Stormtide
Page 17
‘It was.’ Shannon chewed his beard. ‘Mister, when they got there the whole damned sea was littered with floating whisky casks. Then they sent a diver down. He says he found the cargo hatches open, just open, mister. Not smashed, not damaged.’
Shirt half-buttoned, Carrick stopped and scrubbed his unshaven chin. ‘But …’
‘Exactly,’ snarled Shannon. ‘You explain it, mister. MacBean swears those hatches were closed when they scuttled the Lady Jane. And do you know how many of those bulk storage tanks they’ve found so far? Just two – both of them washed up on Moorach.’
Which left six missing – six times two thousand gallons of whisky, in steel tanks which would have floated as soon as they came loose.
Shannon rumbled into his beard for a moment then looked up. ‘I’ll tell you Rother’s story of what he was doing last night. He said he used his other two boats to tow the Seapearl down to Mallaig for repair. He did – I’ve checked. But they took a hell of a long time getting there.’
‘And the crews will back him up, I suppose?’ mused Carrick.
‘Every last blasted one of them – I’d bet this ship on it,’ spat Shannon. ‘We can’t do a damned thing.’
Six times two thousand gallons, call it two hundred thousand pounds cash. And a scuba suit with empty air tanks. Carrick fought down a grin, wondering where Dave Rother had his bonus hidden.
‘Mind if I go ashore, sir?’ he asked mildly.
Hardly hearing, Shannon shook his head. ‘Say hello to her for me,’ he said wearily.
This time, Carrick grinned, Dave Rother might have the whisky.
But there was no sense in letting him get the rest.
Also by Bill Knox
The Thane and Moss police series:
Deadline for a Dream (1957)
Death Department (1959)
Death Department (1959)
Leave it to the Hangman (1960)
Little Drops of Blood (1962)
Sanctuary Isle (1962)
The Man in the Bottle (1963)
The Taste of Proof (1965)
The Deep Fall (1966)
Justice on the Rocks (1967)
The Tallyman (1968)
Children of the Mist (1970)
To Kill a Witch (1971)
Draw Batons (1973)
Rally to Kill (1975)
Pilot Error (1977)
Live Bait (1978)
A Killing in Antiques (1981)
The Hanging Tree (1983)
The Crossfire Killings (1986)
The Interface Man (1989)
The Counterfeit Killers (1996)
Blood Proof (1997)
Death Bytes (1998)
The Lazarus Widow (1999)
The Webb Carrick fishery protection series:
The Scavengers (1964)
Devilweed (1966)
Blacklight (1967)
The Klondyker (1968)
Blueback (1969)
Seafire (1970)
Whitewater (1974)
Hellspout (1976)
Witchrock (1977)
Bombship (1980)
Bloodtide (1982)
Wavecrest (1985)
Dead Man’s Mooring (1987)
The Drowning Nets (1991)
Other crime fiction as Bill Knox:
The Cockatoo Crime (1958)
Death Calls the Shots (1961)
Die for Big Betsy (1961)
With Edward Boyd:
The View from Daniel Pike (1974)
Non-fiction:
Court of Murder: Famous trials at
Glasgow High Court (1968)
Tales of Crime (1982)
Written as Robert Macleod Talos Cord investigator series:
The Drum of Power (1964)
Cave of Bats (1964)
Lake of Fury (1966)
Isle of Dragons (1967)
Place of Mists (1969)
Path of Ghosts (1971)
Nest of Vultures (1973)
Jonathan Gaunt ‘Remembrancer’ series:
A Property in Cyprus (1970)
A Killing in Malta (1972)
A Burial in Portugal (1973)
A Witchdance in Bavaria (1975)
A Pay-off in Switzerland (1977)
An Incident in Iceland (1979)
A Problem in Prague (1981)
A Legacy from Tenerife (1984)
A Cut in Diamonds (1985)
The Money Mountain (1987)
The Spanish Maze Game (1990)
Andrew Laird marine insurance series:
All Other Perils (1974)
Dragonship (1976)
Salvage Job (1978)
Cargo Risk (1980)
Mayday From Malaga (1983)
Witchline (1988)
Copyright
Constable & Robinson Ltd
3 The Lanchesters
162 Fulham Palace Road
London W6 9ER
www.constablerobinson.com
First published in Great Britain 1972
This edition published in Great Britain by Constable, an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd, 2011
Copyright © Bill Knox 1972
The right of Bill Knox to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental
All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978–1–84901–905–7