Chapter 29
Sunny sat at her sister’s kitchen table and rested her chin on her fists.
She’d spent a good part of the morning looking at Rodney Ainsworth’s medical files.
She suspected, not from the autopsy, but from the meticulous notes taken by the private nurse Cameron had hired to care for the man, that Rodney’s death had definitely not been from either his cancer or natural causes.
She didn’t know either of his children well enough to know if they were capable of murder, but there had definitely been foul play involved.
Each was as good a suspect as any, she supposed, though the thought of it made her a little ill.
As did the thought of Cameron having to be anywhere near either of them.
She looked at the discreet manila envelope in front of her, the one with all Rodney’s medical records in it, and spared a very brief thought for what had struck her as she read through the file.
If Rodney had been poisoned, which she suspected, there were perhaps dozens of places where his murderer might have obtained a poison.
A dodgy herb shop, perhaps.
There weren’t that many herb shops in the area—dodgy or not.
Tavish’s was one. There was another up north, conveniently located next to a yarn shop—or so she’d discovered in the phone book.
Cameron had suggested that she pass her time doing something that pleased her, and knitting certainly qualified.
She needed yarn. If buying it allowed her a peek inside a previously unexplored herb shop, so much the better.
If she happened to find something sinister, she would let Cameron know.
If she found nothing, she would come back home and no one would be the wiser about her investigating things she probably should have left alone.
She stood up, then picked up the envelope and left the kitchen before she had to think any more about it.
She tossed the envelope on her bed, then walked back down the hallway.
She paused at the doorway to Patrick’s office and saw Madelyn playing with Hope on the rug in front of the fire. Madelyn looked up with a smile.
“How’re you doing?”
“I’m restless,” Sunny said without hesitation. “I think I need to get out.”
“I’ll come.”
Sunny hesitated. “I don’t think you should.”
“And neither should you,” Madelyn said pleasantly, “but if you’re getting out, then so am I. After all, it’s Scotland. How dangerous can it be?”
Sunny supposed that was true enough. Outside of the odd encounter with medieval clansmen, she’d never run into anything else untoward.
“I’ll put Hope in her carseat,” Madelyn said, pushing past her. “Bank the fire, will you?”
“I need yarn,” Sunny offered.
“Sure,” Madelyn called back over her shoulder. “Hurry.” Sunny hoped she wasn’t making a mistake, but really, it was Scotland. How dangerous could it be? She grabbed her purse, made sure her cell phone was in it, then banked the office fire before she went to look for her sister.
An hour later she was driving north, happy to be out of the house and doing something besides sitting and stressing.
The scenery was beautiful, she was in Patrick’s Range Rover, which she knew wouldn’t break down anytime soon, and she was wearing a ring on her finger given to her by a man who loved her. The sun was even shining.
Life was good.
“Where are we going?” Madelyn asked. “I’m assuming you have a destination in mind.”
“I want yarn.”
“That’s what you said,” Madelyn agreed. “What’s your real destination?”
Sunny pursed her lips. “I’m really going for yarn. There might be an herb shop in the vicinity I’ve never been in before, as well.” She paused. “I was thinking it might be worth a visit.”
“Cameron won’t like it,” Madelyn said in a singsong voice. “You should be sitting by the fire, waiting for him.”
Sunny shot her sister a look. “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him, will it? And when did you get to be so medieval, Lady Benmore?”
Madelyn smiled. “It rubs off, after a while. Talk to me in a year and see if it hasn’t rubbed off on you as well.”
“I could only hope,” Sunny said seriously. She took a deep breath. “I really do think we’re safe, Maddy. I wouldn’t have let you come with Hope, otherwise.”
“I know,” Madelyn said, reaching out to squeeze her hand. “We’ll be okay.”
Sunny nodded, more to reassure herself than her sister. The bad guys following Cameron were in London, not Scotland. She and Madelyn would be safe enough for the morning.
She drove for another half hour, then slowed down when she reached the right village.
She pulled to a stop in front of a shop that looked herby enough, then got out and waited for Madelyn to get Hope unbuckled.
She walked with her sister into the shop, then had to close her eyes and take a deep breath.
Better than London exhaust fumes, definitely.
She looked around, then jumped when she saw the flash of someone disappearing behind a curtain behind the counter.
Well, so much for being helped. She started to wander around, then squeaked in surprise when she realized there was someone standing right beside her who wasn’t her sister.
She put her hand over her heart and tried to catch her breath.
The woman was, Sunny decided immediately, a refugee from a fairy tale.
An unpleasant fairy tale. She was lacking several critical teeth, she had a wart on the end of her nose, and her fingers were so gnarled with arthritis it was a wonder she could straighten them at all.
Sunny fully expected to see her pull an evil looking wand out of her pocket and wave it over her and Madelyn both.
“What can I fetch for you ladies?” the woman cackled, reaching out with a bony finger to touch Sunny’s hair.
Sunny managed a smile. “We’re just here to sniff.”
The woman frowned in displeasure, then muttered under her breath as she took herself and her black dress and scuttled back over to the curtain.
Sunny watched her go and thought suddenly about the last witch she’d been convinced she’d seen.
It had been that woman she’d encountered outside the yoga studio on the night Tavish Fergusson fired her.
It was possible she was related to the old crone, but there was no way she was going to try to find out. She shivered and looked at Madelyn.
“I think I’m losing it,” she whispered uneasily.
“Too much time with your nose in things that make you hallucinate, ” Madelyn said wisely. “Or maybe you’re just having a bad week. Either way, can we go now?”
“Definitely.” The trip was a bust anyway. No new clues, very scary proprietresses, and not a bodyguard in sight. She followed her sister outside and pulled the door shut behind her. “That place gave me the willies.”
“I don’t even have your kooky karma thing going and I agree with you. That was creepy. Yarn shop now?”
“Are you insane?”
Madelyn laughed. “Not today. Unlock the car, would you?”
Sunny did. “You know,” she said slowly, “I think there was someone staring at us from the back.”
Madelyn looked up from where she was buckling Hope in the backseat. “Want to go back in and investigate?”
Sunny looked at her in surprise. “Are you out of your mind? You have a baby!”
“I wasn’t going to go back in with you,” Madelyn said pointedly.
“I was planning on keeping the car warmed up and ready for your hasty getaway. Actually, I think we’d be smart to just get back home before either Cameron or Patrick finds out we’re gone.
Pat wasn’t going to be that long in Inverness. ”
Sunny got in, shut the door, and watched her sister click the locks. “Can you believe us? Modern, independent, tough women following orders like this?”
“I don’t know about you, but I always feel slightly better when Patrick is standing between me and the door with a sword in his hands,” Madelyn said dryly, “so I try to humor him when he asks me to stay put at home. Let’s get out of here before he decides to use that sword on us.”
Sunny snorted. She’d never heard Patrick come close to even raising his voice at her sister—but she wasn’t going to press her luck. She turned on Patrick’s car and started off through the village.
After a moment or two, a small gray sports car swung into her lane behind her.
Sunny watched it periodically, waiting for it to turn off, but decided that perhaps she was going to be followed all the way south.
She glanced down at the fuel gauge, then looked for the first gas station she could pull in to.
Patrick really didn’t need any gas, but it was a good excuse to get off the road and take a deep breath.
She looked casually over her shoulder to take in the sights.
She jumped when she saw the little gray car parked on the near side of the street in front of a block of row houses.
Damn it, she was going to hear a raised voice or two very soon. Maybe she shouldn’t have objected so strenuously to Cameron leaving one of his men to look after her.
She was too far away for a particularly good view, but she could see a hat and sunglasses. It occurred to her, with a start, that it could be one of Cameron’s men. She wasn’t sure if she should be offended that he hadn’t trusted her or relieved that he made an executive decision on her behalf.
She got back in the car and drove away, but kept an eye on the car behind her. The driver seemed to be making no secret of following her, consistently remaining a handful of lengths behind her. She waited for a bit longer, then pulled over into a turnout.
“Why’d you stop?” Madelyn asked her.
Sunny looked in her rearview mirror to find the gray car thirty feet behind her.
The doors remained shut; the driver remained inside.
Sunny frowned thoughtfully. “Nothing, really. I was just curious about someone behind us.” She took a deep breath and saw a castle in the distance to the south, across the loch from where they were. “What’s that?”
“It’s the old Fergusson keep,” Madelyn said in a very quiet voice.