‘Overruled, Mr Lyall.’
‘It is photographic evidence, Mr Chairman,’ said McGill. ‘I have taken the liberty of having the equipment made available. I would like to operate it myself.’
Harrison nodded abruptly. ‘See to it, Mr Reed.’
In the few minutes it took for the apparatus to be set up, noise again swelled in the hall. Dalwood said to Edwards, ‘You knew what was coming, you old fox.’ He was still scribbling furiously.
Edwards offered him a self-satisfied grin. ‘My boss will be remaking the front page right now. We’ve got a photocopy of Miller’s letter.’
‘How the hell did you get that?’
‘McGill wanted something from us.’ He nodded down at the hall. ‘You’ll see.’
Harrison called for silence and the hall quietened quickly. ‘Proceed, Dr McGill.’
McGill stood next to a cine projector. ‘I have here the original film taken of the avalanche by Flying Officer Hatry. The film he submitted to the Commission was a copy; the original is a better print. I don’t think that Flying Officer Hatry should be censured for this, either by this Commission or by his superiors in the Air Force. For a keen photographer to part with an original would be a highly unnatural act.’
He switched on the projector. ‘I will show only that portion of the film which is relevant.’
An unsteady picture appeared on the screen, the whiteness of snow and a few scattered rocks with blue sky beyond. A plume, as of smoke, arose and McGill switched off the projector to freeze the action. He stepped forward with a pointer in his hand.
‘As you can see, the avalanche started here, just by these rocks. It was daytime and the sun was shining in a clear sky. Under those conditions rock and snow take up heat in a different way; the rock warms more quickly, and this difference may set up stresses in the snow just enough to upset an already critical balance of forces. That was my assumption when I first saw this film.’
He switched off the cine projector. ‘I have here a greatly enlarged portion of that scene which I am going to put in this special projector. It is called a comparator.’ He switched it on. ‘The degree of enlargement is such that the image is very grainy, but it will suffice for our purposes.’
Again McGill went to the screen with the pointer. ‘Here are the rocks and there is the plume of snow powder which is the start of the avalanche. This photograph is from a frame of the film which we will call frame one. The next slide you will see is a similar shot but taken thirty-six frames later. That is, there is a two-second difference between the taking of the two photographs.’ He went back to the comparator and inserted the second slide.
‘There is not much difference, as you can see. The plume of snow powder is marginally greater.’ He paused. ‘But if we alternate the slides rapidly, as this machine is designed to do, you will see something curious.’
The image on the screen began to flicker rapidly and the snow plume oscillated. McGill used his pointer. Two of what I thought to be rocks — those two specks there — are obviously moving. This one at the top does not move very much in the two-second interval, but the one beneath moves a fair distance upwards. I submit that the speck at the top is Mr Miller, and the one beneath is Peterson climbing up to him after the avalanche was triggered.’
The increased sound in the hall was almost like the growl of a wild beast, and Harrison’s gavel slammed down. ‘I must protest again,’ said Lyall. ‘Two grainy images on a film which cannot even be seen to be men! What sort of evidence is this? They could very well be flaws in the film.’
‘I have not yet finished,’ said McGill quietly.
‘Neither have I,’ retorted Lyall. ‘I would like to talk to you in private, Mr Chairman.’
Harrison listened to the roil of noise in the hall. ‘I think if you keep your voice down you’ll be private enough here.’
‘I must object,’ said Lyall intensely. ‘Dr McGill has been giving evidence about something he could not possibly know — evidence that reflects upon my client. He has stated flatly in this room that one of those specks on the film is Charlie Peterson. Further, he has also stated that the lower of those specks is Mr Peterson and that he started the avalanche. Can he prove this?’
‘Well, Dr McGill?’ said Harrison.
McGill was silent for a moment. ‘No,’ he admitted.
‘Assuming, for the sake of theoretical argument, that those specks are men,’ said Lyall. ‘They could be anyone, and nothing to do with my client.’
‘Now wait a minute,’ said McGill. ‘Charlie just said that Miller started the avalanche. If he knows that, then it means he was there. And we have Miller’s sworn evidence.’
‘I’m quite capable of drawing my own conclusions,’ said Harrison. ‘I suggest you confine your evidence to that which you know, Dr McGill.’
Lyall said, ‘As I see it, it’s Miller’s word against that of my client. And Miller isn’t here to cross-examine.’
‘What would he gain by accusing Charlie!’ asked McGill. ‘He’d have done better for himself by keeping his mouth shut. As it is, he’s out ten thousand dollars.’
‘That’s enough,’ said Harrison sharply. ‘As I said before, you’re not here to argue a lawyer’s case, Dr McGill. Now you say you have more evidence?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Photographic?’
‘That and my own testimony.’
‘Then I suggest we proceed.’ Harrison again hammered with his gavel until he succeeded in achieving silence. He waited until the silence was absolute, then said quietly, ‘Dr McGill, you may continue.’
McGill returned to the projector. ‘After the avalanche I went up on the west slope to see if there was further hazard. As it turned out, the hazard was minimal in the immediate future. Charlie Peterson volunteered to accompany me. We made an examination of the slope and Mr Peterson was very cool and showed no sign of nerves. It was only after I had indicated my intention to examine the site where the avalanche had begun that he showed signs of nervousness. At the time I put this down to a natural fear of being in a potentially hazardous situation.
‘As we went up the mountain his nervousness increased rapidly and he suggested we go down. We were not far from the site which I wished to examine so I ignored his suggestion. In the event we never reached the site. There was the air accident in the valley and we went down the slope immediately.’
‘Interesting,’ said Harrison. ‘But I don’t see the point.’
‘This is the point,’ said McGill. ‘While we were on the slope an aircraft flew over us at very low altitude and I saw someone taking photographs. I discovered afterwards that the plane had been chartered by a newspaper here in Christchurch. I went to the newspaper office last night and went through all the photographs that had been taken. Here are some of them.’
The projector clicked and flashed again, and a black-and-white photograph appeared on the screen. McGill said, ‘In the bottom right-hand corner you can see Peterson and me. In the top left corner you see exposed rocks. By the rocks there are ski tracks here — and here. I think that Peterson didn’t want me to see those tracks; that’s why he was nervous.’
‘An unwarranted suggestion,’ snapped Lyall.
McGill ignored him, and put another picture on the screen. ‘Here is an enlargement of the breakaway point of the avalanche. There is a ski track going into it, and this ragged line, and another here, is where a man jumped up the slope. It had been snowing heavily that night, and all these tracks could only have been made on the morning of the avalanche.’
He switched off the projector. ‘I further state on oath that the first time I saw Miller and Peterson on that Sunday they were both on skis.’