万圣节前夜的谋杀31

Twenty-five

“It’s beautiful,” said Miranda, looking round her.

Kilterbury Ring was a local beauty spot though its remains were not par-ticularly famous. They had been dismantled many hundreds of years ago.

Yet here and there a tall megalithic stone still stood, upright, telling of along past ritual worship. Miranda asked questions.

“Why did they have all these stones here?”

“For ritual. Ritual worship. Ritual sacrifice. You understand about sacri-fice, don’t you, Miranda?”

“I think so.”

“It has to be, you see. It’s important.”

“You mean, it’s not a sort of punishment? It’s something else?”

“Yes, it’s something else. You die so that others should live. You die sothat beauty should live. Should come into being. That’s the importantthing.”

“I thought perhaps—”

“Yes, Miranda?”

“I thought perhaps you ought to die because what you’ve done has killedsomeone else.”

“What put that into your head?”

“I was thinking of Joyce. If I hadn’t told her about something, shewouldn’t have died, would she?”

“Perhaps not.”

“I’ve felt worried since Joyce died. I needn’t have told her, need I? I toldher because I wanted to have something worth while telling her. She’dbeen to India and she kept talking about it—about the tigers and about theelephants and their gold hangings and decorations and their trappings.

And I think, too—suddenly I wanted somebody else to know, because yousee I hadn’t really thought about it before.” She added: “Was—was that asacrifice, too?”

“In a way.”

Miranda remained contemplative, then she said, “Isn’t it time yet?”

“The sun is not quite right yet. Another five minutes, perhaps, and thenit will fall directly on the stone.”

Again they sat silent, beside the car.

“Now, I think,” said Miranda’s companion, looking up at the sky wherethe sun was dipping towards the horizon. “Now is a wonderful moment.

No one here. Nobody comes up at this time of day and walks up to the topof Kilterbury Down to see Kilterbury Ring. Too cold in November and theblackberries are over. I’ll show you the double axe first. The double axe onthe stone. Carved there when they came from Mycenae or from Crete hun-dreds of years ago. It’s wonderful, Miranda, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it’s very wonderful,” said Miranda. “Show it me.”

They walked up to the topmost stone. Beside it lay a fallen one and alittle farther down the slope a slightly inclined one leant as though bentwith the weariness of years.

“Are you happy, Miranda?”

“Yes, I’m very happy.”

“There’s the sign here.”

“Is that really the double axe?”

“Yes, it’s worn with time but that’s it. That’s the symbol. Put your handon it. And now — now we will drink to the past and the future and tobeauty.”

“Oh, how lovely,” said Miranda.

A golden cup was put into her hand, and from a flask her companionpoured a golden liquid into it.

“It tastes of fruit, of peaches. Drink it, Miranda, and you will be happierstill.”

Miranda took the gilt cup. She sniffed at it.

“Yes. Yes, it does smell of peaches. Oh look, there’s the sun. Really redgold—looking as though it was lying on the edge of the world.”

He turned her towards it.

“Hold the cup and drink.”

She turned obediently. One hand was still on the megalithic stone andits semierased sign. Her companion now was standing behind her. Frombelow the inclined stone down the hill, two figures slipped out, bent halfdouble. Those on the summit had their backs to them, and did not evennotice them. Quickly but stealthily they ran up the hill.

“Drink to beauty, Miranda.”

“Like hell she does!” said a voice behind them.

A rose velvet coat shot over a head, a knife was knocked from the handthat was slowly rising. Nicholas Ransom caught hold of Miranda, claspingher tightly and dragging her away from the other two who were strug-gling.

“You bloody little idiot,” said Nicholas Ransom. “Coming up here with abarmy murderer. You should have known what you were doing.”

“I did in a way,” said Miranda. “I was going to be a sacrifice, I think, be-cause you see it was all my fault. It was because of me that Joyce waskilled. So it was right for me to be a sacrifice, wasn’t it? It would be a kindof ritual killing.”

“Don’t start talking nonsense about ritual killings. They’ve found thatother girl. You know, the au pair girl who has been missing so long. Acouple of years or something like that. They all thought she’d run away be-cause she’d forged a Will. She hadn’t run away. Her body was found in thewell.”

“Oh!” Miranda gave a sudden cry of anguish. “Not in the wishing well?

Not in the wishing well that I wanted to find so badly? Oh, I don’t want herto be in the wishing well. Who—who put her there?”

“The same person who brought you here.”

 

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