Betty had not turned out like Marguerite. She had made him happy; she had made him forget … until the police had come and rekindled his old need to take revenge on Katie.
When Sergeant Begg walked in, Angus thought he had called as a customer, or to acquaint him with another of the new rules for shopkeepers which always seemed to be coming into force, and when the policeman said, ‘We traced them, Mr Gunn’, he could not think who the man was talking about. Then he felt like telling him to go away, that he wanted nothing more to do with them. But … he had pestered the police for months after their disappearance, and it was bad policy to get on the wrong side of the law. ‘Y-yes?’ he faltered.
‘Let me tell you how it came about. I went to see an aunt of mine last night on my bike, and she’s a real gasbag, you know the kind, going a mile round to tell you something? I was that fed up when I came away, I went into the first hotel I came to, just for a pint, you understand, for it wouldn’t do for me to be seen drunk in charge of a bicycle.’ He stopped to laugh at his own witticism. ‘Any road, I got speaking to a farmer …’
Thinking that the sergeant was every bit as bad as his aunt for prolonging a story, Angus interrupted, ‘Does this have any bearing at all on … ?’
‘I’m telling you how I came by my information.’
His interest rising in spite of himself, Angus said, ‘Then you do have some information? About my son?’
Sergeant Begg scratched the back of his neck. ‘It could be. Well, as I was saying, this farmer and me were speaking about the state of the world today, and how the young ones take the law into their own hands, and I happened to mention we’d been looking for an eighteen-year-old laddie that had abducted a sixteen-year-old lassie …’
His pause for effect had the wrong effect on Angus. ‘For God’s sake, man,’ he burst out, ‘get on with it!’
With an apologetic smile, the sergeant got on with it. ‘So he tells me he farms at Struieburn, on this side of Mintlaw, and he hired a brother and sister about the time …’
Angus felt his back sagging with disillusionment. ‘I fail to see what all this has to do with …’
‘I’m coming to it.’ Begg, a rather stolid countryman, was enjoying making this man sweat, for he had been a thorn in their flesh at one time, hinting at police incompetence. ‘So Sutherland, that’s the farmer, he says he hired this …’
Angus listened with increasing nauseous excitement to the sergeant’s repetition of what Davey Sutherland had told him, using the same graphic words to describe how the ‘brother and sister’ had been found in the barn, and, later, in bed together. Looking at him in triumph, Begg ended, ‘And he threw them out!’
By this time, Angus was almost frothing at the mouth with rage. He had been right about Katie all along! She had been interfering with Sammy, because the stupid fool would not have been the instigator of their fornication. But even in his anger at Katie, Angus knew he had to go carefully. ‘You believe that this alleged brother and sister were really my son and the girl?’
‘It looks that way to me, Mr Gunn. The descriptions fit.’
‘Then no time must be lost – do you not understand, man? I am afraid for the girl’s safety. My son does not know right from wrong, and he could easily … if he loses his head, if his lust grows too strong, he might kill her. Did you find out where they went after they left the farm?’
‘Sutherland says he doesn’t know, and it happened on the night of Hogmanay, or really the morning of New Year’s Day, 1924, and that’s a fair time ago. We didn’t think to check farms when we were looking, and I don’t suppose they’d be anywhere round there now. I’ve got the Mintlaw constable checking all the farms in his area, but it looks like a dead end to me.’
Angus could still feel the anger he had felt at the finality in Begg’s tone, which had decided him to go and question the farm workers himself. He had been sure that he could make a better job of it than any plodding flatfoot.
After some difficulty in finding the farm, Angus found the farmer easier to locate, but it was obvious he could tell him nothing he did not already know, so he said, ‘Would you let me ask your men if any of them heard them saying where they were bound for?’
‘None of my men saw them that morning, but you’re welcome to ask them.’
Angus spent the whole forenoon trailing from one field to another to talk to the workers, his shoes filling with mud, even with horse and cow dung, his smart suit soaking up the rain which had apparently waited for him to arrive before it began. Unfortunately, most of the men and boys who had been at Struieburn at the relevant time had left to work at other farms. Only two had known Katie and Sammy, and neither of them knew where they might be.
Angus squelched back across the field. The only one to whom he had not spoken was the farmer’s wife, and she would likely be no more help than the others. Reaching his car, he unlocked the door and sat inside, but before he started the engine, a woman came dashing out of the farmhouse.
‘Davey said to ask if you’d like a bite of dinner? You’d have time before the men come in for theirs.’
‘Oh, thank you, that would be very acceptable.’ He was too despondent to feel hungry, but he did not like to refuse.
When he sat down at the table, set with well over a dozen places, Angus said, half-heartedly, ‘I do not suppose you know where Katie and Sammy went?’
‘They went away in a terrible hurry.’
Because she had not given him a definite negative, he looked at her speculatively, and was pleased to see a deep flush creeping up her neck. She was keeping something back. ‘I have been told why they left,’ he said, encouragingly, ‘and what I asked was if you knew where they went.’
Extremely agitated now, Madge Sutherland said, ‘I told the bobbies I didn’t know.’
‘But you do know, don’t you?’
Stubbornly, she shook her head, but he could see that she was weakening. ‘Katie must have told you.’
‘Katie didn’t tell me anything.’
Noticing that she was plucking at the fluff-balls on her old woollen cardigan as if she couldn’t keep her fingers still, Angus pressed home his advantage. ‘I will ask you one more time. Do you know where they went?’
Her eyes held his for a moment, then dropped. ‘Yes.’ she murmured, faintly.
It was all Angus could do to contain his excited triumph, but she said no more. ‘You may as well tell me,’ he snapped, ‘otherwise I will make sure that the police come and get it out of you. Withholding evidence is a crime.’
Madge Sutherland was not so easily browbeaten. ‘The bobby said Sammy had abducted Katie, but I can tell you, he didn’t abduct her. Maybe they weren’t brother and sister, but they loved each other like they were, and Katie was the driving force. She spoke for Sammy, she sorted things out for him. He would never do anything to hurt her.’
Angus was nonplussed for a moment or two, but soon found his tongue again. ‘He is mentally backward, as you must be aware, and your husband told me he threw them out because he found them in bed …’
‘But that was all a …’
‘Please let me finish, Mrs Sutherland. Some time ago, I, too, found them fornicating in bed, which is why they ran off, and I am sure you can imagine what could happen if she ever refused him.’
Her eyes held uncertainty now. ‘Are you sure that was what they were doing when you saw them?’
Angus gave a grim half-smile. ‘Quite sure. Perhaps if you and your husband had been a few minutes later in going into the room that night, you would have been left in no doubt, either. I am afraid for Katie, Mrs Sutherland, and I want to find them before he does something dreadful to her. Even now it may be too late.’
‘Oh, my God!’ Her hand on her bosom, Madge said, ‘I’d a soft spot for Sammy, and I was sure Davey had made a big mistake, that’s why I didn’t say anything to the bobby when he came. I told Katie my brother would likely give them jobs … he runs the Temperance Hotel in Peterhead. Mind you, I never he
ard if he did, for we never write to each other, but I’m near sure that’s where they’ll be.’
His blood pounding fierily through his veins, Angus drew a loud, shivery breath. He had done it! He had actually done it – at long last! Once he passed this information on to the police, it would be next to no time before Sammy was under arrest, and Katie Mair would be brought back to Fenty to face retribution for what she had done.
That had been another pipe-dream, Angus mused. The Peterhead police had called at the hotel but the birds had flown, as Begg had expressed it when he came to tell him. He had been furious and had made up his mind to carry out his own investigation without saying anything to Begg. Someone at the Temperance Hotel must have known where Katie and his son had gone after they left there. But before he had the chance to do anything, he received the final slap in the face.
The sergeant at Cullen had just telephoned to say that they had arrested Katie and Sammy coming out of the railway station. She had sworn she had not been abducted, and, with the length of time since the assault charge was made – there would be nothing left to prove that it had ever taken place – it too had been dropped, and Sammy was free to go home to his father. It was the girl Angus wanted back, not his son, so he had refused to have him, but it was galling to think that Sammy was still with Katie, both of them at liberty to do what they liked. It still riled him to think that she had preferred an under-developed cretin to a man in his prime … but perhaps Sammy had not been so under-developed in that direction.
When he felt a little calmer, Angus glanced at the clock on the wall. Good heavens! It was after six! How quickly the time had passed. Betty would wonder why he was late.
Passing the mirror he provided for his customers, Angus stopped to admire himself, as he often did. He still cut a fine figure. His body had not gained the avoirdupois of some middle-aged men, nor had he lost any of his hair. Admittedly there were several silver threads through the black, but he looked all the more distinguished for that. His smirk faded as his eyes fell on his left cheek. How could he overlook what Katie had done when the evidence was there to remind him? He couldn’t let her off. He must think of a way to take her back to Fenty so that he could put his mark on her, as she had put hers on him.
Chapter Seventeen
When Katie went into the Salutation Hotel on the morning following her trip to Cullen, Mr Noble was waiting for her. ‘Where were you yesterday?’
Her heart sank. ‘I got word my … our grandmother was ill, so I took Sammy to see her.’
‘I wasn’t bothered about Sammy not being here, Jackie kept himself busy, but you should have let me know you wouldn’t be here and not left me in the lurch. Keith said he couldn’t manage on his own, so I’d to put Sally into the dining room, and he …’
Katie sighed. ‘I suppose he said she was better than me.’
‘That is what he implied, and they certainly did seem to get on better. There was none of the usual mishaps.’
Katie could have told him that the mishaps were engineered by the waiter, but she was sure he wouldn’t believe her. ‘So you want me to leave?’
‘You could have the chambermaid’s job back.’
‘And have them all laughing at me? No thank you, Mr Noble, I’ll leave right now, though I’m sorry I wasn’t suitable as a waitress.’
‘I’ve the feeling it wasn’t all your fault, but you see the position I’m in? Keith’s the best waiter I’ve ever had, and I don’t want to lose him. I’m sorry, Katie, but if your mind’s made up, you’d better come to the office and I’ll pay you for the three days you worked this week.’
‘Thank you.’ She felt a pin-prick of satisfaction at his patent discomfort, but she was not going to knuckle down to being shunted around because of Keith Robb. She should have known she had played right into his hands, though it would have likely been only a matter of time till she lost her job, in any case. If Sammy had told Jackie what he had done to her, the young boy wouldn’t keep it to himself, and once Keith heard about it, he would have gone right to Mr Noble … she was probably better out of there.
Five minutes later, she walked into the gardens. ‘I’ve got the sack, Sammy.’
‘Me and all?’ he asked, his eyes widening in apprehension.
‘Just me, and I’m leaving now, so I’ll see you when you come home at suppertime.’
‘Aye.’ He bent his head to carry on weeding.
On her way home, Katie went into the bakery. There was a queue of women at the counter, and when it was her turn, she asked Lottie for four morning rolls and then whispered, ‘I’d like to see you when you’ve time.’
‘Are you not working today? The back of two, then?’
‘That’s fine.’
After tidying her house, Katie remembered that she should have let Dennis know she was back. He would be wondering what had happened in Cullen, and he’d be delighted that the police had made a mistake, and that she and Sammy weren’t wanted any longer. Looking at the wag-at-the-wa’, she saw she would just have time to go to the Temperance and be back before Lottie came.
She felt like an interloper when she went into the place where she had once worked, not that there was any reason to be scared, because she had left of her own accord, but it would be awkward seeing anybody she knew. Dennis was attending to three men in the far corner of the dining room, and didn’t seem pleased to see her standing in the doorway. He came across to her with what she knew was a forced smile and shepherded her into the lobby. ‘Well?’
She assumed that he was annoyed at being interrupted at work and said, hastily, ‘Everything’s all right, and I’ll tell you about it tonight.’
‘I’m busy tonight.’
‘Oh, have you arranged to meet some of your friends? Well, tomorrow, then?’
‘I’m busy tomorrow, as well.’
This did disconcert her, but she asked, hopefully, ‘The day after tomorrow?’
Getting no reply, it suddenly dawned on her that he hadn’t expected to see her again. His promises to come back to her and to marry her had been made because he’d been sure he would never have to keep them. But she had to hear him saying it. Sick at heart, she whispered, ‘You thought Sammy and me would be locked up, didn’t you?’
He couldn’t meet her eyes now. ‘Why weren’t you?’ he said, harshly.
This question confirmed what she thought, and the pain it caused her was evident in her voice. ‘You should have been honest with me, Dennis.’
Looking her right in the face, he snarled, ‘You want me to be honest? Right! You disgust me! You were carrying on with that idiot and he wasn’t your brother at all, though you let me believe he was. Speak about being honest? It’s the pot calling the kettle black! I don’t want to have anything more to do with you! I’ve got somebody else!’ He whirled round and walked away.
Realizing that she couldn’t keep standing there, Katie went outside on legs that would scarcely bear her weight, wishing that she was dead. This last shock, coming so soon after she had been sacked from her job, and just the day after being told that Mr Gunn wasn’t dead, had been too much for her, although she wasn’t capable yet of reasoning this out. Her thoughts were totally engaged in recalling the horrible things Dennis had said. She had been longing for his comfort, his love, and without them, there was nothing left for her.
Then she remembered, with a tightening of her chest, that she would only have Sammy to protect her when his father came after her. She was positive that Mr Gunn wouldn’t have forgotten what she had done, even though three long years had gone by, and she’d be wise to keep the outside door locked all the time.
Back in her own house, her bruised heart gradually started to recover, and she told herself that Dennis wasn’t worth being upset about. He had only wanted her for one thing, and he was getting it from another girl now. As Lottie had said, she was better off without him … though it would take her a long time to get over being used. And what would she tell Lottie about yesterday? Maybe it would
be best to tell her what she had told Mr Noble, to save her asking questions.
When Lottie arrived and learned why the girl had lost her job, she was quite indignant. ‘I never heard the like! He gave you the sack just because you took a day off?’
Katie shrugged. ‘I should have asked him first.’
‘Aye, I suppose you should. What are you going to do now?’
‘I’ll have to look for something else. Maybe I should try at Crosse and Blackwell’s.’
‘Would you consider working for me? I could be doing with somebody that’s used to serving at tables.’
‘Oh, you can’t give Kirsty the sack just to let me …’
‘I was going to get rid of her, any road. You’ll need to serve behind the counter as well, of course.’
‘When would you want me to start?’
‘I’ll have to give her notice, so not this first Monday but next? You’d need to be there by seven, that’s when Bob has the first batch of rolls ready, and there’s aye a rush on them. He’ll be glad to see the back of Kirsty, for he’s aye said she’s a useless lump.’
‘I’ll be there at seven sharp, a week on Monday. Thanks, Lottie, you’ve taken a weight off my mind.’
It had started off as a cold, but Mary Ann was growing more and more concerned for her husband. None of the mixtures the doctor prescribed had helped, and William John had started to complain about a terrible pain in his chest. At first, she had thought it was a result of the coughing, but she soon realized that it was worse than that. He was steadily weakening, and she felt absolutely helpless.
The Three Kings Page 19