A Life to Kill by M. R. Hall

Author:M. R. Hall [Hall, Matthew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780230761254
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK

TWENTY

Jenny had arranged that Private Lyons’s body would be taken straight from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire to the mortuary at the Severn Vale Hospital. She had been assured by a medical officer in Camp Bastion that there had been no autopsy or medical inspection in Afghanistan and that the body would be arriving exactly as it had been found. To make absolutely certain that it was conveyed without a hitch, she drove the seventy miles across country to the airfield late the following afternoon to observe the repatriation.

Jenny was directed by a young airman to park next to a hangar, a short distance away from where the formal proceedings would take place. Already lined up at the edge of the empty runway were more than a dozen officers and men from the regiment dressed in immaculate parade uniform. Both Major Norton and Colonel Hastings were among them. At the end of the row, next to Sergeant Price, stood a diminutive but composed female figure dressed in black, whom Jenny assumed to be Private Lyons’s next-of-kin: his grandmother, Kathleen. Several paces in front of them a bearer party of six privates and a sergeant stood at ease. To their right was a bugler and an army chaplain dressed in a crisp white vestment and purple surplice which flapped gently in the light wind. All were silent. A single vehicle was parked off to the left: a black, windowless van bearing the incongruous words, ‘Private Ambulance’. Jenny stepped out of the car and stood on the tarmac alongside it.

The low, deep drone of the Hercules’s four turbo-prop engines could be heard for close to a minute before its dark grey bulk appeared like a vast, dark angel through the clouds. It slowly descended and touched down with puffs of smoke from its tyres at the far end of the runway. It came smoothly to a halt and taxied towards them. The sergeant called the bearer party to attention. As the aircraft drew closer, Jenny felt a lump form at the base of her throat. Kathleen Lyons retained her upright posture and dignified expression.

The Hercules turned through ninety degrees and came to a halt. The engines fell silent and the propellers were still. The loading ramp descended and came to rest on the ground. The sergeant gave the order and the bearer party marched forward in two columns of three. Marching with short strides, they ascended the ramp and disappeared into the belly of the plane. There followed an agonizing wait, then, on some invisible cue, the lone bugler lifted his instrument to his lips and sounded the first two long notes of the ‘The Last Post’. As he continued to play, the bearer party made their way down the ramp in perfect step. First their feet, then their legs, then their bodies appeared, until finally their burden came into view: a coffin draped with the Union flag. Jenny saw the watching soldiers stiffen at the sight of it. Kathleen held her

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