“I don’t want to get them into trouble, but, yes, everyone knows it.”
“I’m slipping,” thought Hamish. And I forgot Angus’s salmon.
“The pharmacist, Mr. Cody, says there’s migraine and there’s tension headaches and there’s the headache from the Smileys’ hooch. You don’t need aspirin. You need another drink. Works a treat.”
Despite the pain in his head, Hamish smiled. The shop door opened and a small, fussy man came in. “Everything all right, Kylie?” he asked. When she nodded, he said, “You can take a break.”
He went through into the back.
“Come and have a drink with me,” said Hamish.
“Righty-ho. Just get my coat.”
She emerged a few moments later wearing a scarlet wool coat over a thin yellow blouse, tight short jersey skirt and heels so high that Hamish thought she must be very tiny indeed when she took them off, for as they walked in the direction of the pub, she hardly came up to his shoulder.
“What are you having?” he asked when they entered the smoky, dreary barroom of The Drouthy Crofter.
“Same as you. Straight whisky. And make it a couple of doubles.”
He went to the bar, collected their order and carried the glasses over to a corner table where Kylie was already seated. She shrugged off her coat. The yellow blouse had a deep V revealing that Kylie had the sort of cleavage only usually seen in the magazines on the top shelf of the newsagents. He dragged his gaze from it and raised his glass. “Let’s hope mis works.”
And it did, almost immediately. He blinked at her in relief. “Do you always join customers for a drink?”
She giggled. “Only the sexy ones.”
He was not surprised that despite the fact that the Smileys’ still was obviously pretty well known that no one had come forward to report it. There are some things in the Highlands which would be regarded as crimes anywhere else in Britain that people here regarded as quite respectable. Poaching, provided it was the occasional salmon or deer, was not regarded as illegal. It was every Highlander’s birthright to take a deer from the hill and a fish from the river, no matter who owned the land. And a whisky still was regarded as about as innocent as making homemade cakes.
But as he surveyed sexy little Kylie, he began to wonder if Gilchrist had ever made a play for her. How Gilchrist had been able to attract such a beautiful young girl as Maggie Bane was beyond him. But he had, and so it followed that other women might have found him attractive – young women.
“I’m investigating the murder of the dentist,” he said.
“Oh, him.” She shrugged. “I don’t understand anyone going to that man. I went there once. I knew all I needed was a simple little filling, but he says it had to come out. No thank you, I said, and got the hell out of there.”
“So that was the only time you saw him?”
“You’re looking a me as if I’m the first murderer. Why on earth suspect me?”
“I don’t suspect you. You’re a very pretty girl and Gilchrist liked the ladies.”
“I had nothing to do with him.” But that sexy aura had disappeared. It had been turned off somewhere deep inside her. Her eyes roved restlessly around the bar. “Headache better?”
“Yes, thank you.”
“Well, if you don’t mind, I see some of my friends over there.”
And without waiting for his reply, she got to her feet and went over to join a group of men at the bar.
I’d better ask around about that one, thought Hamish. She was all right until I started asking about Gilchrist.
He left the pub and walked back towards where he had parked the Land Rover. He saw he was passing a fishmongers and stopped. “Special Offer. Fresh Salmon.” The sign in the window caught his eye. Salmon was selling for £1.80 a pound. He decided it would be worth buying one for the seer. He was sure the salmon was farmed rather than wild, but he was equally sure that old Angus would not be able to tell the difference.
He went in and bought a ten-pound salmon, big enough for that old leech, he thought crossly.
He took the salmon back to the police station and threw away the fishmonger’s bag, wrapped it in kitchen foil, and drove this time up to the seer’s.
He laid the salmon on the table in front of the seer. Angus studied it curiously after he had taken it out of its foil wrapper. Then he went off without a word into the nether regions and came back carrying a small stone on the end of a cord.
“What’s that?” asked Hamish. “Your pet rock?”
“Aye jeering at things you do not understand, Hamish. This iss my crystal.”
He waved it over the salmon. The ‘crystal’ swung round over the fish like a pendulum.
“This iss the farm salmon, Hamish.”
“It is not!”
“Aye, the pendulum sees it all. You forgot last night and it’s cauld the day and so you thought you could pass a shop-bought fish on poor Angus.”
“Havers.” Hamish wrapped up the salmon. “I’ll have it myself.”
“If I were you, Hamish Macbeth, I waud be thinking of getting Angus the real thing tonight or something bad will happen to ye.”
“You mean you’ll put a curse on me?”
“Don’t sneer. There are mair things in heaven and earth…”
“Horatio.”
“Who’s he?”
“Never mind. I’m out of here.”
Hamish drove off. What could the old phony do to him? He was damned if he was going to take his rod out on the river in this weather.
The wind had dropped and large Christmas card flakes of snow were spiralling down from a leaden sky. He went home and made himself a scrap lunch, that is he ate tuna out of the can with a fork while leaning against the kitchen counter. Then he set out for Braikie again. He nodded to the policeman who stood on guard outside the dentist’s building and then went on up the stairs to the top landing and knocked on Fred Sutherland’s door.
The old man answered his knock promptly and said, “You better come in.”
Hamish followed him in and sat down. “I want to ask you about the murder.”
“My, my. That was a thing. Poisoned him and drilled all his teeth. My, my.”
“How did you hear all that? The method of killing was not in the papers.”
“This is a small town. Everyone gets to hear everything.”
“That’s why I’m here. There’s this young lassie works for the chemist. Kylie something.”
“Kylie Fraser. Thon’s a cheeky wee thing. Called me old man. Cheek!”
“You wouldn’t have happened to hear if she had been seen at any time in the company of Gilchrist?”
“He was old enough to hae been her faither.”
“True. But that hadn’t seemed to have stopped him chasing young ladies.”
“There’s a lot o’ talk about her. She’s aye in the pub wi’ the fellows. But I never heard o’ her being wi’ Gilchrist.”
“Could you let me know if you hear anything?”
“Aye, I’ll do that. I’m a regular at the Old Timers Club at the community hall. The biddies that go there hear every blessed thing.”
“Thanks, Mr. Sutherland. And I would be grateful if you would be discreet about it.”
Fred laid a gnarled finger alongside his nose and winked. “Dinnae fash yourself. I’ll let you know.”
Hamish then ran lightly down the stairs and went into the dress shop. As usual it was empty of customers. The yellow cellophane was still across the windows casting a jaundiced light around the interior. Mrs. Edwardson came forward to meet him.
“I remember you,” she said, peering up at him. “You discovered the body. Have you any idea who did it?”
“No, that I haven’t, Mrs. Edwardson. You see, no one seems to give me any idea of what Gilchrist was like as a man.”