Bagley, Desmond - Landslide

by Landslide

  "Miss Trinavant will," I said.

  His lips tightened momentarily. "All right. I'm empowered to agree." He took a contract form from his pocket. "All we need to do is to nil in me amount and get Miss Trinavant's witnessed signature."

  "I don't sign anything before my lawyer checks it," she said coolly. "You'll have to wait on that."

  Dormer nodded. He didn't expect anything else; he was a legalist himself and that was the way his own mind worked. "As soon as possible, please." He pulled out a pen and filled in a blank space in the middle of the contract, then pushed the pen into Howard's hand. Howard hesitated, and Dormer said drily, "Sign -- you'd better."

  Howard's lips tightened, then he dashed off his signature. He straightened up and pointed a trembling finger at me. "Watch it, Boyd -- just watch it, that's all. You'll never do this to me again -- ever."

  I smiled. "If it's any consolation, Howard, you never had a chance. We had you whipsawed from the beginning. First, we knew exactly what we had, and, second, I had quite a job talking Clare round into selling; she didn't care if she sold or not, and that's a hell of a bargaining advantage. But you wanted it -- you had to have it. Your old man would never let you pass it up."

  Dormer said, "You all see that I witness Mr. Matterson's signature." He signed the contract and dropped it on the table. "I think that's all."

  Howard swung on his heel and left without another word, and Dormer followed him. Clare slowly tore into fragments the letter she had written, and looked up at Waystrand. "You won't have to go into Fort Farrell after all, Matthew."

  Waystrand shuffled his feet and cracked a slow grin. "Looks like you're being looked after all right, Miss Clare." He gave me a friendly nod and left.

  My legs felt weak so I sat down. Clare said practically, "You look as though you need a drink." She went over to the cabinet and brought back a slug of Scotch big enough to kill an elephant. "Thanks, Bob."

  "I never thought we'd do it," I said. "I thought I was going to blow the whole thing. When Howard started to leave . . ." I shook my head.

  "You blackmailed him," she said. "He's scared to death of his father and you used that to blackmail him."

  "He had it coming -- he tried to give you a hell of a raw deal. Old Bull will never know it, though; and hell be happy with his million bucks." I looked up at her. "What are you going to do with your four million?"

  She laughed. "I'll be able to organize my own digs now -- I've never been able to afford it before. But first I want to take care of you. I didn't like Howard's crack about a broken-down geologist."

  "Hey!" I said. "I didn't do that much."

  "You did more than I could have done. I couldn't have faced Howard down like that. I'd hate to play poker with you, Bob Boyd. You certainly deserve a negotiator's fee."

  I hadn't thought about that. Clare said, "Let's be businesslike about it -- you did the job and you get the pay. What about twenty per cent?"

  "For God's sake, that's too much." I saw the glint in her eye. "Ten per cent."

  "We'll split the difference," she said. "Fifteen per cent -- and you'll take it."

  I took a mouthful of whisky and nearly choked as I realized I had just made myself $600,000.

  Chapter 2

  As I have said, we started off late that morning and didn't get far before we stopped for a bite to eat. The way Clare made a fire, I saw she knew her way around the woods -- it was just big enough for its purpose and no bigger, and there was no danger of setting the woods alight. I said, "How come Waystrand works for you?"

  "Matthew? He worked for Uncle John. He was a good logger but he had an accident."

  "He told me about that," I said.

  "He's had a lot of grief," said Clare. "His wife died just about the same time; it was cancer, I think. Anyway, he had the boy to bring up, so Uncle John asked him if he'd like to work around the house -- the house in Lakeside. He couldn't work as a logger any more, you see."

  "That's right. He looks after the cabin while I'm away." She frowned. "I'm sorry about young Jimmy, though; he's. gone wild. He and his father had a dreadful quarrel about something, and Jimmy went to work for the Matterson Corporation."

  I said, "I think that's what the quarrel was about. The job was a pay-off to Jimmy for blowing the gaff about me to Howard."

  She coloured. "You mean about that night in the cabin?"

  I said, "I owe Jimmy something for that -- and for something else." I told her of the wild ride down the Kinoxi road sandwiched between the logging trucks.

  "You could have been killed!" she said.

  'True, but it would have been written off as an accident." I grinned. "Old Bull paid up like a gentleman, though. I've got a jeep now."

  I got out the geological maps of the area and explained what I was going to do. She cottoned on fast, and said, "It's not so different from figuring out where to dig for archaeological remains; it's just that the signs are different."

  I nodded in agreement. 'This area is called the Rocky Mountain Trench. It's a geological fault caused by large-scale continental movement. It doesn't move so as you'd notice, though; it's one of these long-term things. Anyway, in a trench things tend to get churned to the surface and we may find something, even though there was nothing on the Matterson land. I think well go right to the head of the valley."

  It wasn't far, not more than ten miles, but we were bushed by the time we got there. I hadn't found anything on the way but I didn't expect to; we had struck in pretty much of a direct line and would do the main exploration going downhill on the way back, zig-zagging from one side of the valley to the other. It's easier that way.

  By the time we made camp it was dark. There was no moon and the only light came from the fire which crackled cheerily and shed a pleasant glow. Beyond the fire was a big black nothing away down the valley which I knew was an ocean of trees -- Douglas fir, spruce, hemlock, western red cedar -- all commercially valuable. I said, "How much land have you got here?"

  "Nearly ten thousand acres," said Claire. "Uncle John left it to me."

  "It might pay you to set up your own small sawmill," I said, You have a lot of ripe timber here which needs cutting out."

  "I'd have to haul out the lumber across Matterson land," she said. "It's not economical to go the long way round. I'll think about it."

  I let her attend to the cooking while I cut spruce boughs for the beds, one on each side of the fire. She ministered to the fire and the pans deftly with hardly a waste movement, and I could see I couldn't teach her anything about that department. Soon the savoury scent of hash floated up and she called, "Come and get it."

  As she gave me a plateful of hash she smiled. "Not as good as the duck you served me."

  "This is fine," I said. "Maybe we'll get some fresh meat to-morrow, though."

  We ate and talked quietly, and had coffee. Clare felt in her pack and produced a flask. "Like a drink?"

  I hesitated. I wasn't used to drinking when out in the woods; not out of any high principles, but the amount of liquor you can hump in a pack doesn't go very far, so I never bothered to carry any at all. Still, on a day when a guy can make $600,000 anything can happen, so I said, "One jigger would go down well."

  It was a nice night. Even in summer you don't get many warm nights in the North-East Interior of British Columbia, but this was one of them -- a soft and balmy night with the stars veiled in a haze of cloud. I sipped the whisky, and what with the smell of the wood-smoke and me peaty taste of the Scotch on my tongue I felt relaxed and at ease. Maybe the fact that I had a girl next to me had something to do with it, too; you don't meet many of those in the places I'd been accustomed to camping and when you did they had flat noses, broad cheekbones, blackened teeth and stank of rancid oil -- delightful to other Eskimos but no attraction to me.

  I undid a button of my shirt to let the air circulate, and stretched my legs. "I wouldn't have any other life man this," I said.

  "You can do anything you want now," said Clare.


  "Say, that's so, isn't it?" I hadn't thought much about the money; it hadn't yet sunk in that I was pretty rich.

  "What are you going to do?" she asked.

  I said dreamily, "I know of a place just north of the Great Slave Lake where a man with a bit of dough -- enough to finance a real exploration -- would have a chance of striking it rich. It really needs a magnetometer survey and for that you need a plane, or better, a whirlybird -- that's where the money comes in."

  "But you are rich," she pointed out. "Or you will be as soon as the deal goes through. You'll have more than I inherited from Uncle John, and I never thought I was particularly poor."

  I looked at her. "I said just now I wouldn't want any other life. You have your archaeology -- I have my geology. And you know damn' well we don't do those things just to pass the time."

  She smiled. "I guess you're right." She peered at me closely. "That scar -- there, on your chest. Is that . . .?"

  "The accident? Yes, it is. They don't trouble much with plastic surgery where it doesn't usually show."

  She put her hand out slowly and touched my chest with her fingertips. I said, "Clare, you knew Frank Trinavant. I know I haven't his face, but if I am Frank, then surely to God there must be something of him left in me. Can't you see anything of him?"

  Her face was troubled. "I don't know," she said hesitatingly. "It was so long ago and I was so young. I left Canada when I was sixteen and Frank was twenty-two; he treated me as a kid sister and I never really knew him." She shook her head and said again, "I don't know."

  Her fingertips traced the long length of the scar, and I put my arm round her shoulders and pulled her closer. I said, "Don't worry about it; it doesn't really matter."

  She smiled and whispered, "You're so right. It doesn't matter -- it doesn't matter at all. I don't care who you are or where you come from. All I know is that you're Bob Boyd."

  Then we were kissing frantically and her arm was about me under my shirt and drawing me closer. There was a hiss and a sudden wooof as half a jigger of good Scotch got knocked into the fire, and a great yellow and blue flame soared to the sky.

  Later that night I said drowsily, "You're a hard woman -- you made me gather twice as many spruce boughs as we needed."

  She punched me in the ribs and snuggled closer. "You know what?" she said pensively.

  "What?"

  "You remember when you slept in the cabin that time -- when I warned you about making passes?"

  "Mmm -- I remember."

  "I had to warn you off. If I hadn't I'd have been a gone girl."

  I opened one eye. "You would?"

  "Even then," she said. "I still feel weak and mushy about it. Do you know you're quite a man, Bob Boyd? Maybe too much for me to handle. You'd better not radiate maleness so much around other women from now on."

  I said, "Don't be silly."

  "I mean it."

  A few minutes later she said, "Are you awake?"

  "Uh-uh."

  "You won't mink I'm silly if I tell you something?"

  "Depends what it is."

  There was a silence, then she said, "You earned that negotiator's fee, you know -- and never forget it. I was glad you earned it for another reason."

  I said sleepily, "What reason?"

  "You're too goddam proud," she said. "You might never have done anything about me if you'd thought about it too much. I thought you'd be scared off by my money, but now you have money, and it doesn't apply."

  "Nonsense!" I said. "What's a mere six hundred thousand bucks? I want the lot." I pulled her closer. "I want everything you've got."

  She gave a small cry and came to me again. Finally, just as the false dawn hesitated in the sky, she went to sleep, her head on my shoulder and one arm thrown across my chest.

  Chapter 3

  The survey that should have taken four days stretched to two weeks. Maybe we were taking the honeymoon before we were married, but, then, so have lots of other folks -- it's not the worst crime in the world. All I know is that it was the happiest time of my life.

  We talked -- my God, how we talked! For two people to really get to know each other takes a hell of a lot of words, in spite of the fact that the most important thing doesn't need words at all. By the time two weeks were up I knew a lot about archaeology I didn't know before and- she knew enough geology to know that the survey was a bust.

  But neither of us worried about that. Three of the days towards the end were spent near a tiny lake we discovered hidden away in the folds of the hills. We pitched our camp near the edge and swam every morning and afternoon without worrying about costumes, and rubbed each other warm and dry when we came out shivering. At nights, in the hush of the forest, we talked in low tones, mostly about ourselves and about what we were going to do with the rest of our lives. Then we would make love.

  But everything ends. One morning she said thoughtfully, "Matthew must be just about ready to send out a search-party. Do you realize how long we've been gone?"

  I grinned. "Matthew has more sense. I think he's got around to trusting me." I rubbed my chin. "Still, we'd better get back, I suppose."

  "Yes," she said glumly.

  We cleaned up the camp and packed our gear in silence. I helped her on with her pack, then said, "Clare, you know we can't get married right away?"

  Her voice was soft with surprise, "Why ever not?"

  I kicked at a stone. "It wouldn't be fair. If I marry you and stay around here, things are going to bust loose and you might be hurt. If they're going to bust at all I want it to be before we're married."

  She opened her mouth to argue -- she was a great arguer -- but I stopped her. "Susskind might be right," I said. "If I probe too deeply into my past I might very well go nuts. I wouldn't want that to happen to you."

  She was silent for a while, then she said, "Supposing I accept that -- what do you intend to do?"

  "I'm going to break this thing wide open -- before we're married. I've got something to fight for now, besides myself. If I come through the other side safely, then well get married.

  If not -- well, neither of us will have made an irrevocable mistake."

  She said calmly, "You're the sanest man I know -- I'm willing to take a chance on your sanity."

  "Well, I'm not," I said. "You don't know what it's like, Clare: not having a past -- or having two pasts, for that matter. It eats a man away from the inside. I've got to know, and I've got to take the chance of knowing. Susskind said it might break me in two and I don't want you too much involved."

  "But I am too involved," she cried. "Already I am."

  "Not as much as if we were married. Look, if we were married I'd hesitate when it's fatal to hesitate, I wouldn't push hard when pushing might win, I'd not take a chance when it was necessary to take a chance. I'd be thinking of you too damn' much. Give me a month, Clare; just one month."

  Her voice was low. "All right, a month," she said. "Just one month."

  We reached her cabin late at night, weary and out-of-sorts, neither of us having said much to the other during the day. Matthew Waystrand met us, smiled at Clare and gave me a hard look. "Got the fire lit," he said gruffly.

  I went into my bedroom and shucked off my pack with relief, and when I'd changed into a fresh shirt and pants Clare was already luxuriating in a hot bath. I walked over to Matthew's place and found him smoking before a fire. I said, "I'm going pretty soon. Look after Miss Trinavant."

  He looked at me glumly. "Hunk she needs it more'n usual?"

  "She might," I said, and sat down. "Did you mail that letter she gave you?" I meant the Matterson contract going to her lawyer in Vancouver.

  He nodded. "Got an answer, too." He cocked his head. "She's got it."

  "Good." I waited for him to say something else and when he didn't I stood up and said, "I'm going now. I have to get back to Fort Farrell."

  "Wait a minute," he said. "I've been thinking about what you said. You wanted to know if anything unusual happened about t
he time old John was killed. Well, I remember something, but I don't know if you'd call it unusual."

  "What was that?"

  "Old Bull bought himself a new car just the week after. It was a Buick."

  "No," I said. "I wouldn't call it unusual."

  Waystrand said, "Funny tiling is that it was a replacement for a car he already had -- a car he'd had just three months."

  "Now that is funny," I said softly. "What was wrong with the old one?"

  "Don't know," said Waystrand laconically. "But I hardly know what could have gone wrong in three months."

  "What happened to it?"

  "Don't know that, either. Just disappeared."

  I thought about it. It would be a devil of a job trying to find out what had happened to a car twelve years earlier, especially a car that had "just disappeared". It didn't seem as though there would be much hope in following up such a tenuous lead as that, although who could tell? It might be worth a check in the licensing office. I said, "Thanks, Matthew -- you don't mind me calling you Matthew?"

  He frowned. "You took a long time on that survey of yours. How's Miss Trinavant?"

  I grinned. "Never better -- she assured me herself. Why don't you ask her?"

  He grunted. "I don't reckon I will. Yeah, I don't mind you calling me by my given name. That's what it's for, ain't it?"

  Chapter 4

  I left early next morning just after daybreak. I suppose you couldn't have called the few words Clare and I had an argument, but it left a certain amount of tension. She thought I was wrong and she wanted to get married right away, and I thought otherwise, and we had sulked like a couple of kids. Anyway, the tension dissolved in her bed that night; we were getting to be like a regular married couple.

  We discussed the Matterson contract which her lawyer had thought not too larcenous, and she signed it and gave it to me.

  I was to drop it in to Howard's office and get a duplicate signed by him. Just before I left, she said, "Don't stick your neck out too far, Bob. Old Bull wields a mean axe."