Highland Peril

by Amy M. Reade

  Alice howled in pain. A small circle of blood began to widen and spread across her shoulder. She became a wild woman, shrieking and flailing her good arm, thrashing out toward Eilidh as she stood over her, poised to strike again with the dart. When Alice kicked Eilidh’s ankle she cried out, then fell onto one knee and plunged the dart into Alice’s skin again and again. Circles of blood appeared on Alice’s clothes, spreading with each thrust of Eilidh’s arm. Before she drew her arm back, breathing heavily, Eilidh had stabbed Alice in the arm, the leg, the abdomen, and the throat.

  As Alice lay on the floor, whimpering and cursing and unable to move, Eilidh ran to the kitchen for a pair of scissors and returned to the living room to cut me loose. As I stood gingerly and went to stand guard over Alice, Eilidh went to the kitchen and rang up the police, then Seamus and Callum. Then she returned and held me in a long embrace while I sobbed into her shoulder, thanking her over and over again for saving me.

  Our husbands arrived before the police, but only by a few moments. When the police arrived they discovered pandemonium at Gorse Brae, between Seamus’s shouts at Alice, Callum’s shouts at Eilidh for getting herself into such a dangerous situation, and Eilidh and me trying to explain what happened. The police quieted us all down quickly. They called for two ambulances—one for me and one for Alice—then asked me questions while we waited for them to arrive. Alice was handcuffed on the floor, the looks on her face alternating between dejected and furious.

  When the officers learned who Alice was, they quickly rang up Scotland Yard to tell them they had Florian McDermott’s widow in custody. Someone promised to be in the village by morning to begin questioning Alice.

  Seamus went with me in the ambulance, and at hospital I was checked over quickly and x-rayed. I had, indeed, suffered a broken arm, which was put into a cast. They bandaged the less serious injuries and I was released by morning. I returned to Gorse Brae to begin cleaning up the mess that had been left in Alice’s wake.

  Alice had been thorough in her search of the house. The only room she hadn’t destroyed was my bedroom, which remained relatively intact. I decided it would be best to start in the studio and make my way toward the inside of the house.

  With only one useful arm, cleaning was tedious and painful. But Eilidh came over to help, as did Seamus and Callum. I decided against telling Mum what had happened, because I had worried her enough lately. I rang her up to say hello, but never mentioned a word about Alice or the painting. I instructed Seamus, Eilidh, and Callum to keep Alice’s visit a secret from everyone, including Greer and James. I didn’t want them worrying, either.

  The next day I spoke to Chloe on the phone. When I told her everything that had happened, she was shocked. But she had news of her own, and after assuring herself that I was going to be fine and that Eilidh had suffered no ill effects from her encounter with Alice, she launched into her story.

  “Hagen is going to be formally charged with Thea’s murder.”

  “Have you been to see him?”

  “Yes. I talked to him for a bit and he swears he didn’t do it. He can’t think of anyone who would hate Thea enough to kill her.”

  “Do you believe him? I mean, do you think he didn’t do it and that he really has no idea who did?”

  “I think I believe him, but he and I have been friends for a long time. I’m biased.”

  “I can’t help thinking that it’s a huge coincidence that Hagen shows up in the Highlands looking for a painting, then he’s found up here again when his ex-wife is murdered. Do you think Thea’s murder has something to do with the painting?”

  “It’s possible,” Chloe said. The skepticism in her voice was obvious. “But Hagen says Thea didn’t know anything about the painting.”

  “She didn’t have to know anything about it to be involved. Maybe she knew he was looking for something valuable in connection with his work in the art world. Maybe she knew something and didn’t even realize it.”

  “That’s true.” I could envision Chloe nodding slowly. “Well, I’m going to see Hagen again in a few days. If I learn anything else, I’ll be sure to let you know.”

  I went back to my cleaning, which felt painstakingly slow. When there was a knock at the door, I jumped.

  “Seamus,” I scolded as I let him in. “You scared me.”

  “Sorry, Sylvie. I don’t have my keys and I didn’t think to ring you up before I came over.” He looked me up and down. “How are you feeling?”

  “I’ve been better, but I’m refusing to sit and sulk. Want to help me clean up this mess?” I asked, indicating the studio with a sweep of my good arm.

  “That’s what I came over for,” he said with a smile. “Eilidh said she’ll come over later, but the police are interviewing her again.” Not surprising, since she had assaulted someone, but I hoped they would let her go quickly since it was obviously a case of self-defense.

  “Thanks for coming,” I said. “Where would you like to start?”

  He joined me in the studio and we worked for a long time in silence, each of us concentrating on our own work spaces, tools, and materials. Seamus had far more to do than I did, since much of my work was done on a computer and I didn’t use too many implements to take photos. Seamus had an untold number of art supplies and accoutrements, so when I was done I began helping him.

  After a while the silence got to be oppressive. Seamus was rearranging stacks of cold-pressed and rough papers containing hundreds of watercolors he had experimented with for larger works, so I sat down on the floor to help him. I knew how he liked his papers organized, so I was able to jump right in and help without needing any instruction.

  I looked at him out of the corner of my eye and saw that he was watching me.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “What are you thinking about?” I asked.

  “I was thinking that I don’t have to explain what to do because you already know.” His mouth curled in a tiny smile.

  “Tell me about Rose,” I said. I surprised even myself when I said it. Unbidden from the depths of my mind, my husband’s first wife had emerged.

  Clearly I surprised Seamus, too. “Well,” he stammered, “what do you want to know?”

  “Just tell me what she was like.”

  He pursed his lips.

  “We met when we were just bairns. We were schoolmates in Glasgow, grew up in the same neighborhood. When we got out of school we lost touch, then met up years later. She was lonely, I was lonely, and we decided to tie the knot. We didn’t give it much thought before we did it. It was more for the sake of convenience, for the sake of having someone to come home to every night. I was married to her when I started taking cooking classes.

  “We fought a lot, mostly about money. I didn’t have much money growing up, but she had even less. And when we both started earning paychecks, it seemed like a lot of money to two people who had never had much. I didn’t realize at the time how little money we really had then. Not enough to live on comfortably.

  “Anyway, she was furious when I started taking cooking classes. Thought it was a waste of money, though she didn’t consider drinking with her friends to be a waste. She said she worked hard enough and her life had been hard enough that she deserved a break. But I continued to take cooking classes.

  “Eventually she left me. She didn’t want to be tied down to a man who would rather cook than go out with his mates.”

  “So she left you, not the other way around,” I said. I had hoped Seamus had had the good sense to leave her.

  “She did, but I was glad to see it happen. If she hadn’t left me I would have left soon enough. We were never suited for marriage to each other. But we stayed friends, and I’ve watched for several years now as she’s gone to a dark place in her drinking. And the spending never stopped, even though her income did.”

  “How was she able to spend money she didn’t have?”

  He looked down at his hands. “I’ve paid a lot of her bi
lls, so the credit card companies haven’t realized she’s broke.”

  I gave him a long look. “It’s funny it took me so long to realize what was going on. And even when it practically hit me in the face I didn’t realize it. Or didn’t want to believe it. Why didn’t you tell me about her?”

  He looked beyond me, as if he were looking back into the past. “It never came up. And I was embarrassed by the whole thing, and the longer we were together the harder it got to say something out of the blue. Rose is very sick. She’s not going to live much longer. I figured that when she passed I would stop paying for stuff and I would never have to tell you about her.”

  I sighed. His story seemed so logical, and yet I knew in my heart it was a deep betrayal of my trust. I longed to understand his reasoning, if the story he told me was true, but I just couldn’t. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

  “Are you going to see her again?”

  “I think it would be wrong not to,” he said, making a resigned movement with his hands.

  “It would be wrong not to see your first wife before she dies, but it wasn’t wrong to neglect to tell your second wife about her?” I knew I shouldn’t have said it, but I couldn’t help it.

  “I never said it wasn’t wrong to keep Rose a secret. It was wrong, I admit that. I was stupid. And I’m verra, verra sorry.” He looked at me with tired eyes and it occurred to me for the first time that this separation may have been harder on him than it had been on me, at least physically. He had been sleeping in a house that wasn’t his own, in a bed that wasn’t his own, living with people who weren’t his own wife. He probably didn’t have all the tools he needed to cook the way he wanted to at Eilidh and Callum’s house, and I knew he missed his own kitchen.

  But none of that was enough to make me take him back. I couldn’t get past the hurt he had caused. I stood up and pushed my stool back. “I’d like to go with you when you see her again.” My words surprised even me.

  Seamus looked at me with shock. “Why?”

  “I don’t know. I just want to meet her, that’s all.”

  “I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Sylvie.”

  “Why not?” I asked, lifting my chin in defiance.

  “Because she… because…I don’t know. It just doesn’t seem like a good idea.”

  “It’s only fair. She knows about me, right?” Seamus nodded. “Then it won’t be a shock to her to meet me. I wouldn’t go if she didn’t know I exist. But I guarantee you she wants to meet me, even if she’s never mentioned it.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “I just know. Trust me.”

  He shrugged. “Maybe. No promises.”

  Just then Eilidh came in. She looked haggard. “What happened?” I asked.

  “I’ve been talking to the constable. Alice wants them to charge me with a crime because I stabbed her with my dart! Can you believe it?”

  “I’ve learned not to underestimate Alice,” I said ruefully. “What does the constable say about it?”

  “He said not to worry, that they need to gather more information before they can make a determination about charging me with anything.” She shook her head. “I’m a nervous wreck. What else could possibly go wrong?”

  CHAPTER 19

  Mum rang me up that night, eager to know if Seamus and I had solved our troubles. I told her we hadn’t, but then explained that I would be going to visit Rose at some point.

  “Is that a good idea?” Mum asked.

  “You sound like Seamus,” I said, exasperated. “If you were Rose, wouldn’t you want to meet your ex-husband’s new wife?”

  “I don’t know that I could put myself in her shoes,” Mum said, avoiding the question deftly.

  “What else is going on?” I asked.

  “Have you talked to Greer?”

  “No. Why?”

  “Just wondered.”

  “What’s up?” I asked, starting to get worried.

  “Nothing. You might want to give her a call.”

  I couldn’t concentrate on anything else Mum had to say. I finally told her I had to ring off and call Greer. “I’m sure I’ll talk to you soon, then,” she said.

  Now I was beside myself. I dialed Greer’s mobile phone and waited, my fingers tapping the counter, until she answered. It was noisy in the background.

  “Greer, it’s me. What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. Who told you anything was wrong?”

  “Mum.”

  “What did she say?”

  “She just asked if I had talked to you. Please tell me what happened. Is Ellie okay?”

  Greer laughed. “Everything is fine. Better than fine, actually. I was going to wait to tell you in person, but I guess Mum is forcing my hand. James and I are getting married.” I could practically see her wide smile.

  “That’s wonderful news!” I cried. “When? How did it happen?” I had a million other questions for her.

  “Let me…” I heard shuffling. “Let me get out of here,” she said. “We’re celebrating with Ellie at a restaurant and it’s a wee bit loud.”

  She told me everything when she was out on the street. “He must have known I was getting closer to saying ‘yes.’ He hadn’t asked me about it in a long time,” she said. “But then this afternoon the three of us were at a park and he enlisted Ellie’s help. Her job was to pretend to need help tying her shoes, which I thought was strange, then whilst I helped her James got down on one knee behind me. Then I turned around and there he was, on the ground, asking me to marry him and he had this beautiful ring and Ellie was laughing because she had managed to keep it a secret, and I just found myself saying I would!” She was breathless.

  “I can’t believe you finally agreed!” I exclaimed. “Congratulations! I’m so happy for both of you! All of you,” I added.

  “I’m over the moon,” she said. “This was the right time. It’s been long enough since the ugliness with Neill, and James has been so patient.”

  “You’re very lucky,” I said. “James is a wonderful guy.”

  “I know,” she gushed. “I can’t believe this is happening.”

  “When’s the wedding?”

  “We haven’t even talked about it yet.”

  “I’m really happy for you, Greer,” I said. And I was. But what I didn’t tell her was that I was feeling a wee bit melancholy, too. Sorry for myself. I once had a great guy, too, but something had gone terribly wrong and now I didn’t know how our relationship was going to continue.

  I rang up Mum and scolded her. “You let me think something terrible had happened!” I accused.

  “I knew you’d want to know, and I was afraid Greer would wait to tell you until she saw you. I wanted you to share in her happiness from the start.”

  “I’m glad I talked to her right away,” I said. “They’re going to be so happy.”

  We were silent for a moment, both of us probably thinking the same thing: that we all thought Seamus and I would be happy, too, when we were first engaged. But it would be different with Greer and James. Neither of them had secrets they wouldn’t share with the other. We hung up with promises to talk again soon.

  I cleaned the shop before going to bed that night. I didn’t like being by myself in the shop with the light on, because anyone out in the darkness could see that I was alone. But the alarm was on, and that gave me a welcome feeling of security.

  When Seamus arrived the next morning to continue his work in the studio, I told him the news about Greer and James. It wouldn’t be fair to leave him out of the loop. After all, Greer was still his sister-in-law and he loved Ellie. He beamed. “That’s braw!” he exclaimed. “I’ll ring them up today and congratulate them. The bairn must be thrilled!” Ellie, I was sure, was as happy as both Greer and James.

  Eilidh came in shortly after Seamus. She was angry.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked. Seamus leaned around the studio doorway. He must have heard me.

  “Something wrong, Eilidh?” he asked.

&
nbsp; “Callum makes me so mad,” she said, practically throwing her bag onto the counter. “He wants to move. Can you believe it? Move!”

  I was confused. “Why does he want to move? Where does he want to go?”

  She gave an elaborate shrug. “How am I supposed to know? He has no idea. He wants to live in a more posh place, he says. I told him we’re not the posh types.”

  “He doesn’t like Cauld Loch?” I felt somehow hurt by this revelation.

  “I think he likes it, but he wants to move to a bigger village. Can you imagine me in a bigger place? I’ll hate it!” she exclaimed.

  “You don’t know that,” I said. “Maybe you should get more details.”

  “I don’t care what the details are. I like my cottage, I like living near you, I like Cauld Loch, and I don’t want to leave.”

  “Maybe he’s just kidding,” I said without hope. Somehow I knew Callum wouldn’t joke about such a thing.

  “He’s not, as you well know,” Eilidh said. She had seen right through my flimsy attempt to cheer her up.

  “Give him some space. Maybe he’s having trouble at work and he doesn’t want to bother you with it.”

  Eilidh clearly hadn’t thought about that. “Do you think he lost his job?” she asked, a sudden tinge of worry in her voice.

  “I doubt it, or he wouldn’t be talking about moving to more posh quarters,” I said. “But maybe this is his way of expressing a desire to try working somewhere else.”

  “You could be right,” she said. “I’ll ask him about it at dinner tonight. I won’t bother him about it now.”

  We spent the day changing some of the displays in the shop to reflect the colder season and the coming winter. Seamus and Eilidh left late in the afternoon. Chloe rang me up before I sat down to dinner alone.

  “No new developments with Hagen,” she reported. “I’m probably not going to see him for several days. I’m busy at work and helping Felix with a new show at the gallery and I just won’t be able to get away.” She told me a bit about the new show. I told her I hoped the artist would do as well at the Lundenburg as Seamus had done.