‘That’s very odd.’
‘I suppose it is, but it makes for a contented life. I love Lochdubh.’
‘What’s so special about the place?’
‘It’s easygoing, the people are friendly, I’ve got my bit of croft at the back of the police station. It’s beautiful everywhere you look. If I moved to Strathbane, I’d be old before my time. I don’t have to deal with any bad crime – well, not lately. The odd burglary, boundary disputes, sheep-dip papers, things like that.’
‘Don’t you get bored?’
‘Hardly ever.’
‘You’re not married.’
‘No,’ said Hamish flatly.
‘Which way now?’
‘The signpost to Drim is just coming up. Make a left round the next bend.’
They made their way down the single-track winding road which led to Drim. Olivia could just make out the gleam of the sea loch. The wind had died down and everything was very still. A few lights twinkled in the cottages.
Because of the towering mountains above Drim and on either side of the loch, Olivia felt they were sinking down into complete blackness.
‘Just stop the car outside the stores there,’ said Hamish. ‘We’ll get out and walk.’
‘I don’t much like the atmosphere of this place,’ said Olivia with a shiver. ‘At least no one is about to see us.’
‘Oh, they’ve seen us all right,’ said Hamish. ‘Every curtain in the village will have been twitching.’
‘So why doesn’t someone come out and ask us what we are doing?’
‘That’s not their way. They prefer to speculate. Much more fun. The path is along here. We’d better switch on our torches. As we get near the sea, we’ll switch them off. The mountains fall back there, and there’ll be enough light from the sky. I suggest we don’t talk anymore. Sound carries a long way up here.’
He took out a black woollen hat and pulled it over his hair. ‘Just in case we meet someone who shouldn’t be here, my hair shines out like a beacon.’
After some time, they heard the sound of the sea and switched off their torches.
‘All quiet,’ whispered Olivia.
‘Get down and don’t make a sound,’ Hamish hissed suddenly.
‘What . . .?’
‘I sense something.’
Hamish pulled up a clump of heather from the side of the path. ‘Take some of the dirt and black your face.’
They smeared their faces and then waited in silence. Olivia began to relax. Hamish was a nice fellow but she was beginning to think he was eccentric, maybe a bit touched in the head.
She was just about to press his arm, to say something, when two great green eyes glared at them out of the blackness. ‘Don’t move,’ urged Hamish. The eyes came closer. They were attached to a small head and long prehistoric neck. In the faint starlight, they could make out the coils of a serpentine body.
They waited. Olivia could feel cold sweat breaking out on her face. Then the creature turned and disappeared around the bend to the sea. Olivia tried to rise to her feet but Hamish grabbed her shoulder and pulled her down. ‘Wait!’
They waited for what seemed to Olivia like an age. Then Hamish rose and pulled her up and said, ‘Come on. Let’s see who’s playing tricks.’
‘We’re unarmed and I don’t have the thing with the panic button with me,’ muttered Olivia. ‘We’re not in a position to confront drug smugglers.’
‘I haff this feeling it is not the smugglers. Let’s see.’
They walked quietly to the end of the loch. The sound of the sea was very loud now and would, Hamish hoped, drown any sounds of their approach.
‘A cave. There must be a cave around here.’
His keen eyes scanned the steep rocks on either side of the entrance to the loch. ‘Over there,’ he whispered. ‘Do you see that dark cleft? I bet it’s there. Over on the other side.’
‘How do we get over there?’
‘We swim. You can swim?’
‘Yes, but . . .’
‘And you’d best keep close to me. The current can be strong.’
Olivia thought miserably as she entered the loch after Hamish that it must be the coldest water in the world. She was a strong swimmer but found she had to use every ounce of energy to battle with the current. Hamish reached down and pulled her up on the other side.
Together they approached the entrance to the cave. ‘Just leave the thing to deflate,’ said a voice. Jock Kennedy, thought Hamish. The bastard!
‘Come on,’ he said to Olivia. ‘It isn’t the drug smugglers.’
He strode into the cave. By the light of the hurricane lamp he saw Jock Kennedy and two men. The rubber neck of the monster was making a hissing sound as it deflated.
‘Whit’s the meaning of this, Jock?’ demanded Hamish sternly.
‘Och, it’s yourself,’ said Jock in a disgusted voice. ‘I thought I had frightened you off.’
‘What the hell were you up to?’
‘Trade at the shop has been that slack. I thought if I had a monster and spread stories that the folks would come. You know what they’re like in Drim, Hamish. They’re aye putting the tourists off. I thought a monster would draw folks.’
‘But you told me not to encourage Ailsa in thinking she had seen a monster.’
‘Aye, but I didn’t want you to take it seriously for I knew you would start poking your nose in.’
‘How did you know we were on our way?’
Jock held up a mobile phone. ‘We just happened to be along here putting more finishing touches.’
‘Finishing is the word,’ said Hamish bitterly. ‘Get rid of that damn thing and, instead, try to get the villagers to be nice to strangers. How did you get over here?’
‘There’s a track a bit up the mountain on this side.’
Olivia found her voice. ‘Book him,’ she said savagely.
‘Oh, I don’t think that will be necessary,’ Hamish said soothingly. ‘Jock won’t be pulling that trick again.’
‘Outside, Macbeth,’ snapped Olivia.
He followed her out. ‘You cannot be calling me Macbeth and giving me orders in front of the locals,’ he chided, ‘or they will guess you are a senior officer, and gossip spreads like wildfire in the Highlands. It wass only a prank and we’ve got more important work to do than charge Jock Kennedy. Surely the drug job is too important.’
‘Just get me out of here,’ she shouted.
Hamish went back into the cave. ‘You’d best lead us back, Jock.’
‘Who is the lady?’
‘Some monster hunter like they get up in Loch Ness. And she’s really sore with you.’
‘Sorry,’ mumbled Jock. ‘But it was the grand monster.’
They silently followed him up the mountain and along a rocky track, broken in places by falls of scree.
Then they walked around the end of the loch to where Olivia’s car was parked.
‘Come in and dry yourselves and have a dram,’ said Jock.
‘That would be grand,’ started Hamish, but Olivia said furiously, ‘Just get in the car. We are leaving . . . now.’
‘Very good,’ said Hamish meekly.
Chapter Five
What a lass that were to go a-gypseying through the world with.
– Charles Lamb
‘Don’t say anything at all,’ she snapped as she drove towards Strathbane. ‘I will speak to you when I am dry.’
When they arrived at the bungalow, Hamish followed her meekly in. ‘I will use the bathroom first,’ she said.
He went into the living room and switched on the electric heater and stood shivering in front of it.
At last she reappeared, dressed in a high-necked nightgown under a camel-hair man’s dressing gown. ‘Your turn,’ she said.
He went off to the bathroom, stripped off, had a hot bath and, wrapping a large bath sheet about him, went to his bedroom and put on pyjamas and a dressing gown.
He went reluctantly back to the living room.
‘Sit down, Macbeth,’ she ordered.
He sat down.
‘Now, let us go through that fiasco. First of all, you seemed to have forgotten I am your superior and gave me orders. You did not book those cheats either.’
‘I had to tell you what to do,’ said Hamish mildly, ‘because I know the territory. There are things in the Highlands it iss better for a policeman to sort out without dragging people off to the courts. Think of the public expense of taking Jock to court and then it would come up who we are and what we were doing there and we cannae have that.’
‘Is this an example of how you do your policing, Macbeth?’
He found himself becoming irritated with her, which in some part of his mind surprised him. He had been berated so many times by senior officers. Perhaps it was because of the very coldness and sexlessness of her manner.
‘It iss in a way, ma’am. If a wee boy throws a ball and breaks a window, then the boy pays for new glass. If there’s a boundary dispute and two crofters are threatening to go to the land court, I try to get them to sit down and talk and reach a compromise. If a woman had shoplifted something from Patel’s, I haff a word with her. She usually doesn’t do it again. If she does, and she is not poor and has a mental problem, kleptomania, I arrange with the doctor to have her sent to a psychiatrist. That way the state is saved a lot of expense, and some unfortunate people are saved from having a prison record. The benefit of being unambitious iss that I do not need notches on my belt. Also, tomorrow evening, while we are at Lachie’s, I am supposed to be the big cheese and you are supposed to be my wife so I’ll have to be in charge.’
She sat there, looking at him assessingly, the anger dying out of her eyes. At last she said, ‘I should not be encouraging you to behave like a Wild West sheriff, but I suppose there is a mad Highland logic to your argument. Pour us both a nightcap and we will discuss tomorrow night.’
‘What’ll you have?’ Hamish walked over to a trolley with an array of bottles.
‘A malt.’
‘Glenfiddich all right?’
‘Fine.’
‘What d’you want with it? Water? Soda?’
‘Just straight.’
‘I’ll have the same.’ Hamish poured two generous measures and handed one to her and sat down again.
‘So,’ she began, tucking her legs up under her and cradling her glass, ‘what do you envisage will happen tomorrow?’
‘I think Bob and Angus will get a rocket for being so loose-mouthed. I hope for their sakes that they’re still alive. They’ll have been grilled about how they took a complete stranger into their confidence. But whatever happens, they’ll have to see me, if only to silence me permanently if they think I am an impostor. In order to get out of paying fifty thousand pounds, I will say that provided the quality of the stuff is good, then it’s going to be a lot more than that. We’ve got to get friendly with them, socialize with them. The main point is to find out where the shipment comes in and when it is due. And I don’t think we should continue to live here. I think we should check into the Grand.’
‘Why?’
‘This house belongs to some friend of Superintendent Daviot’s. After they meet us, they’ll check us out. A hotel is a more likely place for us to stay.’
She picked up a mobile phone from the side table next to her. ‘I’ll arrange that.’
‘Wait a bit,’ said Hamish, turning dark red with embarrassment. ‘There’s something else.’
She raised her eyebrows.
‘After lunch yesterday, I found I hadn’t enough money to pay the bill. So I ran away.’
‘Didn’t you have any cards on you?’
‘I’d left my bank cards at Lochdubh, and, och, if we’re checking in there, it’s just as well I didn’t use them. I mean, we won’t be using our own names.’
‘I don’t know why everything you do seems to be a muddle. I’ll get someone round to the hotel to pay for our lunch. Perhaps we should stay somewhere other than the Grand.’
‘It’s a lousy hotel, but it’s the main one in Strathbane and fits the image we’re trying to create.’
‘Oh, very well. You can go to bed and leave me to sort this out.’
Hamish went off to bed, reflecting that even in her nightwear, Olivia managed to look every bit a chief inspector.
As he lay awake, he could hear the faint sound of her voice going on for what seemed like a long time. His thoughts returned to the Church of the Rising Sun. Why had Tommy gone to such a place? It had only been a brief meeting Hamish had had with the young man, and yet he had not got the impression of someone stupid. The Owens were into loan sharking. Could it not follow that they were into drugs as well? He lay awake wrestling with the problem. He should have told Olivia that the police should have been instructed to search for drugs.
He got out of bed and put on his dressing gown. The murmur of Olivia’s voice on the phone had ceased. He went into the living room but it was in darkness. He knocked at the door of Olivia’s bedroom. No reply.
He pushed open the door and went in.
By the moonlight streaming through the window and across the bed, he could see that she had fallen fast asleep.
He put a gentle hand on her shoulder and shook her.
She sat up in bed and let out a stifled scream.
‘It’s me – Hamish.’
‘And just what the hell do you think you are doing in my bedroom, copper?’ She switched on the bedside light. ‘You are in deep shit, man. Making a pass at a senior officer.’
‘I am not making the pass at you,’ howled Hamish.
She looked up at him, the anger dying out of her eyes. He suddenly looked funny, standing there, his bright red hair ruffled, and a look of outrage on his face.
‘Then why did you wake me up?’
‘I couldn’t sleep. I was thinking about them at the church, the Owens.’ He told her about his theory that they might have been involved in drug dealing.
‘I’ll see to it,’ she said wearily. ‘But you’d better pray they don’t find anything.’
‘Why?’
‘Because if the Owens were into supplying drugs to their parishioners, then it follows that one of the congregation might be found at Lachie’s and recognize you.’
‘Then let’s hope I’m wrong,’ said Hamish.
‘Go back to bed,’ she said. ‘I’ll deal with it.’
Hamish awoke in the morning with the beginnings of fear in his stomach. The fear was not that he would be exposed as a fraud and so put his life in danger. The fear was that he would not be able to carry it off and lose face with Olivia. He had to admit he found her attractive, very attractive. He was irked that she regarded him in a totally sexless light.
When he went into the kitchen, she was reading the newspapers. ‘We’ll be moving to the Grand after you cook us some breakfast,’ she said when she saw him. ‘That’s our car outside. I think we should get into the part right away.’
‘Very well, darling.’
‘What did you call me?’
‘Chust getting into the act of being your husband,’ said Hamish.
‘Well, don’t unless there is anyone else around. There’s a suitcase of clothes arrived for you as well.’
‘I haff the verra good suit,’ said Hamish huffily.
‘Probably too conservative for the part you’re supposed to play.’
‘I’ll have a look.’
‘Breakfast first, if you please. I’ll have coffee and two poached eggs on toast.’
I find you attractive but I could really learn to dislike you, thought Hamish.
After he had cooked and they had eaten breakfast, he looked out of the front window of the bungalow. A gleaming gold Mercedes was parked outside.
‘Where did they get the car from?’ he asked.
‘Up from Glasgow. I don’t know where they got it from. We’d best go and get changed and get out of here.’
Hamish picked up the suitcase and went into his bedroom, slung it on
the bed and opened it. There was an Armani suit, designer jeans, suede and leather jackets, silk underwear, shirts with the name of a famous Jermyn Street shirt maker and a box containing gold cuff links, gold Rolex and wraparound sunglasses. There was also a camel-hair coat.
There was a wallet containing credit cards in the name of Hamish George, a passport and driving licence. It was odd, he thought, when one was at the very bottom of the police force rung, how one would never dream that they could get all this stuff ready so quickly.
He wished he could wear his own clothes. But when he was finally dressed in the biscuit-coloured Armani suit, shirt, silk tie, gold cuff links and gold watch, he realized what a good idea it was. He felt like an actor dressed for a part.
Carrying the coat over his arm, he went into the living room and sat down to wait for Olivia. At last her bedroom door opened and she came out. Hamish blinked at the transformation.
There was now something subtly common and coarse about Olivia. Her hair was piled on top of her head in an elaborate arrangement of curls and loops. She was wearing a power-dressing suit, large shoulder pads, very short skirt and with the jacket worn over a white silk blouse decorated with many gold chains. She wore heavy eye make-up and had painted her mouth to look much fuller and pouting. Her stiletto heels had platform soles.
She pirouetted in front of him. ‘Well, do I look like a drug dealer’s wife?’
‘I don’t know what one looks like,’ said Hamish, ‘but I should think she’d look like you.’
‘Right, let’s get all our stuff into the car. I have good news for you. They have given us a couple of bodyguards.’
‘Why?’
‘Because that will add to our image. It also gives us protection. They’ll be waiting for us at the hotel.’
Hamish found he was slightly irritated that they were not to be on their own. He was afraid that their ‘muscle’ might turn out to be two plainclothes who positively shouted out that they were detectives.
Once their new belongings were loaded in – Olivia had said to leave their own stuff behind and someone would pick it up later – he drove the Mercedes towards the Grand Hotel.
He passed over one of his credit cards, startled at the price of the room, which seemed to him a horrendous amount. But then the Grand was a pretentious hotel.
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