by Mary Birk
“I don’t think so.”
She took a deep breath. “I can’t say I’m not disappointed, or that it’s not a monumental loss for me.”
“I know. I’m so sorry, but I really need the loan. I’ll find a way to pay you back later.”
“I’m tapped out, darling. You’re going to have to go to your father.”
Rodney ran a hand through his hair. “I just can’t face him with this news. He’ll think I’m a fuck-up.”
“Please don’t use that kind of language. No, he won’t. He’ll know what to do. How to help.”
“Of course he will. But he’ll also let me know how stupid it was. He’d never make a mistake like this. He can’t help comparing his success at my age with where I am.”
“I don’t think you’re being fair. He’s very proud of you.”
“What about Greenebrae?”
“What do you mean?”
“Can’t you borrow against your interest in it?”
“I don’t have an interest in it. It belongs to your father. After he dies, of course, it will go to you and Miranda. But for now, it’s his.”
“Can’t I have my inheritance from your estate early?”
She looked at him, puzzled. “Your inheritance?”
He nodded.
“Darling, you’re not listening to me. The income off my investments is what I live on. I’m only fifty-four years old. I may live for forty more years. The money I gave you to invest was everything that’s not tied up. You’ll have to go to your father. He has that kind of ready money. I just don’t. Come here, darling.” She embraced him. “Everything will work out. Your father will take care of things. That’s what he does. He’s good at it. Go to him, please.”
Chapter 20
THE SNOW CRUNCHED under Reid’s boots as he made his way down the path leading to the birds’ domain. The Falcon House was set on a slight hill to the northwest of the castle’s main buildings. Built by Reid’s ancestors in the mid-eighteen hundreds, the tall stone building would, no doubt, remain standing strong for many more generations
When he opened the heavy wooden door, he could tell that Albert Quinoa, his bird keeper, wasn’t there. The place had that deserted kind of quiet a building has when it’s empty. Natural light, let in from numerous windows and skylights, filtered into the open cavern of the building. He flipped on the electric lighting, as his eyes weren’t as keen as were the birds’ eyes.
The stone floor was covered with clean, fresh straw, not just for warmth, but for the natural scent it provided. The air was chilly but not too cold. The Falcon House not only provided the birds as natural a habitat as possible in captivity, but also the advantage of enough heat to make them comfortable. Walking through the cavernous building, he made a cursory check of the cages. Arthur kept everything spotless, and the place smelled clean—a natural clean, though, not an antiseptic clean. Like something between a meadow and a barn.
Growing up, Reid had spent much of his free time here, as well as in the surrounding fields training and exercising the falcons. He’d raised many of the birds himself and trained the vast majority of them. Because he’d been avoiding Dunbaryn since he found out about the pregnancy, he hadn’t seen his flock for a long time. He’d not been there for the arrival of the golden eagle, though he’d discussed the arrangements in minute detail with Albert. He’d designed it, and he’d seen photos, but they’d not fully prepared him for the elaborate detail of the habitat he’d had built to house the eagle.
The large caged enclosure sat in the center of the Falcon House, stretching up almost three stories high, about two-thirds of the way to the ceiling of that portion of the building, and built around a simulated rock structure with a ledge and an eyrie inside of which, the inhabitants of the enclosure could rest, nest, and remain out of sight at will. Live plants dotted the rock, and a man-made stream ran through the ground beneath. Reid approached the cage slowly, walking quietly despite the heavy leather boots he wore. Working with birds all his life had taught him to move stealthily, deliberately, and to watch everything around him carefully. Good training for his eventual career in law enforcement too, as it turned out.
Spotting the eagle, his first thought was magnificent. The golden eagle was a superb specimen of its kind, its plumage dark brown except on the head and neck where it was a lighter, golden brown. He could tell from the size of the bird its wingspan would be in the neighborhood of eight feet at extension. Amazing. Hunting with golden eagles was an incredible experience and much different from working with his falcons, or even his new additions, the owls. The sheer weight of the eagle when it landed on the arm could stagger a big man.
He murmured to the eagle and walked around the eyrie to get a better view. The bird’s head moved to follow him with its eyes, but the eagle stayed where it was perched. Eagles were solitary creatures. Solitary except for their mates, and they mated for life, he knew. The zoo had sent only the male, and Reid knew, for reasons that hadn’t been explained to him, the female had been sent to another temporary shelter. If he hadn’t been so addlepated about Anne, he would have asked about it.
He moved closer in, frowned. Something was wrong with the eagle. There was none of the usual lively spark of energy these great birds generally emitted.
“What’s wrong, man? You unhappy here?”
The eagle was droopy. Reid scanned a mental checklist of possible causes for the eagle’s lethargy. It couldn’t be the food, the temperature in the Falcon House was ideal, and if the bird were sick, Albert would have noticed it from the eagle’s refusal to eat, or something showing up in the droppings. There was only one other thing Reid could think of that could be having this kind of effect.
“Where’s your mate, man?”
The big black eyes gazed at him dully. The eagle tilted his head down, the hooked beak cast down as if in a scowl.
Reid nodded. “I know how it is. Is yours as pretty as mine?” He knew he was being ridiculous, but talking to a bird who couldn’t tell anyone what he said was oddly comforting.
The bird turned his head, then swung it around again, looking at Reid.
“So, did she find another eagle?”
The bird’s scowl seemed to darken.
“No, of course not. Your lot mates for life. You’re lucky—a more highly evolved species than mine.”
Ruefully, he nodded a farewell to the eagle and moved on. He checked the owls and determined four of them would be ready to be trained soon. He’d missed so much with his birds. After this, everything would be out in the open about his marriage, and he could come home more often. His talk with his father had helped him come to terms with the way his life would be.
He heard the sound of the big door being heaved open. The latch clunked back down, and a minute later, Reid spotted the Falcon House’s bird keeper. He clapped Albert on the arm in a friendly greeting. “It’s been too long.”
“Lord Reid, guid to see you.” The smile on Albert’s face was unabashedly genuine. “What do you think of our visitor?”
“He’s one handsome bastard.”
“Aye, that he is.”
“Bigger than I thought he’d be. How’s he settling in?”
“Not so well, I’d say.”
“What’s wrong?”
“He’s a bit put off by the whole transfer.”
Reid nodded. “I noticed. His mate. Why didn’t they send her? He seems a bit lost.”
“Perhaps they were afraid the eyrie wouldn’t be big enough for two since the Falcon House generally just has the smaller raptors.”
“Can you get on to them after the holidays? Maybe send a photograph of the eyrie or have them come look? I don’t think he’ll fare as well alone here.” He knew birds, and this eagle was pining.
“I’ll send the photos today by email.”
“Email? You use email?”
“The wireless is all through the estate now.” Albert grinned. “Even you fancy Glaswegians should be at home here.”
“I’m at home here, make no mistake on that.”
Albert laughed. “Weel, don’t be sich a stranger, then. So is the little laird here now?”
Reid smiled. “He’s here.”
“I suppose it’ll not be too long before he’ll be out here learning all about the birds. Learning to hunt with them, train them.”
“We’ll probably have to wait until he can walk.”
“Not walking yet? A bit slow is he?” Albert grinned.
Reid gave him a withering look.
“Oh, touchy you are about him, I see.” Then he got serious. “Lord Reid, I need to talk to you about something that’s happened. About the eagle. We’ve been getting some nasty letters from some crackpot group who’re against keeping birds like the eagle in captivity.”
“You think it’s something we need to worry about?”
“I’m not sure. Luckily we’re not right on the beaten path, but you never know. We’ve been pretty informal on security here. We don’t generally lock up, as you never know when one of the family might want to visit the birds.”
With the building so generally inaccessible to the outside world, they hadn’t worried about intruders, other than the four-legged ones that were kept out sufficiently with walls and shut doors. “Maybe we’d better change what we’re doing. Especially considering our star boarder. Start locking up.”
Albert nodded. “That’s what I’m thinking.”
“Let’s have the locks redone after New Year’s. We’ll have a lot of guests here this week and there’ll be some who’ll definitely want to come out here to see the birds, so in the meantime we’ll just padlock it and have a key available for our guests to visit.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
“Don’t forget to send the email to get the eagle’s girl here.”
“Right away. Do you think this lot would really harm the birds?”
“More likely release them, I’d think. Which wouldn’t be doing them any favor in this weather, for sure. Or they might take them, I suppose. The zoo would have my head for losing the eagle, for certain.”
“I’ll get the padlock on and bring in some keys for you and your guests.”
“Thank you, Arthur. Be careful.”
*****
Reid retrieved Michael from the kitchen where Anne was having lunch and going over seed catalogues with Mrs. Paulson. Apparently they were planning the kitchen garden plantings for spring. She’d barely looked at him.
In the library, he sat on the leather sofa, and held Michael on his lap so he could talk to him and look at the serious little face as long as he wanted with no interruptions. He still could not get over the child’s existence, or even more, his perfection. Truly a miracle. Michael had already changed so much from when he was first born. His face was more rounded out now and the wrinkled, red look was gone. His skin was darker than Anne’s, more like his own.
When his mobile phone buzzed, he reached into his pocket and pulled it out, answering quietly.
“Reid here.”
“Guv?”
“Harry.” He kept one hand on the baby’s stomach while he held the mobile with the other. The baby watched him somberly.
“Sorry to bother you on your hols, but we’ve had some developments I thought you’d want to know about.”
“No bother. What’s up?”
“First, no surprise, but the autopsy confirmed Pooley was murdered.”
“As you say, no surprise.”
“No, but unfortunately, the press got hold of the story.”
“Again, no surprise.”
“No, but it’s a pisser.”
“Open society and all that.”
“Right. I emailed you Pooley’s client list.”
“I went through it. Again, no real surprises.” He let Michael hold his finger. “What about the CCTV tapes from the street in front of the building?”
“No joy there. Unfortunately, Pooley’s building isn’t in the camera’s view, so we weren’t able to see anyone going down the street from the views we had that hit any bells. There’s also a back entrance that is occasionally left ajar, according to residents, but no camera there either. And a freight elevator right there, same story. No camera.”
“No doorman?”
“There is, generally, but he’s a bit decrepit. He could hardly tell who I was. Not my idea of security. He’s got a room in the back, as he’s the only one and obviously can’t be working out front all the time. The residents can ring for him if they need him, but as I understand it, they rarely do. It’s a case of being too kind to let him go redundant.”
“Any good news?”
“Some. There are tapes of the lobby which we finally got from the daft super. Allison’s slogged through them. That’s one of the things we wanted to give you a heads-up on.”
“She recognized someone? Tell me it’s someone we can connect to Van Zandt. I could use some good news.”
“Probably a coincidence, but one of the building visitors was your friend, John Stirling.”
Reid thought. “Have Allison send me a link with the video. I’ll go through it. Maybe I’ll recognize someone else. I’ll talk to Stirling as well. He’ll be here tonight.”
Michael started crying. Reid shifted the baby’s position, moving him closer to his chest, and the baby was quiet again.
“Sounds like you’re busy, guv.”
“My son was just letting me know his opinion. I’m not sure about what, but I’m new at this.”
Harry didn’t pretend to be in the dark. “Aye, I heard congratulations are in order. Drinks are on me when you get back.”
“Thank you.” He never drank with his team, but it was a nice gesture. Harry was closer to him than anyone else in his professional sphere. After all, it had been Harry with whom he’d entrusted Anne after her idiotically brave and successful foray into Von Zandt’s household last spring.
“Is Lady Anne well?”
“Yes, thank you.”
“That’s guid to hear. Another thing, guv, Von Zandt’s supposed to be gone until after Christmas, right?”
“Right.”
“Someone’s at his place in town. I haven’t been able to get inside yet to plant the bugs around. I’ve got the tap on the phone, though, but so far no joy. If anyone’s using the phone in there, it’s a mobile.”
“No way it could be him?”
“No, he’s definitely in Germany. Could be a house sitter or something.”
Reid laid Michael back on his lap and rubbed the baby’s terrycloth-covered tummy. “We don’t want to spook whoever is there, but it would be good to know who it is. If Von Zandt’s left one of his people there to keep an eye out, we don’t want him to get a report that stops him from coming back into the country after the holidays.”
“I can just stick around and watch the place.”
“Can you do it without being spotted?”
“No trust, I see.”
“Can you hide that ginger? Not unobtrusive, your hair, is it?”
The younger man laughed. “Done already. Cap is covering the neon orange splendidly. And I’ll keep changing the cap.”
“Good, then. Carry on and keep me posted.” He needed to get off the phone. More noises were coming from the little boy on his lap.
“Right you are, guv.”
Reid turned off the mobile and looked at the intense little face in front of him. “I think we’d better see if your Aunt Meg will teach me how to change your nappy, laddie.”
Chapter 21
“SO HAVE YOU thought about it?”
Lance felt Darryl’s finger run up his bare spine as they lay in bed together. It felt so utterly wicked to be in bed together in the afternoon in this house full of people who had no idea the two of them were lovers. After luncheon, they both went up to their rooms, but actually ended up together in Darryl’s. That was safer than his own, where any one of his family might just burst in. They’d locked the door, but Lance knew no one would b
e visiting Darryl but him. And if someone did, they would just say they’d been playing chess. Darryl had the pieces set up on the little table by the fireplace just in case.
“Of course, I thought about it, but what if we got caught?”
“Why would we get caught?” Darryl flicked his tongue in Lance’s ear, sending shivers through him.
“You don’t think people would suspect?”
“Why would they?”
“I don’t know.”
“Just my point.” Darryl lay back on the pillows. “Your turn.”
Lance smiled and moved down into position. He couldn’t remember a Christmas he’d liked so much since he was a little kid. “How would we do it?”
“There are so many ways. The important thing is to not tell anyone. Not write anything down. Not talk about it. Just do it when the time is right. That way they can’t ever track it back to you.” Darryl twisted around to pull something out from underneath the mattress. A small packet. “I have a holiday treat for us. For tonight, before the party.”
“Jesus, how much coke did you bring?” Lance laughed, thinking about all the coke they’d gone through last night. How could Darryl afford to buy this much of it?
“Christmas tips supplied enough for a very merry Christmas. Your father say anything to you about last night?”
“He acted like it hadn’t happened. It was flat weird.”
“Maybe you imagined it.”
“I can’t believe you didn’t see him. I’m sure he knows. I was afraid he was going to change his mind about taking you into chambers after that, but he was still talking about it at luncheon.”
“Indeed he was.” Darryl’s voice was languid as he teased his finger along the inside part of Lance’s arm. “Ever do anything heavier than coke?”
Lance shook his head. “Never even did coke till I met you.”
“You’re used to needles, aren’t you?”
“Of course. Until I got my pump, I had to have shots every day.”
“There are some good drugs we can do that way. I brought some.”
“I feel good enough with these.”