“Maggie Bane, I think. That’s if the lassie hasnae been arrested.”
♦
Maggie Bane answered the door to them. She was dressed in a black sweater and skirt and her face was puffy with crying. Hamish had wondered whether to leave Sarah in the Land Rover, but had decided to take her with him. If Maggie objected to her presence, he could tell Sarah to wait outside.
“I was passing,” said Hamish in his light, pleasant Highland accent, “and I wondered how you were getting on. This is not really a police call, more in the way of a friendly call.”
“Come in.” She led the way to her sterile living room. “Sit down,” she said wearily.
Sarah studied Maggie’s beautiful face. How on earth could such a good-looking girl become involved with a middle-aged dentist in a bleak Highland town?
“Did you have a hard time at police headquarters?” asked Hamish.
“It was terrible. That brute Blair shouted and yelled at me. I tried to tell him that I had been trying to protect my reputation. This isn’t Glasgow or London. This is the Highlands of Scotland.”
“If it doesn’t distress you too much, could you tell me what the attraction was?” Hamish leaned forward, looking the picture of sympathy.
“He was glamorous.”
“A middle-aged dentist?”
“You didn’t know him,” she said wearily. “I met him in St. Andrews. I was just finishing at university, had just passed my finals. I’m…I’m not good at making friends. I went off to a bar to have a drink to celebrate. He was at the bar and we fell into conversation. Then he suddenly said, “I’m going to Paris tomorrow. Come with me. I’ll get your air ticket.”
“And I said, ‘Yes,’ just like that and it was wonderful. We stayed at the George V and we walked along the quays and looked at the bookshops and he insisted on buying me a hat covered with artificial flowers at the Galerie Lafayette, although I told him no one wore hats anymore.” She gave a choked little sob. “I’ve still got that hat.”
There was a silence. Outside, the frozen branch of a tree rapped against the window with monotonous regularity, like an impatient finger.
“And why did your relationship with him break up?”
“We went on holiday to Provence, to Agde and Sete and along that coast. It rained every day. The clouds were so low they seemed to lie on the sea. We were staying at some old château which had been turned into a hotel. It was very expensive but the roof leaked and everything smelled of damp. He became irritable and tetchy and began to pick quarrels. We were meant to be away on holiday for three weeks, but he suddenly cut the holiday short after a week. I cried and cried, but he wouldn’t listen to me.”
Hamish took a deep breath. “Did it no’ dawn on you, lassie,” he said gently, “that Mr. Gilchrist might be worried about money?”
Her amazement seemed genuine. “But he earned a very good pay as a dentist. He always had the latest car, dined at the best restaurants.”
“Was there another woman?”
“I think there was. I took to following him. Oh, it was silly. He found out right away and said if I didn’t give him space, he would have to get rid of me. He went down to Inverness a lot. I’m sure there was someone there.”
“If you can think of anything at all,” said Hamish, “just phone me. I’ll come over right away.”
Maggie sniffed miserably. “You’re very kind, not like those dreadful policemen in Strathbane.”
“Have the press been bothering you?”
“Yes, but this weather will keep them away, and they seem to have lost interest anyway.”
“Did Mr. Gilchrist have any particular friends?”
“No, for a time there was just me. Neither of us had any friends up here. We were all we needed.”
“And relatives? I mean, as far as I know, no relative has come forward.”
“He said he was an only child and that his parents were dead.”
“Odd that. You would think there would be a cousin or someone.” Wedding photographs; thought Hamish. Jeannie Gilchrist would have wedding photographs. Must see her.
He rose and said goodbye. He was grateful that Maggie had not commented on Sarah’s presence.
Once back in the Land Rover, he said, “I’ll drop you back at the hotel and go to Inverness. I want to talk to Gilchrist’s ex-wife again.”
“Take me with you,” said Sarah. “I’m not doing anything else.”
Hamish looked out at the steel grey sky. “The wind’s rising,” he said. “It might be a hairy journey.”
“Then let’s be hairy together.”
Hamish smiled at her suddenly. “Inverness it is.”
∨ Death of a Dentist ∧
7
“Well, now that we have seen each other,” said the Unicorn, “if you’ll believe in me, I’ll believe in you. Is that a bargain?”
—Lewis Carroll
“There’s coffee in that thermos on the floor beside you,” said Hamish as they drove slowly along. “It’s got milk and sugar in it because I meant to use it to make any policeman on guard outside Gilchrist’s a bit friendlier towards me.”
“I don’t take sugar, but I may be driven to it if we’re trapped in this snow.”
“We’ll go over by Dornoch and take the bridge,” said Hamish, peering out into the gloom. “I think the snow’s getting a bit wetter.”
By the time they reached the long bridge over the Dornoch Firth, Hamish’s eyes felt tired and gritty with the strain of peering ahead. As they made their way over the bridge, Hamish could see a yellowish light at the end and wondered what it was.
He soon found out.
On the other side was a different world. They drove straight out of the swirling snow and blackness and into brilliant sunshine. Hamish looked back in his driving mirror in amazement at the black wall of bad weather behind him. “Let’s just hope the storm stays where it is,” he said, “and doesn’t follow us into Inverness.”
“I will never get used to this weird climate. What do you hope to find out from Mrs. Gilchrist?” asked Sarah.
“I want to find out all I can about the man. She surely knew him better than anyone else.”
“What about Maggie Bane?”
“She was just having the affair with him. Marriage fair brings out the beast in people.”
“Yes, it does,” she said sadly.
He glanced sharply at the hunched figure in the passenger seat. “What would you know about it?”
“Observation,” she said, “just like you.”
When they reached Anstrumer Road in Inverness, Hamish climbed down from the Land Rover and looked up at the sky. Long ragged trails of black cloud were streaming out from the west, the fingers of the storm clawing eastward.
Jeannie Gilchrist was not at home. “Of course, she’ll be back at work,” said Hamish. “Let’s go into Inverness and get something to eat and then we’ll try the council offices.”
They found a self-service café. Sarah had a salad and Hamish, a Scotch pie and chips.
“You don’t worry about your cholesterol level, I see,” remarked Sarah.
“It’s comfort food,” said Hamish. “Salad makes me tetchy.”
“I cannot imagine you getting tetchy,” said Sarah. “You seem much too laid-back.”
He smiled at her. “I have the vicious temper.”
“I don’t believe that. Look at all the people inside and out. Where do they all come from? I was amazed to find Inverness such a busy place.”
“Aye, it’s grown out o’ recognition. There’s something suddenly bothering me.”
“And what’s that?”
“Thon still o’ the Smiley brothers. I keep thinking of that long shed. I mean a few bottles here and there for the locals is all right. What if they were into big production?”