Chapter 5
You want to know how we got from that to what happened to Rock?
In the papers it told how there was an accident at the waterfall that late summer evening. Flora was the one who found the body. Close by the waterfall there was a large pile of boulders that had come away from the looming cliff wall, they lay there half in and half out of the foaming crystal waters. Flora had come out of the tent early that morning after a very difficult night. The evening before, as she told Harris when he came to investigate, she and Carter had been caught underground when one wall of the dig chamber had collapsed. They both told Harris that they had no idea what had caused the disaster but it had taken them until the early hours of the morning to dig themselves out. Exhausted, they had both just fallen asleep. They hadn't known anything about the resultant rock fall above ground until the morning. Edging closer to the waters to investigate Flora had spotted the bright blue arm of Rocks jacket. However, it was across the stream from where she was stood and the flow from the waterfall was so intense there was no way she could cross. When questioned by Harris she told how Carter had sent her for Dr Hardy and told her to meet him on the other side of the gorge. Once there they realised the fall of rock was too heavy for them to move alone. Flora had then gone for help from some of the Valley men and returned with Gustafa, Griffin and Cody. Together they had helped to clear the debris. Under there they'd found Rock's body sprawled face down, his golden hair matted with dirt and dark blood, his skull dented and crushed. Harris wanted to know if anyone had seen Rock by the waterfall but no one there had. They'd then come down to the farm and woken me. Ruby answered the door; she'd stayed the night with me, as I'd still felt so ill. She'd come to help me with Joel who had a cold and was sleeping badly. Dr. Harris gently told me what had happened and then stayed with me while the men brought Rock's body home. They laid him out in the little shed by the large field so that Dr. Hardy could examine him in peace. There was no real mystery as to cause of death as the shocking evidence to Rock's skull showed. There were other broken bones but the head wounds left no doubt. Harris questioned everyone closely as to when they'd last seen Rock and I had to admit that I hadn't seen him since noon and that he was often away from home. The policeman was unhappy at having to press me but the question of what Rock was doing at the waterfall had to be answered. I muttered that Rock often picked Goddess drop flowers for me there but everyone knew that these grew in Spring not Summer. Flora agreed that she'd also seen Rock there picking flowers but had to add that it wasn't recently. It was then that Ruby told us all how it had been Rock's habit, from being a small boy, to hide out at the waterfall whenever he was upset or in trouble. It was also then that we had to admit to Harris that Rock had learned the day before that he was to be a father again. I'd gone to see Dr. Hardy after several more bouts of sickness and discovered the true depths of my mistake that night after Celia's wedding. I was nearly five months pregnant and I hadn't even noticed. Of course I hadn't known, well, maybe I'd had a subconsciously I'd had a suspicion but I'd refused to face the possibility. The whole stress of the situation had affected my appetite and I'd never been ill or sick when I was carrying Joel. As this was a second pregnancy Dr. Hardy was amazed I hadn't spotted what was happening but when he weighed me I was actually four pounds lighter than usual. I'd had no choice but to tell Rock straight away as he had gone with me and was sat outside with Joel. He'd been very quiet and said nothing all the way home. Rock certainly wasn't enthusiastic about this forth-coming birth as he had been with Joel. He demanded to know what I thought I was playing at hiding it from him. How could I let him down like this. The he stormed out of the house yelling I'd get no help from him. I'd cried for ages after he'd gone. I'd known he wouldn't be pleased but I didn't think he'd take it that badly, like a peeved little boy. I could hear a few shocked in-drawn breaths behind me and Ruby put her arm around me. She knew her only son too well. Harris left us at this but we knew that was not the end of it and he'd be back.
Later, at the inquest, we all heard the results of his investigations. He'd gone all round the Valley and he'd found three sightings of Rock that afternoon. Murray had seen him going up to the waterfall in the early afternoon. Rock had been muttering to himself and had swatted Murray out of his way. Hugh confirmed this as he had passed both men on his way down from the Goddess pool. It was about 5.30 pm, he knew this because he had been doing some stamina training, running up and down the steep path and he was on his last lap and had been timing himself. The third sighting was by Lumina. She admitted seeing Rock by the waterfall in the early evening also. Actually she hadn't seen him she'd heard him and there had been someone else with him. They had been having a heated argument and Lumina had hurried away. No, she hadn't recognised the other voice and she hadn't been able to make out what they were saying. She'd had an idea that the other person with Rock was a man but she couldn't even be certain of that, as both voices had distorted by the sounds of the waterfall. The police had even followed up on this clue and gone to Mineral Town to question Mary's father and boyfriend. Luckily Gray had been in the forge all day with his grandfather and Mary's father had spent the entire day with Gotz on Mother's Hill the other side of Mineral Town from the Valley. So this line of enquiry went no further, to everyone's relief. Harris had an expert come out from the city to see whether the rock fall could have been other than accidental. The engineers also looked at the diggings and the rock fall there. They'd concluded that it would have taken explosives to bring down that amount from the cliff face; no one could have done it manually. There were no explosives kept at the site and the only other supply belonged to the twins. They both testified on oath that they could account for all the gunpowder in their possession and there were none missing. After a good look round the dig the experts had come to the conclusion that the collapse of the cliff face was an accident and had probably contributed to the fall in the chamber. This set the time of death as about 7.30pm. Finally a verdict of accidental death was given and we all breathed a sigh of relief.