Death of a Valentine Part 6

Her eyes were once more full of dreams as she rang off. Her mother had seen Hamish on television and was loud in her praise. Hamish began to appear a heroic figure in Josie's mind. He had said he would be in disguise but she needn't bother: just wear something suitable for a disco. They would dance, he would hold her in his arms, he would say...

"Are you finished with that iron?" said Mrs. Wellington, coming into the kitchen.

The countryside looked like an old-fas.h.i.+oned Christmas card when Hamish collected Josie the following day. Blair's desire to keep Hamish out of every investigation meant that he was not constantly being given orders or monitored.

Josie barely recognised Hamish. He had a false ginger beard and moustache and small John Lennontype gla.s.ses. His flaming hair was hidden under a black wool cap.

She thought he looked awful.

The music blaring from the disco when they arrived was so loud that as they walked towards the club, Hamish was sure he could hear the beat reverberating through his shoes.

Inside the club, Josie took off her enveloping fun-fur coat to reveal that she was wearing a short red leather skirt, fishnet stockings, and a gauzy glittery blouse with a plunging neckline. She took off her boots and slipped on a pair of high-heeled red stilettoes. Josie was also heavily made up.

They moved onto the dance floor. Josie was a good dancer but to her dismay, Hamish danced like a demented stork. A young man came up and began to dance with Josie, cutting Hamish out. Hamish gave her a quick nod to say it was all right and made his way to the bar. "I'm looking for Jake," he shouted to the barman.

"Ower there," the barman shouted back, pointing to a man in a black leather jacket at the end of the bar.

Hamish approached Jake. He tapped him on the shoulder and flashed a thick wad of what appeared to be fifty-pound notes. Actually it was one fifty-pound note wound round paper. "Come outside," he said. "I've a big deal for ye."

On the way out, he tried to signal to Josie. But Josie was lost in the music, her eyes closed, her hips swaying.

Outside, Hamish flashed his warrant card and said, "I would like you..."

But that was as far as he got. Jake took to his heels and ran but skidded in the snow and went down heavily. Hamish handcuffed him and hauled him to his feet. He realised if he phoned Jimmy, it would take Jimmy an hour to get from Braikie to Strathbane. He'd just need to take him to police headquarters. Where the h.e.l.l was Josie? He shrugged. He couldn't waste time going back for her, and Jake could have friends in the disco who might cause a fight.

Hamish had Jake searched at police headquarters and found he was carrying a good supply of Ecstasy and heroin. He had him put in a cell after being charged with possession. Then he phoned Jimmy.

Blair was sitting in his car, eating a mutton pie, when Jimmy told him the news. Blair let out a string of oaths, ending up by saying he would have Macbeth's guts for garters for poaching on Strathbane's beat.

"Maybe," said Jimmy. "But this Jake Cullen sounds like Annie's boyfriend, and she did have Ecstasy tablets on her when she was killed."

To Jimmy's surprise, Blair said, "I've got work to do. Get yourself ower there and keep in touch."

The owner of Stardust, Barry Fitzcameron, was a friend of Blair's. Barry also owned a couple of pubs where there were always free drinks for the detective inspector. Blair had tipped him off about the raid. When Jimmy had gone, he decided to find a public phone box and call Barry.

Hamish sat in on the questioning. To his surprise, Jake seemed quite c.o.c.ky. He denied supplying Annie with drugs and denied having had any relations.h.i.+p with her whatsoever.

Hamish said, "We have witnesses who can testify that you were intimate with Annie Fleming and supplied her with drugs. And don't tell me the quant.i.ty we found on you was for your own use."

"Look, I'm popular wi' the la.s.sies," said Jake. "I may have given her a leg over. There are so many, I can't remember."

"Stop havering, laddie," shouted Jimmy. "Annie Fleming was the most beautiful girl in the Highlands. n.o.body could forget her."

But Jake continued to stonewall until his lawyer was allowed in. He was told to appear in the sheriff's court in the morning. He was charged with having possession of and supplying drugs, and led away to the cells.

Blair got on the phone in a call box and phoned Barry Fitzcameron. "Thon numptie, Jake, has got himself arrested," he said.

"Has he now," said Barry. "Don't worry about him. I'll see to him."

"Where's your sidekick?" asked Jimmy as he walked Hamish to the door.

"I couldnae hang around waiting for her. Jimmy, do me a favour and get her transferred back."

"I'll see what I can do. Oh, there's the la.s.sie, waiting for you."

Josie was slumped in a chair in the reception area. Hamish opened his mouth to blast her for having been so absorbed in dancing that she had forgotten her duties, but then decided wearily it was a waste of time.

"I'm sorry," babbled Josie. "I heard you arrested Jake. I looked round and you'd gone."

"I'll take you back, McSween," said Hamish wearily. "Chust don't say a word."

He dropped Josie off at the manse and told her to take the rest of the day off. Looking along the waterfront, he saw the press outside the police station. He guessed they wanted quotes about the lion. He did a U-turn and drove first to the Italian restaurant where he found his pets in the kitchen, collected them, and drove to the Tommel Castle Hotel.

Priscilla was crossing the reception area when he arrived. "Still here?" asked Hamish.

"Leaving tomorrow. I read in the papers about Elspeth getting engaged."

"Good luck to her," said Hamish with badly pretended indifference. "I've escaped up here to get away from the press. They probably want quotes about thon lion."

"I should think they're there to ask you about the murder. Blair killed the lion story. He's quoted on the radio and television saying the lion was very old, nearly dead, and a child could have rescued it."

"He doesn't know he's done me a favour," said Hamish. "Too much favourable publicity and Daviot'll have me off to Strathbane. I'd like to talk about it for a bit. My head's in a muddle."

"Mr. Johnson's away. Come in to the office and have some coffee. Yes, you can fetch the cat and dog in if you want."

Settled in the office with Sonsie and Lugs at his feet, Hamish told her all he knew about the case. He ended by saying, "I thought it would be easier. But it turns out that Annie was a bit of a goer, to put it politely, and G.o.d only knows how many men have got their knickers in a twist over her. I haven't talked to the parents. Maybe I'll try them when Blair has finished with them. The father's awfy strict. I'member hearing that."

"You mean G.o.d might have told him to b.u.mp off his harlot of a daughter?"

"No. He wouldn't have sent something so elaborate as a letter bomb."

"Does it take a lot of skill to make a letter bomb?"

"The bomb's not hard. It's aluminium powder and iron, I think. But the skill comes in making the fuse and making it all so cleverly that it won't go off in the post sorting office."

"So you should be looking for someone with a terrorist background or someone with a good knowledge of chemistry? What about Harry Etherington? His friends knew how to detonate dynamite. Maybe one of them's got an iffy background."

"Nothing showed up on the computer but a few drunk and disorderlies. Anyway, young Harry hadn't long arrived in the area. He didn't have the time to make Annie's acquaintance."

"What about the wildlife park? What's it like?"

"Hard to tell now that the animal libbers have let all the creatures out of the cages, but if the lion's anything to go by, I think the whole sorry place was a desert of mange and mud. Owners are Jocasta and Bill Freemont. Jocasta is posh and overworked. Bill is lower down the social scale."

"Bit of a rough?"

"Not that low down. A chancer and, I guess, a fantasist. I think he sold poor Jocasta some dream of the Highlands that only the lowland Scots on the tartan lunatic fringe know how to do."

Priscilla frowned. "Do you think this Bill...how old is he?"

"Older than her. Maybe getting on for fifty."

"I wonder if he or his father or anyone in his family were ever a.s.sociated with the militant side of Scottish nationalism."

"There's a point. I think I'll pay them an evening visit." Hamish stood up and lingered by the office door. "I suppose I'd better say goodbye-again."

" 'Fraid so."

He moved a little forward as if to kiss her. Priscilla sat down abruptly behind the desk and began to shuffle papers. Hamish trailed out with his dog and his cat behind him.

He stopped on a rise on the road before the wildlife park and let the dog and cat out. He knew they liked playing in the snow and they needed to run off some of the fat they had gained by mooching in the kitchen of the Italian restaurant.

It was a bright moonlit frosty night. He smiled indulgently as Sonsie and Lugs tore through the snow.

It was on nights like this that Sutherland became a fairy county, all black and white, the silhouettes of the mountains rising up to a sky blazing with stars. He wished this murder could be quickly solved. Then he would concentrate on getting rid of Josie.

He called his pets, helped them into the back of the car, and drove to the park. He could see the lights were on in the office. Something made him switch off the engine and the headlights and cruise gently down the slope towards the office with the window open.

He slowly got down from the car and pressed his ear to the wall of the office. He heard Jocasta's voice. "I'm telling you. She said she saw you at Annie's house. It was one day a month ago when Annie said she was ill and you said you were going into Strathbane. She says you were in there for two hours!"

"If you're going to believe every malicious auld biddy in Braikie, you're dafter than I thought."

"Yes, daft enough to sink my money into this failure. I'm leaving you."

"Oh, come here, darlin'," wheedled Bill. "You know I'd be lost without you."

"But you went to her house!"

"I swear to G.o.d I never went near her."

Hamish thought he had heard enough. If one of the neighbours had seen Bill, why hadn't they told the police? Was it Mrs. McGirty? Or Cora Baxter?

He knocked loudly on the office door. Jocasta opened it. Her eyes were red with weeping.

"Have I come at a bad time?" asked Hamish.

"No, no, don't worry about me. I haven't been crying. Just some sort of allergy."

Hamish followed her into the office. There was a flash of fear in Bill's eyes, quickly masked.

"What kind of person was Annie Fleming?" asked Hamish.

"Ask Bill," said Jocasta. "I'm going up to the house. Good night."

Hamish waited until the door had closed behind her and then repeated his question.

"She was all right," said Bill.

"Did you have an affair with her?"

"What a question tae ask!" spluttered Bill. "And me a happily married man."

"Come off it. You were seen spending an afternoon at her house by the neighbours."

"I went to discuss the business wi' her. She's my secretary."

"Maybe you'll just be calling your wife to confirm that."

Bill crumpled. "Don't do that. Look, it wasnae me that seduced her. It was the other way around. I couldnae believe my luck, and that's a fact. It was just the one afternoon, that's all. Then she went on as if nothing had happened."

"When was this?"

"About a month ago. Please don't tell the wife."

"That I cannae promise. Do you have any training at all in chemistry?"

"Not a bit. Lousy at school all round."

"You'll need to stand by for more questioning. Don't go to bed."

Hamish went out to the Land Rover and called Jimmy. "What is it now?" groaned Jimmy.

"You'd best get out to the wildlife park and pull Bill Freemont in for questioning. He spent at least the one afternoon in bed wi' Annie Fleming."

"I'll get out there. What if he denies the whole thing?"

"I've got it on tape," said Hamish.

"Have you really? Or is that just one of your convenient lies?"

"No, I've got it all right. I'm off. I don't want to be caught poaching on Strathbane's territory. I'll wait for you at the top of the road."

Hamish waited patiently for what seemed like a long time before Jimmy turned up with Andy MacNab and two policemen following in another car.