Without being aware of what he was doing, Leeburg moved towards the open car door. Schroeder sat bunched up in the corner, his lean, thin face, hard set, and a cruel look in his eyes. As Leeburg stepped into the car Schroeder leant forward and pulled him on to the seat.
‘What happened to Schmid?’ Schroeder hissed, his eyes blazing. Leeburg saw the other man get in alongside Hauser. The car moved quickly away.
‘Leeburg!’ Schroeder shouted. ‘What happened to Schmid?’
‘He had an accident,’ Leeburg replied and was surprised how calm he felt.
‘Schmid had an accident as he was being brought down by the Swiss,’ Schroeder said angrily. ‘He was shot, dead. I want to know what happened before that.’
Leeburg knew he had to play for time. The longer he kept them talking the better. He had to get away from them, before they also killed him. But, first he wanted them to talk. He glanced at Hauser behind the driving wheel. He sat mute as always, but he was driving fast. They were in a hurry to get away from the area.
‘He fell before we reached the hut,’ Leeburg said evenly, ‘and twisted his ankle. It might have been more serious. He couldn’t stand up. I came down for help.’
‘Why didn’t you contact Eiger?’
‘Eiger?’ Leeburg asked. ‘Who is he?’ He was banking on the fact that Schroeder would be aware that Schmid had planned to kill him. That Leeburg might not have been told about Eiger.
‘Didn’t Schmid tell you?’ Schroeder asked.
His gamble had come off.
‘He developed some sort of fever,’ Leeburg lied. ‘He kept mumbling something about a Dr Brundt.’ Again he was twisting the facts to suit his own purpose. ‘I think he meant someone’s house, but I wasn’t certain.’
‘So you went to the hospital,’ Schroeder sneered.
‘I knew Major Reitzer was at the hospital. I thought Dr Brundt might also have been there.’
Schroeder gave him a contemptuous laugh. ‘You’re lying, Leeburg,’ he snapped. ‘Schmid tried to kill you. He failed, so you left him behind.’
‘Why should Schmid want to kill me? I was helping him.’
‘Because we can’t afford to have anyone left behind who could inform the police.’
They were through the town now on the road towards Davos. Hauser was driving very fast. Leeburg wondered if they were being followed.
‘Why should I inform the police?’ he asked with feigned surprise. ‘I was as much a part of Schmid’s escape as you are.’
‘But we don’t trust you,’ Schroeder said.
Before Leeburg had time to reply, Hauser called out to Schroeder. Leeburg looked to see what the trouble was, and his pulse immediately quickened. Ahead of them, at a bend in the road, three khaki clad figures were waving them to stop. They had no alternative but to obey. To the left the ground fell away sharply to the valley. To the right was the mountain.
Hauser slowed down. ‘What do we do?’ he asked furtively.
‘Don’t stop,’ Schroeder ordered. ‘They’ll get out of the way. We haven’t far to go before we switch cars.’ He turned to Leeburg. ‘Don’t build up your hopes,’ he sneered. ‘We have laid our plans carefully.’
Hauser put his foot down on the accelerator. The three soldiers waved their arms frantically. The car shot past them as they scrambled for safety. They entered the bend in the road and Hauser eased off the accelerator. It was then that they saw the barrier.
Instantly, they realized that the soldiers had not been trying to intercept them, but to warn them! Facing them was a wall of ice, snow and rocks, where part of the mountain side had collapsed on to the road!
The four men inside the car felt an immediate surge of fear grip them. Nothing could stop them from crashing! There was a fraction of time when nothing seemed to happen and then everything happened. Someone cried out. Hauser slammed on the brakes. Automatically, Leeburg’s hand went to the door handle.
The car hit the barrier and was thrown over the edge of the cliff. As it landed on its side, Leeburg felt himself entangled with arms and legs, and then all of a sudden, he was free of them, falling through a thick carpet of white, powdery snow. For what felt like minutes he was moving through a white mass, and then he stopped moving and was lying buried in the snow.
His first reaction was that he had escaped the crash. He was alive and unharmed, — or was he? A sudden feeling of panic gripped him. He moved his limbs. Yes, he thought, he was unharmed. He brushed the snow away from his face and eyes, but he was still engulfed.
Again a wave of panic seized him, and he struggled to clear the snow away from himself. The perspiration rolled off his face as he frantically battled with the snow. When his arm burst free he gave a sigh of relief.
Slowly now, he cleared away the snow from his face and saw the green and white foliage of a tree and the blue sky. As he lay breathing heavily he heard voices above him. They were calling to someone. In the distance a voice answered.
Leeburg lay still. What had happened to the other three? Were they also safe? Did they know where he was? He looked up again at the tree and moved his head. There were other trees around him. Very slowly he climbed out of his snowy grave and lay on top of the snow. He was on the edge of the trees and the road was out of sight. But the valley wasn’t, and beneath him he could see a trail of smoke and the wreckage of the car. Standing around it were the three soldiers who had tried to warn them.
Leeburg looked at the path the car had taken. It had left its trail. He had been very lucky. My God! he thought, he had. The car had hit the trees a short distance below where he was lying and had careered down into the valley. As he followed its track he saw four other men making their way to the wreckage. Two of them were in military uniform and two in civilian clothes.
He saw them stop short of the wreckage and study the ground. He wondered what they were looking at. He heard more voices and decided to get away from the area in case he was seen. Slowly he slid his way into the trees and crept away from where he had unburied himself. But he didn’t want to leave without knowing what had happened to the others.
Keeping to the cover of the trees he made his way down the ravine, and got himself into a position where he could see the wreckage. On the ground above it, where he had seen the four men standing, he saw three dark patches and he knew what had happened to the others. The three patches were three dead bodies!
Sadly, he turned his back on the scene. So this was to be the final outcome, he thought. With Schroeder and Hauser dead, and Reitzer mentally dead, there was no one who could help him. There was to be no answer to his burning question of guilt. Unless his mind lifted its veil, he would never know the truth. His search had been in vain.
He walked thoughtfully through the trees. By a miracle he had been spared the fate of Schroeder and Hauser. He could so easily have been killed in the crash and that would have been the end of everything. But he hadn’t been killed, he was very much alive. Surely this was something to be grateful about, something to take advantage of? His only enemy now was himself. He was to be his own judge and jury. He had to overcome his own guilt complex. He had to believe in himself. He just had to.
CHAPTER 12
Leeburg kept to the woods during the hours of daylight. He heard traffic moving along the road and remained out of sight. Whereas his mind had once been set on seeking out Reitzer, it was now fixed on returning to Elka. The picture of her ready smile and dancing eyes fully occupied his thoughts. They made him anxious to be on the move and helped him fight the pangs of hunger which gnawed at his empty stomach. He had eaten spasmodically during his period of tension; now he was suffering the consequences.
With the darkness came the cold night air and he hurried towards the warm lights of the town. But he still had to take care. The authorities might be on the lookout for him. He bypassed the town and made his way, cautiously, to where he had left his skis.
From inside the small hotel came an appetizing smell of food and the sound of music, b
ut he didn’t linger. He collected his skis and quickly vanished into the darkness of the trees. On the mountain side he took one last look at the lights of the town with their lure of nourishment and rest, and turned his back on them. Ahead of him was a long climb and a cold night. But at the end was his valley, his home and Elka, and he was determined to get there as quickly as his skis could take him.
It was Corporal Gaston who saw their man first. He called to the Sergeant, who came out of the hut and lay on the ridge beside him. The Corporal pointed to the distant figure who had appeared over the saddle. The Sergeant grunted; their long vigil had not been in vain. He watched the skier move into the basin and start his descent in long, wide sweeps. He was a good skier, the Sergeant thought, very good. They would never catch him.
‘Get Aumont,’ he grunted.
The Corporal crept away from the ridge and returned with Private Aumont, a new man to the unit who had a reputation as a marksman.
‘He will stop at the bottom of the basin to rest,’ the Sergeant said to Aumont, indicating the skier. ‘Fire a warning shot. Keep on firing until he puts up his hands.’ He turned to the Corporal. ‘Take one man and go into the valley by the South run, just in case.’
‘Yes, Sergeant.’
The Corporal withdrew out of sight. Private Aumont lay on the ridge alongside the Sergeant. He pulled his white hood over his face to protect it from the wind and watched the skier. At the foot of the steep descent the skier stopped. The Sergeant tapped Aumont on the shoulder. Aumont slowly raised his rifle into position. He brought the beads of his sights in line with the skier as he rested on his ski sticks facing them. Then he moved his sights to the right of the figure, but after a brief pause he slowly moved them back and held them firmly on the centre of the skier’s body. His finger took the first pressure of the trigger.
Leeburg leaned heavily on his ski sticks and looked at the white expanse of snow which lay beneath him. In the distance he could see Gargellen. He was almost home. He felt weary, very weary. It had been a long night. He was tired and hungry. But his weariness was also due to his mental relaxation. As he had driven himself back over the mountains his conscience had capitulated. He was going to fight no longer. He had come to terms with himself at last.
He took a deep breath, pushed hard on his ski sticks and turned to move into the long run down into the valley.
At the same instant Private Aumont fired. The bullet hit Leeburg and sent him sprawling on the snow.
‘You idiot!’ the Sergeant fumed.
‘He moved,’ Private Aumont said without remorse, and calmly emptied the spent cartridge.
The Sergeant looked at the figure spread-eagled on the snow. ‘If you’ve killed him, Aumont,’ he hissed, ‘I’ll have you. Get the others.’
Aumont shrugged and went to the hut.
In the village of St Gallenkirch two groups of people saw the party of soldiers coming down the valley trailing a sledge.
One group was a girl in a red anorak and a tall man with an empty sleeve where his left arm should have been. They had come to the village very early in the hope of meeting the lonely skier. When the girl saw the body strapped to the sledge she gave a stifled gasp of alarm. Her companion put his arm around her shoulder encouragingly.
‘Steady,’ he whispered. ‘Have courage.’
Inside the hotel a Lieutenant of French Security stood with two Austrians from the Military Government Police Force. The Lieutenant saw the soldiers trailing the sledge. ‘Mon Dieu!’ he exclaimed. ‘Has this one also been killed?’
The two Austrian policemen, who were standing slightly to the rear of the Lieutenant, said nothing, but one of them — the more senior of the two — looked at the other and gave a faint, satisfied smile.
‘Well?’ Major Houston asked.
‘We are very fortunate that Leeburg was not killed,’ Yates replied seriously. ‘Everyone else who matters appears to be dead. Reinhard was shot as he was being brought down the mountain. Schroeder was killed in the motor accident. The elder Leeburg brother and his wife are involved in what appears to be a double suicide. Even the French Sergeant. What’s his name?’
‘Lefant,’ Houston said patiently.
‘Yes, that’s him. Even he is dead. His truck mysteriously runs off the road. Without Leeburg there would have been no one to turn to.’
‘True,’ Houston agreed. ‘It was close.’
‘I suppose Security are now taking over?’
‘Yes. They want the dossiers when we are through. They are compiling their case against Schafer and his gang.’
‘Are we through, John?’ Yates asked casually.
‘Yes,’ Houston said quietly. ‘Garner’s evidence ties it up.’
‘Hm,’ Yates grunted. ‘It is pretty conclusive I agree.’ He looked up into the Major’s face. ‘Do you believe it?’ he asked seriously. ‘That he actually came across Reitzer shooting those civilians and Leeburg trying to stop him. Garner is a friend of Leeburg’s.’
Houston frowned. After reading through all the reports there was no doubt in his mind. If Yates had done the same instead of reading only the summaries he would never have asked the question.
‘Yes,’ he said firmly. ‘I believe Garner is telling the truth. Reitzer is our man.’ There was just a faint trace of impatience in his tone which Yates was quick to detect. It jolted him into admitting his own feelings.
‘I believe it also,’ he said quietly. ‘I think from the very beginning I felt that Leeburg was no murderer, but I couldn’t bring myself to accept my intuition.’
Houston was both surprised and pleased at the Captain’s confession.
‘In our line of business you can’t accept intuition alone,’ Houston said, ‘but it is a good warning light. It helps to make you more tenacious.’
‘And a better defence counsel,’ Yates smiled and added, ‘I’m pleased for Leeburg’s sake that Garner turned up when he did — on both occasions.’
‘So am I,’ Houston said. ‘You know, just now and then, life has a way of dishing out its own form of justice. Leeburg deserved his breaks.’
‘And Reitzer his rewards?’
‘Yes, and Reitzer his rewards,’ Houston sighed. ‘He’ll never stand trial, but at least we will get the record right.’
‘And get it off our list,’ Yates added. ‘That should please the old man.’
‘He’s your worry now,’ Houston said lightly and started to collect his papers together.
Yates stood up. ‘By the way,’ he said, ‘how is Leeburg?’
‘Oh, he will be O.K. soon,’ Houston replied. ‘He has been discharged from the hospital. Probably back home now.’
‘Good,’ Yates said and crossed over to the door.
‘See you tonight,’ Houston called out to him. ‘Nineteen hundred hour in the club.’
‘Sure, John,’ Yates replied. ‘We’ll make it a night to remember.’
Captain Yates left the room and Major Houston set about closing the two cases. The Major had satisfied his curiosity and his conscience. He was eager now to rid himself of his last official task and start preparing for his departure.
Leeburg watched the train pull out of the station, his eyes fixed firmly on his friend, Hans Garner, who was leaning out of one of the carriage windows. Standing beside Leeburg was Elka and his mother. Annalisa was walking along the track following the moving train. Garner waved to them and Leeburg returned the gesture. Hans was a good friend, he thought, a very good friend. They were going to see a lot of him.
The train entered a bend in the track and Garner became hidden from view. Leeburg let his eyes scan the valley. It looked fresh and white from a recent fall of snow. He saw the distant turrets of the Reitzer household and felt no anxiety. Only when he looked at the copse surrounding the Gasthof did he get a feeling of regret. It wouldn’t be the same again, he thought. Not without Karl.
Elka put her hand in his and squeezed it affectionately. Leeburg looked down at her and she smiled at him. It
made him feel happy again — very happy. It showed in his eyes and on his face and she squeezed his hand again. He turned to his mother. She was still wearing black in mourning for Karl, but her face showed none of the strain and worry which it had reflected during the past few weeks. To her, Karl had found peace at last. She also smiled at him.
‘Come on,’ he said cheerfully. ‘Let’s go home and have supper. Then we can sit down and make our plans.’
He called to Annalisa who ran back and joined them. Yes, Leeburg thought, as they walked slowly out of the station, they would make their plans for the future. No longer was he a captive of the past. There was a future to live for and they were going to be part of it.
*****
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ALSO BY GEOFFREY DAVISON
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Copyright © The Estate of Geoffrey Davison, 1970
The Estate of Geoffrey Davison has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work.
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organisations, places and events, other than those clearly in the public domain, are either the product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously.
The Fallen Eagles Page 19
