Chapter 16 - Extremes
The Extreme Sports Event was taking place on the Edge, on land Egron had purchased. The main residential area was under construction a quarter of a mile inland, but the huge rough meadow that ran in a gentle slope to the cliff edge was as yet untouched. The developers had agreed that at least until the swimming dome was built, the Council could use the land for an arena, and made the generous offer of one of their cranes for the bungee jumping.
The crane was now positioned at the edge of the cliff, facing the sea, overhanging the rough shingle a hundred feet below. It was secured by tethers to sturdy metal poles implanted in the ground yards behind, and had finally met the approval of the Health and Safety inspector. The original idea had been to have the jumpers bounce over the edge of the cliff, missing the beach by a safe margin, but the risk of swinging against the sheer cliff face was considered too great. The rope was now shorter and the jump began higher, so that the jumpers did not descend low enough to reach the grass level, let alone see any of the cliff face as they swooped down.
Eve Thornton was having a wonderful time, running around the uneven grass of the makeshift arena with a clipboard and a stopwatch. A large assault course had been set up in the centre by the local army cadets, and numerous out-of-condition dads were queuing up to prove their manliness by hurling themselves around in the heat of the day. Their wives waited on the sidelines, tutting and trying to make them change their minds. One portly lady was telling her equally chubby husband: "Don't blame me if you 'ave an 'art attack." Their sulky teenage daughter saved the father's blushes by saying, "Shut up, mum. Leave 'im alone." Then she added, "If he 'as an 'art attack, it's 'cos you fed 'im too many pies."
Eve rushed around checking the Zip-wire, the rock climbing wall and the attractions for the little ones, a Big Slide and the obligatory Bouncy Castle. Everyone was happy, and the weather was perfect. Eve was delighted, as until twenty-four hours ago the weather had been dreadful, a week of storms and torrential rain. It was still a bit soggy underfoot, but no-one seemed to mind. She left the Bouncy Castle and headed for the huge crane at the cliff edge which supported the Bungee rope, and darting between the crowd she almost cannoned into James Goswell.
"Mr Goswell! Excellent, so glad you could make it!" she exclaimed.
"James, please - you can call me James," he replied, all smiles. "And what do you mean, 'so glad you could make it?' Don't I always come to your events? I was there for the Annual Slipper Fair, and the Giant Ludo; I wiggled my bum at the Dance Marathon, I even showed up for the Pets Parade!"
"Oh, yes, but we thought you'd been arrested for the murder," Eve retorted briskly, without a trace of embarrassment.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," James grinned. "I may have been helping the police with their enquiries, but that's the kind of guy I am - helpful."
"Helpful? Well, I'm glad you're here - I could do with someone to keep an eye on the bungee jumping. You up for that?"
James was taken aback by Eve's audacity - he had plans, which included enjoying the day and finding Paula. He didn't want to be stuck monitoring an event, but nevertheless he heard his own voice meekly replying, "OK, what do I have to do?"
Ben Withers was glad to be relieved of his duties, which consisted of checking eager teenagers through a paperwork procedure before they were allowed to do a bungee jump. James took over and soon had the hang of it. He had time in between 'clients' to look around him, and noticed a few familiar faces. He also had a good view of the other cliff top, where the upper roof of Southcliff Hall was just visible at treetop level. He could see a section of the sunlit beach between the two cliffs, where families were having a wonderful time, eating picnics and building sandcastles. Their laughter and shrieks floated up to the cliff top. James gazed wistfully at the mums and dads enjoying the day out with their children. He was lost in thought, far away in childhood memories - sad, lonely memories.
As James returned his attention to the job in hand, he saw Councillor Massington not far away. His tall, powerful figure and wavy grey hair were easy to spot in the crowd, though he didn't notice James on duty. He was heading towards the other side of the crane, which bore the logo of Egron Development.
James processed another youngster, and looked up again to see where Dennis Massington had gone. He caught sight of him talking to a well-groomed young man wearing an Egron badge. The conversation seemed to be going badly - the sleek young man was gesturing, spreading his hands wide, and shaking his head. Massington frowned, and leaned towards the other man, talking firmly and taking a grip on the younger man's upper arm. Then he turned abruptly on his heel and walked away, ignoring the other man's protests and gestures.
James stared at the Councillor's back, which rapidly disappeared in the crowd. James became aware that a petulant lad stood in front of him, holding out his ticket. "Oh, sorry," James muttered.
By three in the afternoon, the line of keen jumpers was almost finished. Two candidates remained in the queue. James badly wanted to leave his post, and his hopes were raised when he saw Sue Cheam heading in the direction of the crane. He was bored and wanted to see the other events before it was too late. Sue had a companion with her, who wore a sunhat and kept her head down as she trod carefully over the grass in her dainty summer sandals. As they drew closer she looked up coyly from under the hat - his heart leaped as he recognised Paula.
"Hello, ladies," he called out. It would never do for them to pass by and not see him. They waved and came towards him.
"Wow, we're glad to see you. Eve said you were here, but we had to see for ourselves," Sue gushed. "Everyone's been really worried about you, haven't they, Paula?"
Paula looked embarrassed. James wondered if she had been worrying about him. It was a nice thought, so he let her off the hook by saying, "I gather you all thought I'd been chained up in the dungeons of Frayminster police station, having my fingernails pulled out until I confessed."
"Well, you were away from work on Friday," Paula replied, a tiny smile playing about her mouth.
"Oh, yes, and how do you know that, Councillor Rivers? Someone keeping you informed of my movements?" James looked intently at Paula, and smirked in triumph.
Sue spoke up. "Not me, I wasn't back from holiday until this morning. Someone else must have been telling tales out of school."
"No," said Paula, "you're both wrong - I went to the hospital with Kim. She asked for me when they brought her round."
Both James and Sue stared at her. Sue was the first to ask, "Hospital? Kim? What do you mean, brought her round?"
"She collapsed outside the mortuary - oh, of course, you don't know. She would have asked for you, Sue, but you were still away. I got a call at around five, and got there as they were putting her in the ambulance. It was shock, of course. She kept passing out, so they want her to stay on the ward until they are sure she is OK."
"The mortuary? You mean they got her to identify Chewter's body? That's awful!" James exclaimed. Sue frowned, and started to say, "You don't suppose......" then stopped.
They were interrupted by the next bungee jumper, who wanted his ticket checked. James did the necessary, and turned back to the ladies. "What were you saying, Sue?" he asked.
Sue had been whispering to Paula, and now she chewed her lip and said, "Nothing - it doesn't matter. We were just deciding to go and visit Kim after we leave here."
"I'd like to come too - she's a valuable member of staff, and I think I should, don't you?" James asked.
"Er, well, I see what you mean," Paula answered, "but the hospital only allows two visitors at a time, usually. Maybe you could go tomorrow?"
'Blast,' thought James. He wanted to see how Kim was doing, but he also wanted a chance to talk to Paula. It would have to wait until she was not with Sue. At least she was talking to him normally - perhaps he had Sue to thank for that?
Sue had indeed been lecturing Paula on the subject, and had told h
er about the Inspector's promise to look into the source of the phone call. Paula had already come to the conclusion that James was not likely to have committed murder, and had been very concerned for him. She was an easy target for Sue's persuasion, and had offered no protest when a trip to the bungee jumping crane was suggested.
The last candidate was holding out his ticket for James' attention, and was duly sent to his dose of excitement. Anxious to keep the ladies there, James asked Sue about her holiday, and she began an anecdote about a saucy waiter. He urged her to finish her tale, and put in a comment here and there to spin it out until the last bungee jumper was safely down.
Finally he was free to go. An Egron representative, the young man James had seen talking earlier to Dennis Massington, appeared on the scene, and instructed a couple of Egron employees to remove the metal poles in the ground behind the crane. The crane was backed up a little from the cliff edge, and the bungee operators had removed the tethers and dropped them on the ground. They were now preparing to take their rig off the crane, watching it being carefully lowered. James and the two women looked on, fascinated. A drill was brought over to help get the poles out of the ground.
"Heaven knows how they got them in there," James commented.
"I saw them set it up earlier," Paula said. "They had to reposition it all because the Health and Safety man wasn't happy. He made them put the poles in and tie it back, in case it tipped."
The drill began loosening the earth around the first pole, and the deafening noise drove them away. They had walked halfway back to the assault course when they heard shouts, and felt a rumbling under their feet. The rumbling grew louder, and the ground shook. Paula screamed, and they all began to run instinctively away from the cliff edge. James looked back over his shoulder in time to see the crane topple over, in slow motion. It was moving forwards towards the sea, and the weight of the remaining bungee rig was just enough to cause it to overbalance. The tip of the crane stooped forwards and disappeared over the edge, pulling the rest down after it.
The noise of the ground rumbling was added to by yells and screams from the men who had been near the crane. The Egron employees were fleeing away from their drill, and the bungee operators were running wildly from the place where the crane had been moments before. All was chaos for some minutes, until the noise stopped. Then a dead silence fell, as a huge cloud of dust drifted from the cliff edge inland to the crowd of shocked spectators.
"Are you all right?" James asked, taking Paula by the elbow. She was shaking, but unhurt. He turned to Sue, and she nodded. "We're OK, but what the hell just happened?" she demanded.
"I can't understand it, that crane just couldn't have gone over the cliff - yet it has. Please God, let there have been nobody below."
"There shouldn't have been," Paula said. "There's only a tiny strip of shingle when the tide is out, and I'm sure the tide had come in."
"I'm going to look, stay here," James commanded.
"Please be careful, James," Paula pleaded.
He walked back over the rough grass and noticed that there was now a deep furrow in the surface of the field. It led straight towards the place where the poles had been implanted, and widened as it progressed towards the cliff edge. One of the poles was still where he remembered seeing it, but the other had slid to the cliff edge, and was sticking up at a low angle to the ground. James realised what had happened - a landslip. He shouted to the frightened workmen, asking if they were all accounted for.
The Egron men were all present, but he could only see one of the bungee operatives, standing trembling a little way away. He pointed, and James followed the line of his shaking arm. A yell came from the cliff edge. James crept forward, testing the ground carefully. More earth could slip, and he had no idea how serious this could get.
He gave the furrow a wide berth, and went to the right of it, to the part of the field where the beach could be seen. People on the sand were standing pointing up at the cliff and shouting. James could now see the hands of the second bungee operative, who was dangling over the cliff edge, clinging to clumps of grass. He was struggling to gain a foothold, but his feet just dislodged more earth as he kicked and thrashed about. One of the tethers lay on the ground, and James gingerly edged forward to grab it. He lay on his stomach and wriggled forward until he could grasp it. He pulled it towards him and tied one end round his waist, then flung the other end over to the desperate man. "Grab it!" he yelled.
The man was too afraid to let go of the grass, but James kept shouting at him until he lunged for the tether with one hand. He got hold of it on the second try, and with an agonised glance at James, shouted back "Can you hold my weight?"
"Yes, I can." By this time one of the Egron men had crept along the grass beside James, and he too got hold of the tether. It was enough to instil confidence in the terrified victim, and he let go of the grass clump and grabbed the tether. James immediately began to pull, and they hauled him over the edge. "Don't stand up!" James ordered him, and they continued to pull him until he was well clear of the unstable ground. He scrambled along the ground and launched himself at them, landing flat on his stomach between them. The three of them inched away from danger.
Several bystanders had called the emergency services, and an ambulance arrived to take the victim to hospital. He was badly shaken but seemed to have survived the ordeal. He kept thanking James, as they both gasped and rubbed their shoulders and arms.
Hours later, after a hot bath to soak his aching muscles, James rang Paula. She had just got in from visiting Kim in the hospital. She and Sue had told Kim the appalling events of the day, and agreed that the village had had a narrow escape from disaster. There had been no serious injuries, and even the man who nearly went over the cliff would recover in a short time. "I think his arms felt like they were coming out of their sockets - I know mine did!" said James.
"That was incredibly brave of you, James," Paula said softly. "No-one else went forward to help him - you could have gone over yourself. You could have been killed. It's a long drop, and the sea is shallow. I was so scared...."
"I was OK, I knew I mustn't go too close. It was a landslip, I've seen one before in....um, abroad. I think the drill must have set it off."
"But - surely you don't get a load of cliff just falling into the sea because someone drills into the soil. It looked as if a lot of ground went over."
"Yes, it did. That's why it looked so weird when the crane went over - it was carried by the slippage as much as toppling under its own weight. I couldn't believe what I was seeing."
"I didn't see it go - I was too busy running away. That's the last time I wear heels to an event like that. Do you think Egron will have to think twice about building the swimming dome on that piece of land?"
"I think it will be worse than that. The whole area will have to be looked at. I don't know enough about what causes landslips to say how bad it could be. But I don't think they'll be happy bunnies tonight. Anyway, how was Kim?"
Paula hesitated. "We didn't stay long. She's in a bad way, absolutely devastated."
"Devastated? Over Chewter?"
"The thing is, James, it looks like she identified the body as - her husband."
"You're joking."
"She said to us, "It was Steve". Then she started sobbing again. We didn't know what to say, it was awful."
James grunted. "Did you ever meet Steve?" he asked.
"Yes, sometimes at office functions. Why?"
"What did he look like?"
"Sort of medium height, average build, not bad looking - why?"
"I saw the body, Paula. The man was stocky, and I swear he was middle aged at least. How old was Steve?"
"He must have been about thirty-five when he left. Oh!"
"What?"
"Well, don't you see - he didn't leave - he was killed! So she was right all along - she never believed he had left her."
"I
see. Poor Kim, what a horrible way to be proved right. But I still don't get it, I'm sure I didn't see a thirty-five year-old man in that tunnel. I'll have to ask the Inspector on Monday."
"Are you on that good terms with him then?"
"Yes, I am, as it happens," James replied with a smug grin. He paused, wondering if now would be a good time to press his advantage. "He told me there had been a bizarre incident involving you, and a mystery phone call from some loser pretending to be me."
Paula held her breath. "Are you still there?" James asked.
"Yes. It's true," Paula whispered humbly. "Someone called the school and left a message. The caller claimed to be you."
"And I gather whoever it was tried to make you change your vote on the Development issue?"
"Yes. But I didn't. And I gave you a very hard time, because I thought it was you. I'm sorry, James."
"It's already forgotten. But I hope you will know me better in the future, and never believe such a thing of me again." ('What am I saying?' he thought.)
"I promise I will ask you first before I believe anything rotten, is that good enough?" Paula answered, a happy smile in her voice.
"Well, it will have to do, I suppose," he teased.
If only they could have seen each other, they would have realised they were both now sitting on their carpets, cuddling their phones against their faces. They chatted a little more, reluctant to break the spell, and ended the call with a promise to go and see Kim together the next day. For a day of disaster and destruction, it ended better than either had expected.