Death on a Branch Line(85)

I glanced at my watch: 6.25.

‘Never mind that,’ said Woodcock. ‘Hand over your pocketbook.’

‘Eh? Why?’

‘Because I need bread, you silly sod. How much do you have in it?’

‘Nothing doing, pal,’ I said, at which he stood up.

‘I’m taking a big risk by sending this message,’ he said. ‘It puts me right in the bloody line of fire.’

‘I’ve given you a fair spin,’ I said. ‘You’re off the hook; we have an agreement.’

‘I’m clearing out in any case,’ he said. ‘Meantime, I might or might not work this doings for you. It all depends on you handing over your gold.’

‘Forget it, mate,’ I said.

‘All right then, I’m off, and I don’t much fancy your chances with that thing.’

He climbed the track ballast and stepped over the rails and into the field beyond. The lightning came again, and Woodcock was suddenly a hundred yards further on, walking with his hands in his pockets through cut corn under the roaring rain. There came another bang of thunder, and out of this seemed to grow another, more regular noise – the beating of an engine.

The first Monday train. I hadn’t bargained on that. Would it stop at the station? The week-end was over now, after all. If it did stop, then Hardy might board it and ride away to freedom. It would look queer, the station master getting on the train; it would be like the station getting on it, but who’d lift a finger to stop him? Everything was going to pot. I ought to have brought the Chief in again, even if that meant involving that pill Usher. The engine drew out of the woods, and came on. The rain made a haze above the carriage roofs; and it made a waterfall as it rolled down the carriage sides. Will Woodcock still be in sight by the time this has passed? I wondered.

He was, but only just – a small black shape on the far side of the field in the milky light. I looked down at the ABC – at the white dials glowing in the lamplight. It was all connected up, but those dials seemed to have sprouted a few more foreign-looking signs and symbols since the last time. Woodcock had got me so far, but he wasn’t the sort to do people favours – his heart just wasn’t in it. It struck me that, in pushing his luck in the way he had been, Woodcock had been asking me a sort of question. I took out my watch, and the hands seemed treacherous.

Six thirty-three.

I scrambled up the bank and sprinted over the tracks and across the field towards Woodcock. He turned about and watched as I gained on him. I came to a halt at two yards’ distance, with the rain making a curtain of water between us.

‘Fancy a scrap?’ I said.

I got a good one in the very moment he nodded his head. Another silent flash came just then, and it showed me Woodcock bringing his fists up in a way he’d no doubt wanted to be doing ever since he’d clapped eyes on me, but our set-to did not last long, and it was over before the thunder boom that belonged to that particular lightning bolt came rolling around. We both happened to be down on the corn stubble at that point, and Woodcock, standing up, said, ‘Have it your way,’ and began trailing back in the direction of the tracks and the ABC.

As he walked, he lit another cigarette, and began muttering to himself. When he got back to the ABC (which was soaked but, I trusted, well sealed) and its faintly glowing companion the storm lantern, he immediately crouched down and set about winding the handle on the front of the wooden case.

‘What’s this in aid of?’ I asked him.

‘I’ve put the switch to “Alarm”,’ said Woodcock, ‘and I’m turning ten times to give ten rings.’

‘I can’t hear anything.’

‘No,’ he said, ‘but they can.’

‘You sure?’

‘Nope.’

‘Why ten? It seems a bloody lot.’

‘That’s the code for Pilmoor – tenth stop on the branch, en’t it?’

‘They would count it from fucking Malton and not the other way. What’s our code?’

‘Six bells.’

I looked at the time. Six-forty. Lambert would be with the priest now. The High Sheriff of Durham would be taking coffee with the governor of the gaol, and being reminded of the correct form. When he stopped winding, Woodcock turned a switch and stepped back, saying: ‘Off you go, then.’

I looked at my watch, and for the first time I could do so without straining: ten to seven. I didn’t need the lantern to see the dials in the clearing light, but still the rain thundered down. I looked at the necklace of gold keys around the indicator dial. You pressed the key according to the letter or number you wanted to send; the pointer flew to it, and at that instant the circuit was broken, and you pressed the next letter, winding the handle to fire that one off, and so on.