Shadow of Doubt

by S L Beaumont

  “No.”

  “Aw, ain’t that sweet, she still cares about him.”

  I looked to Ewan for help. He shrugged. “You can’t blame the guy. Look what you’ve done to him.”

  “What I’ve done to him? He was the one building bombs in his warehouse.”

  “Yes, but it was you who brought the police and it was the police whose shots caused the explosion that did this to my son,” Ewan said.

  “That’s a twisted way of interpreting events,” I said. I looked back at Colin. “How did you survive?”

  “I managed to crawl into the canal, where I hid. Several of our men pretended to be with the emergency services and in the chaos after the explosion, they managed to get me away,” Colin said. His words whistled through the side of his disfigured mouth. He gave another crazed laugh. “They must have left my arm behind.” He waved his bandaged stump at me.

  I swallowed as a wave of nausea rose from my stomach and turned to look at Ewan. “What I don’t understand is why? You were born into all of this?” I waved my hand gesturing to the house. “Why support terrorists?”

  “The Scottish people have been under the rule of Westminster for too long. The Brexit result was the final straw. Scotland voted to stay with Europe, yet here we are being forced to leave. It’s time that we took full control of our own affairs and history has shown that England only responds to force.”

  I must have looked incredulous, because he laughed. “Surely that’s up to the population as a whole to decide, not just you,” I said.

  “Sometimes the population doesn’t know what’s good for it and needs a little help making the right decision,” he said.

  “What about the arms dealing?” I asked. “Didn’t you think someone would find out about your little side deals with Mendelson?

  Ewan gave a slow clap and almost looked impressed. “Clever. You or your father? Not that it matters. I inherited a large portfolio of shares including Mendelson, and it was so easy to just keep buying more through my various companies until I controlled the board and the staff. It’s amazing what the workers will do for a little extra cash. Manufacture a few extra items here and there off the books. But soon I started making serious amounts of money from it. Various organizations worldwide were seeking me out.” He sounded proud of his achievements. “It has allowed me to finance our activities undetected.”

  “Where did Colin fit into this? What about Catriona? Why didn’t he grow up here with you after she died?”

  “Ah, the beautiful Catriona. Her family were tenants of ours and my parents forbade me from seeing her, a commoner. After her parents died, she fell pregnant; we wanted to marry, but my father refused to allow it and he refused to acknowledge the baby.”

  Will stirred at my feet and opened his eyes for a moment. I stayed silent, waiting for Ewan to continue.

  “Catriona got tired of waiting and started spending weekends away in Edinburgh and suddenly I was no longer welcome to spend nights at her cottage. Somehow, she learned of my little side deals and she was horrified. I had her followed to Edinburgh one weekend and found out that she was seeing another man, who happened to be some low-level government official. The worst type of betrayal. She knew how I felt about the British government. I learned that she was planning to take Colin and leave the village to be with this man.” Ewan’s fists were clenched at his side at the memory.

  “I confronted her as she was leaving Strathgarvan one night to be with her lover and we argued. I knew that she had left Colin with the Gordons for the night, so I jumped in my car and followed her. She was driving too fast to get away from me, lost control and went over a cliff. There was nothing I could do.”

  I gasped and looked at Colin. His expression was impassive.

  “Don’t you care that he killed your mother?” I asked.

  “She was going to take me away from him.”

  I shook my head in disbelief before continuing. “What about Douglas?”

  “Douglas?”

  “Why kill him?”

  Ewan looked surprised.

  “Left-handed men don’t normally commit suicide by shooting themselves in the right temple.”

  “That was careless,” Ewan said, looking at Colin. “Douglas was about to tell you that I was Colin’s father. My reputation would be ruined if that gets out now that Colin’s name has been dragged through the mud. It had come to my attention that Douglas had been taking photos where he shouldn’t, so God only knows what else he was going to show you. I cannot afford for my name to be tarnished. The only way to further our cause is if I maintain my standing in society.”

  “Your standing in society?” I asked, incredulous at what I was hearing. Ewan was just as crazy as Colin.

  “I had big long-term plans for Colin, which ultimately involved him becoming the head of a free Scotland. He had everything: the charm, looks, smarts. We were playing a long game. I needed him to be a successful self-made businessman first with a happy marriage, which is where you came in and unfortunately turned out to be not such a great choice. Then Brexit happened, and the Scottish people voted to differentiate themselves from England, which accelerated our timetable.” He thumped the table. “Back in the nineties I watched the IRA push the British to the point that they were willing to make compromises in the rule of Northern Ireland and Meibion Glyndwr waged a successful bombing campaign in Wales. I decided that the only way to make the British take notice of Scottish demands for independence was to adopt some of their methods.”

  “I don’t think it was the IRA’s campaign of violence that led to peace talks,” I said, horrified at the direction of his twisted thoughts.

  Ewan stopped pacing and stared at me. “That’s where you’re wrong.”

  I looked from Ewan to Colin. “So you were responsible for the London bombings.”

  Colin laughed. “Yeah.”

  “Why Cheapside?”

  “Cheapside was a test run for a larger device. The Trafalgar and Windsor devices were smaller, designed to grab attention, but we wanted to make sure that the message got through, so we needed a public figure involved,” Ewan said, his mouth twisting. “I’d watched Catriona’s lover rise through the ranks of the British government over the years and I decided that it would be symbolic if the first attack of this campaign took out that man. I found out that he drank at the same pub with friends every Wednesday night, so boom.”

  “Are you talking about Sir Maurice Jefferson? But didn’t he leave before the bomb went off?”

  Ewan nodded. “Unfortunately. Perhaps he won’t be so lucky next time.”

  “So where was the warehouse bomb going to?”

  “Westminster. That’s when we were going to announce ourselves.”

  “How? You’d never get close.”

  “Ah, see that’s where you’re wrong. Colin’s firm was on the approved courier schedule for Westminster Palace, so his team could drive a van in there any day of the week.”

  “But don’t they search all delivery vans, even if they’re approved? Don’t they have sniffer dogs who hunt for explosives?”

  Ewan laughed. “Yes, but even the smartest sniffer dogs can’t detect explosives housed in the type of airtight container that we designed. They’re always having problem with their air conditioning units, so it wasn’t hard to hack the system to put out a request to have one delivered.”

  “My God, you are quite mad,” I said, shaking my head.

  “No, just focused.”

  “But what about all the innocent people you have killed and maimed?”

  “Jess, my dear, there is collateral damage in any war. And let me make it clear. We are at war,” Ewan said.

  Colin laughed again, a rattling hiss that turned my stomach. “And at war the soldiers get to have fun with their captives.” He shoved the gun into the back of his jeans and came at me with a lascivious look in his eye.

  I backed away from him and bumped straight into Ewan, who grasped my shoulders and held me in place.
Colin leaned close to me. “Oh darling wife, I may have lost my arm and the ability to speak properly, but other bits of me still work just fine and it’s been way too long.”

  I struggled against Ewan as Colin’s meaning became clear. Colin pressed himself against me and opened his twisted mouth. His breath was stale with a hint of something rotten. I flinched and struggled. He stuck his tongue out and ran it up the side of my face from my jaw to temple. I gagged and he back-handed me across the face. My head snapped to one side. I put both hands on his chest and shoved at him.

  “Get away from me.”

  “I’m just getting started,” he snarled.

  He looked over my head at his father. “First, I want to wake him up so that he can watch.”

  Ewan held me in place as Colin bent down, grabbed one of Will’s feet and dragged his prone form across the floor towards the table. Will’s head bumped along the boards.

  “So what are you planning to do now, Colin? Hide here for the rest of your life?” I asked. “I can’t see anyone voting for you to become Scotland’s next First Minister.”

  He dropped Will’s foot and pulled a chair away from the table. “Thanks to you, my life is over. I’m going to go out with a bang and take as many English scum with me as I can.”

  I stared at him open-mouthed, trying to make sense of his meaning. “Not the G7?”

  “What better international stage to announce ourselves.”

  Colin picked up my water glass and emptied it over Will’s face. Will groaned and curled into himself.

  “Come on, wakey wakey.” Using one arm, Colin hauled Will up onto the chair. Will slumped against the armrest. Colin slapped his cheek. “Wake up. It’s show time.” Will’s eyes rolled and he blinked several times. His gaze moved from Colin to me.

  “Jess,” he managed.

  Colin turned and limped back towards me. He pulled me roughly from his father and shoved me towards the table. I turned to face him, my hand reaching behind me for a knife or candle or anything that I could use as a weapon. Colin lunged over me and with a sweep of his good arm, cleared dishes, glasses, and cutlery off the table. They hit the floor with a crash, shattering the crystal and smashing the china. He pushed me against the edge of the table and stepped back to undo the button and unzip his jeans. I leaned my weight against the edge of the table and kicked out with both feet, catching him in the stomach. He stumbled backwards for a moment but maintained his balance. I spun and grabbed for one of the iron candlesticks at the same moment as Ewan moved it out of my reach. Colin grabbed me from behind and pushed my dress up around my waist and ripped at my tights with his hand. Ewan moved beside him and took the gun from his waistband and levelled it at Will’s head.

  “No,” I screamed.

  Outside, the silence was broken by the loud crack of an explosion, shaking the house and rattling the glass in the window panes. Colin froze. A second explosion sounded, closer this time, from the direction of the trees at the side of the house. A flash of light filled the room for a moment. The door to the dining room burst open and Ben rushed into the room.

  “Sir,” he addressed Ewan. “You must come now. We are under attack.”

  “Colin, with me,” Ewan instructed.

  “But…” Colin began.

  “You can finish with her later. Lock them in.”

  Colin took a deep breath and grabbed a handful of my hair, pulling my head back so that my cheek was alongside his ruined face. “I’ll be back, my darling,” he spat. He pushed me aside and zipped up his jeans.

  The three men rushed from the room and I heard a key turn in the lock. I pulled my dress down and slumped against the table for a second before rushing over to Will, who had forced himself to his feet. He pulled me into his arms and held me.

  “God, Jess.”

  “What are you doing here? I thought you were on the mainland?” I said, disentangling myself and running to the main door. I grabbed the handle and gave it a shake. It was locked as I expected. I turned and rushed across the room to the chef’s entrance, but that door wouldn’t budge either.

  “You didn’t think I’d let you come out here alone did you?” Will said.

  I shook my head. “Will...”

  “It’s okay.”

  “What are those explosions? Are they your doing?” I asked as the echo of another detonation sounded from outside.

  He nodded. “They are distractions only, we don’t have much time.”

  I grabbed one the heavy chairs from the table. “In that case, we’re going to have to break a window and make a run for it.”

  “Campbell has a lot of armed men on the island, we wouldn’t get very far. I have a better idea,” Will said. “I’ve studied the schematics for the house. This room has a priest’s hole, I think.”

  He moved as fast as he could towards the enormous fireplace, running his hands over the wood paneling on either side.

  “A priest’s hole?”

  “Yeah, they were common in houses such as this in the sixteenth century to hide Catholic priests from Elizabeth I’s priest hunters.”

  “But won’t we just be trapped?”

  “Not necessarily,” Will said, stepping beneath the mantelpiece and right into the giant hearth. He began tapping the brick surround. “Help me, we don’t have much time before they’ll be back.”

  I joined him. “What are we looking for?”

  “An opening, a loose brick, a sliding panel, I’m not exactly sure.”

  We searched the entire fire surround and found nothing. Another explosion sounded outside.

  “I think the window is our only option,” I said, stepping out of the fireplace.

  Will bent over with his hands on his knees breathing deeply. “Okay.” He straightened and took a step after me before tripping. I turned as I heard him stumble and reached out to catch him. We saw it at the same time. A large flagstone at the edge of the firebox had a hole in one corner and was ever so slightly raised. Will grabbed an iron poker from a wood basket beside the fireplace and slotted it in the hole, levering the stone upwards. I helped him to slide it sideways. We both looked down into a hole with a narrow stone staircase leading down into the darkness.

  Chapter 46

  April 21

  Will returned the poker to the basket as I ran across the room and pulled a lit candle from one of the candlesticks on the table.

  “Come on, Jess, let’s go,” Will urged. “You go first and I’ll pull the stone back over us.”

  I hesitated for a moment before lowering myself into the hole, desperately trying not to think of what might be waiting in the gloom below. It couldn’t be any worse than what we faced if we stayed in the dining room any longer.

  “You can do this,” he said, taking the candle from me. I climbed down several steps. They were narrow, around half the width of my foot. I let one hand go and reached for the candle. I shone its light below me. I could see the floor a few steps down. I kept easing myself down as Will’s feet came over the edge towards me. I reached the last step and jumped onto a dirt floor as a scraping sound echoed above me. I held the candle up as Will started to drag the flagstone back over the hole. I could see that he was struggling, so I set the candle down and climbed back up, squeezing in beside him. Together we pulled the stone across, both breathing a sigh of relief hearing it slot into place.

  “Thanks,” he said. “I’m not sure I could have managed that on my own.”

  “You’ve taken quite a beating,” I said, all of a sudden aware that we were pressed together in a very tight space. I looked into his face and thought for a moment that he was about to kiss me.

  He cleared his throat. “You climb back down first.”

  I nodded, not trusting myself to speak, and scrambled back down the steps, picking up the candle.

  Will took his time descending the stairs as I looked around. We were in a large cellar with a low curved brick roof. A gentle breeze blew from somewhere in front of us causing the candlelight to flicker.
I cupped my hand around the flame to protect it. Will leaned against the wall at the bottom of the staircase to catch his breath. He was looking very pale. I reached my hand out to caress his cheek.

  “Are you okay?”

  He nodded and pushed off the wall. “We need to keep moving.”

  I dropped my hand before it made contact. “Are you sure you can?” I asked. “You could hide here and I’ll go for help.”

  Will shook his head. “No, let’s stick together for now.”

  I nodded and shivered. Will tried to shrug out of his jacket, wincing with pain as he moved.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “Giving you my jacket. You’re freezing.”

  “Don’t be stupid. You’re injured. You need it.” Will looked torn. “Come on, there’s a breeze coming from over there,” I said. “That might be a way out.” I hooked my arm around his waist. “Lean on me,” I said. “You’ll keep me warm at the same time.”

  “Okay,” he said. “I’m not too proud to admit that I need you to help me.”

  “I’m sorry that I dragged you into this. You were right. I should have left this alone,” I said.

  “Well, whatever happens, you gathered some great intel.”

  Together we crept across the cellar towards the breeze. Wooden whiskey barrels and empty crates were strewn about. The roof curved further towards the ground as we neared the edge of the room. In the far corner, a low narrow passageway opened up in front of us, sloping downwards and disappearing into darkness. Will let me go and looked around.

  “Let’s drag some of these across behind us,” he said. “It will slow down anyone that follows.”

  “I’ll do it,” I said. “You hold the candle.” I thrust it into his hand.

  I lifted two empty wooden crates in front of the tunnel entrance and then stacked two more on top. I rolled two of the whiskey barrels in front of the crates and scuffed the floor clear of the roll marks.

  “That’s probably enough, let’s go,” Will said in a soft low voice, squeezing behind the crates. “I’ll go first.” He hunched over to avoid hitting his head and disappeared from view down the passage. I froze as I heard footsteps crossing the floor above me. They continued across the boards and seemed to move deeper into the house. With a final glance into the darkness behind me, I hurried after Will.