see or hear. He stooped and picked up the pistol that he'd inadvertently
kicked against the base of a petrol pump. Young Ferenc's pistol, without a doubt. From what last Bowman had seen of Ferenc he didn't think he'd have missed it yet or would be wanting to use it for some time: but Bowman decided to return it to him all the same. He knew he wouldn't be disturbing anyone for lights from inside Czerda's caravan still shone through the windows and the half-open door. Every, other caravan in the forecourt was in darkness. He crossed to Czerda's caravan, climbed the steps soundlessly and looked in through the doorway.
Czerda, with a bandaged left hand, bruised cheek and large strip of sticking-plaster on his forehead, wasn't looking quite his old self but he was in mint condition compared to Ferenc to whose injuries he was attending. Ferenc lay on a bunk, moaning and barely half-conscious, exclaiming in pain from time to time as his father removed a blood-soaked bandage from his forehead. When the bandage was at last jerked free to the accompaniment of a final yelp of pain, a pain that had the effect of restoring Ferenc to something pretty close to complete consciousness, Bowman could see that he had a very nasty cut indeed across his forehead, but a cut that faded into insignificance compared to the massive bruising of forehead and face: if he had sustained other bodily bruises of a comparable magnitude Ferenc had to be suffering very considerably and feeling in a very low state indeed. It was not a consideration that moved Bowman: if Ferenc had had his way he, Bowman, would be in a state in which he'd never feel anything again.
Ferenc sat shakily up on the bunk while his father secured a fresh bandage, then sat forward, put his elbows on his knees, his face in his hands and moaned.
'In God's name, what happened? My head—' 'You'll be all right,' Czerda said soothingly. 'A cut and a bruise. That's all.'
'But what happened? Why is my head—' The car. Remember?'
The car. Of course. That devil Bowman!' Coming from Ferenc, Bowman thought, that was rather good. 'Did he —did he—'
'Damn his soul, yes. He got clear away—and he wrecked our jeep. See this?' Czerda pointed to his hand and fore-
head. Ferenc looked without interest and looked away. He had other things on his mind.
'My gun, Father! Where's my gun?'
'Here,' Bowman said. He pointed his gun at Ferenc and walked into the caravan: the blood-stained chain and crucifix dangled from his left hand. Ferenc stared at him: he looked as a man might look with his head on the block and the executioner starting the back swing on his axe, for executioner Ferenc would have been in Bowman's position. Czerda, whose back had been to the door, swung round and remained as immobile as his son. He didn't seem any more pleased to see Bowman than Ferenc did. Bowman walked forward, two paces, and placed the bloody crucifix on a small table.
'His mother might like to have that,' he said. 'I should wipe the blood off first, though.' He waited for some reaction but there was none so he went on: 'I'm going to kill you, Czerda. I'll have to, won't I, for no one can ever prove you killed young Alexandre. But I don't require proof, all I need is certainty. But not yet. I can't do it yet, can I? I mustn't cause innocent people to die, must I? But later. Later I kill you. Then I kill Gaiuse Strome. Tell him I said so, will you?'
'What do you know of Gaiuse Strome?' he whispered.
'Enough to hang him. And you.'
Czerda suddenly smiled but when he spoke it was still in the same whisper.