Caravan to Vaccares Page 8

  ‘Tsk! Tsk!’ Bowman said to Cecile. ‘Did ever you see such careless driving?’ He crossed over the road and looked into the field. The jeep, its wheels still spinning, lay on its side while the three gypsies, who had clearly parted company with their vehicle before it had come to rest, lay in a sprawled heap about fifteen feet away. As he watched they disentangled themselves and scrambled painfully to their feet. Ferenc, understandably, was not one of the three. Bowman became aware that he had been joined by Cecile.

  ‘You did this,’ she said accusingly. ‘You sabotaged their jeep.’

  ‘It was nothing,’ he said deprecatingly. ‘I just let a little air out of the tyres.’

  ‘But – but you could have killed those men!

  The jeep could have landed on top of them and crushed them to death.’

  ‘It’s not always possible to arrange everything as one would wish it,’ Bowman said regretfully. She gave him the kind of look Dr Crippen must have got used to after he’d been hauled into court, so Bowman changed his tone. ‘You don’t look like a fool, Cecile, nor do you talk like one, so don’t go and spoil the whole effect by behaving like one. If you think our three friends down there were just out to savour the delights of the night-time Provencal air, why don’t you go and ask them how they are?’

  She turned and walked back to the car without a word. He followed and they drove off in a onesidedly huffy silence. Within a minute he slowed and pulled the car into a small cleared area on the right-hand side of the road. Through the windscreen they could see the vertical limestone bluffs with enormous man-made rectangular openings giving on the impenetrable darkness of the unseen caverns beyond.

  ‘You’re not stopping here?’ Incredulity in her voice.

  He switched off the engine and set the parking brake.

  ‘I’ve stopped.’

  ‘But they’ll find us here!’ She sounded a little desperate. ‘They’re bound to any minute now.’

  ‘No. If they’re capable of thinking at all after that little tumble they had, they’ll be thinking that we’re half-way to Avignon by this time. Besides, I think it’s going to take them some time to recover their first fine enthusiasm for moonlight driving.’

  They got out of the car and looked at the entrance to the caverns. Foreboding wasn’t the word for it, nor was sinister: something stronger, much stronger. It was, quite literally, an appalling place and Bowman had no difficulty in understanding and sympathizing with the viewpoint of the policeman back at the hotel. But he didn’t for a moment believe that you had to be born in Les Baux and grow up hand-in-hand with all the ancient superstitions in order to develop a night phobia about those caves: quite simply it was a place into which no man in his right mind would venture after the sun had gone down. He was, he hoped, in his right mind, and he didn’t want to go in. But he had to.

  He took a torch from his suitcase and said to Cecile: ‘Wait here.’

  ‘No! You’re not going to leave me alone here.’ She sounded pretty vehement about it.

  ‘It’ll probably be an awful lot worse inside.’

  ‘I don’t care.’

  ‘Suit yourself.’

  They set off together and passed through the largest of the openings to the left: if you could have put a three-storey house on wheels you could have trundled it through that opening without any trouble. Bowman traversed the walls with his torch, walls covered with the graffiti of countless generations, then opted for an archway to the right that led to an even larger cavern. Cecile, he noticed, even although wearing flat-heeled sandals, stumbled quite a bit, more than the occasional slight undulations in the limestone floor warranted: he was pretty well sure now that her vision was a good deal less than twenty-twenty which, he reflected, was maybe why she had consented to come with him in the first place.

  The next cavern held nothing of interest for Bowman. True, its vaulted heights were lost in darkness, but as only a bat could have got up there anyway that was of no moment. Another archway loomed ahead.

  ‘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-offactly. 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 highpitched, 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 sqarish 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 locked 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 unclipped 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 Baumanière’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 halfopen 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 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 forehead. 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 the gun at Ferenc and walked into the caravan: the bloodstained 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.

  ‘You’ve just said you can’t kill me yet.’ He took a step forward.

  Bowman said nothing. He altered the pistol fractionally until it was lined up on a spot between Ferenc’s eyes. Czerda made no move to take a second step. Bowman looked at him and pointed to a stool close to the small table.

  ‘Sit down,’ he said, ‘and face your son.’

  Czerda did as he was told. Bowman took one step forward and it was apparent that Ferenc’s reactions weren’t yet back in working order for his suddenly horrified expression in what little was left of his face that was still capable of registering expressions and his mouth opening to shout a warning came far too late to be of any aid to Czerda who crashed heavily to the floor as the barrel of Bowman’s gun caught him behind the ear.

  Ferenc bared his teeth and swore viciously at him. At least that was what Bowman assumed he was doing for Ferenc had reverted to his native Romany but he hadn’t even started in on his descriptions when Bowman stepped forward wordlessly, his gun swinging again. Ferenc’s reactions were even slower than Bowman had imagined: he toppled headlong across his father and lay still.

  ‘What on earth – ’ The voice came from behind Bowman. He threw himself to one side, dropping to the floor, whirled round and brought the gun up: then, more slowly, he rose. Cecile stood in the doorway, her green eyes wide, her face stilled in shock.

  ‘You fool,’ Bowman said savagely. ‘You almost died there. Don’t you know that?’ She nodded, the shock still in her face. ‘Come inside. Shut the door. You are a fool. Why the hell didn’t you do what I asked and stay where you were?’

  Almost as if in a trance she stepped inside and closed the door. She stared down at the two fallen men, then back at Bowman again.

  ‘For God’s sake, why did you knock those two men senseless? Two injured men?’

  ‘Because it was inconvenient to kill them at present,’ Bowman said coldly. He turned his back on her and began to search the place methodically and exhaustively. When one searches any place, be it gypsy caravan or baronial mansion, methodically and exhaustively, one has to wreck it completely in the process. So, in an orderly and systematic fashion, Bowman set about reducing Czerda’s caravan to a total ruin. He ripped the beds to pieces, sliced open the mattresses with the aid of a knife he’d borrowed from the recumbent Czerda, scattering the flock stuffing far and wide to ensure that there was nothing hidden inside, and wrenched open cupboards, all locked, again with the aid of Czerda’s knife. He moved into the kitchen recess, smashed all the items of crockery that were capable of holding anything, emptied the contents of a dozen food tins into the sink, smashed open preserving jars and a variety of wine bottles by the simple expedient of knocking them together two at a time and ended up by spilling the contents of the cutlery drawers on the floor to ensure that there was nothing hidden beneath the lining paper. There wasn’t.

  Cecile, who had been watching this performance still in the same kind of hypnotic trance, said: ‘Who’s Gaiuse Strome?’

  ‘How long were you listening?’

  ‘All the time. Who’s Gaiuse Strome?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Bowman said frankly. ‘Never heard of him until tonight.’

  He turned his attention to the larger clothing drawers. He emptied the contents of each in turn on
the floor and kicked them apart. There was nothing there for him, just clothes.

  ‘Other people’s property doesn’t mean all that much to you, does it?’ By this time Cecile’s state of trance had altered to the dazed incomprehension of one trying to come to grips with reality.

  ‘He’ll have it insured,’ Bowman said comfortingly. He began an assault on the last piece of furniture still intact, a beautifully carved mahogany bureau worth a small fortune in anybody’s money, splintering open the locked drawers with the now invaluable aid of the point of Czerda’s knife. He dumped the contents of the first two drawers on the floor and was about to open a third when something caught his eye. He stooped and retrieved a pair of heavy rolled-up woollen socks. Inside them was an elastic-bound package of brand-new crackling banknotes with consecutive serial numbers. It took him over half a minute to count them.

  ‘Eighty thousand Swiss francs in one-thousand franc notes,’ Bowman observed. ‘I wonder where friend Czerda got eighty thousand Swiss francs in one-thousand-franc notes? Ah, well.’ He stuffed the notes into a hip pocket and resumed the search.

  ‘But – but that’s stealing!’ It would be too much, perhaps, to say that Cecile looked horrified but there wasn’t much in the way of admiration in those big green eyes: but Bowman was in no mood for moral disapprobation.

  ‘Oh, shut up!’ he said.

  ‘But you’ve got money.’

  ‘Maybe this is how I get it.’

  He broke open another drawer, sifted through the contents with the toe of his shoe, then turned as he heard a sound to his left. Ferenc was struggling shakily to his feet, so Bowman took his arm, helped him to stand upright, hit him very hard indeed on the side of the jaw and lowered him to the floor again. The shock was back in Cecile’s face, a shock mingled with the beginnings of revulsion, she was probably a gently nurtured girl who had been brought up to believe that opera or the ballet or the theatre constituted the ideal of an evening’s entertainment. Bowman started in on the next drawer.