Chapter 9
NINE
Ross arrived in the early evening with a bottle of champagne and a fish pie from his freezer.
‘Did you make this?’ Ally asked once he’d hugged her.
‘I did. I wanted you to know that I am not a bad cook,’ he said, grinning. ‘Before you came on the scene, I’d become a dab hand at stuff like this. Not,’ he added hastily, ‘that I’d want to turn the clock back! Talking of clocks, how are your suspects ticking along?’
Ally rolled her eyes. ‘I had Greg at the three o’clock position, but after chatting to Wendy this afternoon, I became a little more confused. I’ve moved him up to one o’clock.’ She popped the pie into the microwave to defrost, while Ross opened the champagne. ‘Are we celebrating?’
‘Only that I’ve finally said farewell to the plumbers,’ Ross said, handing her a glass.
‘So, apart from Will wanting my services again at the vet clinic tomorrow morning, and an exorbitant bill for a new boiler, I’m a free man!
And I just happened to find this bottle lurking in my fridge for no good reason. ’
They clinked glasses.
‘Thank you, Ross,’ Ally said, wondering yet again what she’d do without this lovely, caring man, not to mention his pie and champagne.
‘So,’ said Ross, ‘tell me all.’
‘Wendy came knocking on my door asking if she could read her book in the dining room because Patti and Greg had had a bit of an argument, and she didn’t particularly want to be with either of them.
’ Ally told him about hearing their raised voices in the garden.
‘So I asked her to come in for a cup of tea and she did.’
‘I bet you gave her the third degree!’
‘I didn’t have to,’ Ally explained. ‘She was actually very nice. She said she felt uncomfortable at times because of the animosity between Archie and Greg. They were partners in business apparently, a business which was passed down to Archie from his father. It sounded like maybe Greg was more innovative and Archie didn’t like his ideas.
So maybe Greg wanted to get rid of Archie? ’
‘I suppose it’s possible,’ Ross said, looking thoughtful.
‘But then she said that she and Greg wanted their son to go into the business too, but Archie wasn’t having it.’
Ross sipped his drink. ‘So now you think that she might have a hand in this? But why come all the way to Scotland to do it? Why not take a potshot at him back in Canada?’
‘I don’t know. I mean Archie was her brother, her “baby brother” she called him, and she had tears in her eyes.’
‘In other words, would her filial love be greater than her fraternal love?’ Ross mused.
‘I’ve no idea, but I can’t see her as any kind of Annie Oakley! My top suspects are still Greg and Patti,’ Ally said as she removed the defrosted pie from the microwave. ‘How long will this need in the oven?’
Ross shrugged. ‘Thirty or forty minutes probably. I can’t honestly remember. So, have you eliminated the other suspects then?’
‘No, but they’re way further down on my clock,’ Ally replied.
‘None of the contestants, so far as I can remember, had watertight alibis, and they’d all just been defeated by this Atlantic Warrior, so feelings were running high,’ Ross said. ‘It’ll be interesting to hear what your friend Amir has to say about all this next time he comes calling.’
‘He’s always interested to know what I’ve found out, if anything, but he doesn’t give much away about what he thinks himself,’ Ally said.
‘That, Ally, is why he’s a good detective.’
Ally was sure that Amir probably had a great deal of information, technical or otherwise, but he wouldn’t necessarily be aware of all the niggles taking place within the Armstrong family. That’s where she came in…
There was a frosty atmosphere at breakfast in the morning.
Patti was obviously not communicating – other than very politely – with Greg: ‘Can you pass the milk, please?’ – that sort of thing.
As she cleared away some of the dishes, Ally was quite relieved to see the police car draw up at the front and Detective Inspector Kandahar emerging.
Amir headed straight for the kitchen. ‘I’ll have a word with the Armstrongs later,’ he said, sitting down at the far end of the table.
‘Two of them are having cooked breakfasts,’ Ross said by way of greeting, ‘and I’ve been put in charge of the sausages!’
‘I’m most impressed,’ Amir said with a grin. ‘I’ll keep out of the way until you’ve finished!’
A few minutes later, after the breakfasts had been delivered, Ally came back into the kitchen and put the kettle on to boil. ‘We all need a cup of tea,’ she said. Then, glancing at Amir: ‘No arrests yet then?’
Amir shook his head sadly. ‘We have quite a few suspects, not least the earl and his ghillie, plus a section of the Locharran bodybuilding youth, with a great deal of resentment and no proper alibis.’
‘You’ve questioned the family?’ Ally asked.
Amir nodded. ‘I have, and I’m about to question them again. You can never tell with families, you know. Blood’s supposed to be thicker than water, but I sometimes wonder.’
Ally then decided to fill him in on Patti and Greg’s argument, plus her conversation with Wendy.
Amir listened attentively, nodding slowly.
‘Thank you, Ally. This is the kind of conversation they’re unlikely to give me.
’ He then made Ally repeat everything she could remember about her chat with Wendy and all she could decipher from the fight in the garden.
He was plainly recording their conversation, but he was also making copious notes.
‘OK, Ally,’ he said, standing up. ‘I’ll have a chat with the Armstrongs in a minute.’
Thinking of blood being thicker than water, Ally asked, ‘How are your girls, Amir?’
He smiled. ‘Indira is now eighteen and wishes to become a doctor, and I am very proud of her.’ Amir sighed. ‘Then there is Maya, who is nearly sixteen and has no idea what she wants to do. She is more interested in boys than anything else.’
‘My daughter was just like that,’ Ally said, remembering how wayward Carol had been in her teens. ‘But she sorted herself out and now leads a very respectable life, and I’m sure Maya will too.’
Just then, a pink-faced Morag burst into the kitchen. ‘What’s that policeman doin’ here…?’ She hadn’t noticed Amir sitting at the far end of the table.
Completely unflustered, he replied, with a smile, ‘Just doing my job, Mrs McConnachie!’
‘Aye, well…’ For once, Morag had run out of words.
Amir stood up. ‘I need to have a little chat with your guests, Ally. Do you think they’ve finished eating yet?’
‘I’m sure they have,’ Ally said.
As the door closed behind him, Morag, who was stirring her mug of tea, said, ‘He’s got it in for our poor Micky!’
‘Why’s that?’ Ross asked.
Morag shrugged. ‘I know Micky talks big; he always has. And I know he was shoutin’ in the bar about wishin’ he’d been able to pull the trigger himself and all that. But Micky wouldn’t hurt a fly!’
Ally had her doubts about that, but she nodded dutifully.
‘Anyway,’ said Morag, gulping her tea, ‘I’d better be off. I’ve a lot to do today.’
‘Thank you, Morag. See you tomorrow!’
‘If the good Lord spares me,’ she added as she set off down the lane.
‘I must be off in a minute too,’ Ross said.
‘I’m on duty until lunchtime, I think. But let me tell you, Micky McConnachie has an evil temper and a big mouth to go with it.
He’s been in no end of fights. And his brother, Bobby, is no saint either.
And Morag knows that perfectly well, which is why she’s so edgy around the police. ’
Shortly after Ross had left, Amir reappeared.
‘I need to question your guests individually,’ he said. ‘Well, the three adults anyway. And so I’m going to take them down to the police station, such as it is.’
He referred to the temporary police station which had been set up in one of the Craigmonie’s letting cottages.
There was a constable on duty at the door and a banner overhead with ‘Temporary Police Station’ written on it, but that didn’t stop tourists queueing up to ask directions to all manner of places.
‘The thing is,’ Amir said, ‘we haven’t anyone here to keep an eye on the girls while I’m talking to the adults, so I wondered…’
‘If I could step in?’ Ally provided.
‘That would be very helpful,’ Amir admitted. ‘I mean they’re quite grown-up, but I’d like to think someone was keeping an eye on them.’
‘I’ll suggest they take Flora for a walk to Loch Soular,’ Ally said. ‘They’ve done it before and enjoyed it.’
Flora was already on her feet, wagging her tail, fully fluent in dog-related language, in particular ‘walk’, ‘dinner’ and ‘biscuits’.
‘If you’re sure?’ Amir asked.
‘Of course,’ Ally agreed, picking up the dog’s lead as she and Flora headed towards the hall. She found the two girls being reassured by Patti that no, no one was being arrested, and they’d be back soon, and there was no need to worry. Their faces lit up when they saw Flora.
‘She really needs a walk,’ Ally said truthfully, ‘and I thought you might fancy tramping through the heather to Loch Soular again? And it’s a lovely day.’
Amir interviewed Wendy first, and she got back to the malthouse shortly before the girls returned from Loch Soular.
Relieved that her ‘girls-sitting’ duty was almost over and that she had a couple of hours to herself before Ross got back, Ally made herself a strong cup of coffee and switched on the radio to get the news before vacuuming the two downstairs rooms.
As she sat down, she heard some sort of commotion in the hall.
Sighing, she set her coffee down on the table and went to investigate.
And there, with her babies now asleep side by side in their Silver Cross pram, was Magda.
And also there, oohing and aahing over the twins, were the Armstrong girls, newly returned from their walk with a very happy, muddy dog.
‘I let myself in,’ Magda explained, ‘because the door was open. I was taking these two down for a walk to the shop and suddenly decided I might need some fortification before facing Queenie, so here I am!’
‘Come into the kitchen, Magda,’ Ally said as the girls reluctantly tore their attention away from the twins and made their way into the sitting room. ‘What sort of fortification do you need?’
‘Oh, coffee’s fine,’ Magda said, collapsing into an armchair, having positioned the pram near to the door. ‘I don’t need much from the shop, but these two are always happy to be on the move.’
‘How are things up at the castle?’ Ally asked as she filled the kettle and snatched a gulp of her own rapidly cooling coffee.
Magda sighed loudly. ‘Not good. Hamish is so worried by all this, particularly as he’s a suspect.
’ She ran a hand through her hair. ‘Of course he’s a suspect, as is poor Angus and the other two ghillies, because it was certainly his rifle that fired that shot!
They’ve found the rifle, of course, so who had it?
I mean it’s not something you could carry around without it being seen, is it?
And, for goodness’ sake, whoever stole it had to break the glass cabinet, and why would anyone at the castle have to break the glass when they have keys to open it? ’
‘Well they wouldn’t,’ Ally agreed, ‘unless they were guilty and had to break in to make it look as if it wasn’t them.’
This didn’t seem to have occurred to Magda. ‘I suppose so,’ she conceded, accepting a mug of coffee. ‘But I am worried about Hamish because he is so distressed by it all.’
‘Poor Hamish!’ Ally said sincerely. ‘It’s not as if he’d have given a damn as to who won any of these contests!’
‘Exactly,’ Magda agreed. ‘He didn’t much care.
All he cares about is bringing tourists into Locharran and for them to spend their money here.
’ She raised her eyes to heaven. ‘And, as you can see, he has! I mean the media are here, aren’t they?
It’s on the news, and people are coming here out of curiosity.
Lots of interviewers and TV people are staying at the Craigmonie and hoping to catch sight of one of the Armstrongs. ’
‘Locharran is certainly on the map at the moment! For all the wrong reasons though,’ Ally said.
Magda shrugged again. ‘And, of course, everyone will think that because he is the earl, he wouldn’t do the dirty work himself but would allocate someone, like poor old Angus, to do it!’ She rolled her eyes.
‘You don’t honestly believe that, do you?’
‘No, of course I don’t! But that is what the police might think,’ Magda replied, accepting a chocolate biscuit.
‘But the police were interviewing Angus when the shooting took place, weren’t they?’ Ally asked.
Magda shrugged. ‘They were there in the early afternoon, so I doubt very much that he’d have had an opportunity to get to the games.’
One of the babies started crying. ‘Like I told you, they’re always happier on the move,’ she said, standing up and replacing her mug on the table. ‘I must get them to the shop and then back home. Thanks so much for the coffee, Ally.’
‘You’re very welcome,’ Ally said, accompanying them to the door.
After they’d gone, Ally considered what Magda had said. She knew Hamish hadn’t been involved, and it looked as if Angus hadn’t been either. But what about the two men who now worked for him? They might well be crack shots, but surely they wouldn’t be persuaded to murder someone for Angus?