"And just think of the damage cold, wet weather does to your temper."
"Aye, you could be right."
"Tell me, Hamish, you seem to be an intelligent if unorthodox officer, and yet you're still only a policeman. Why is that?"
"I'm considered too much of a loose cannon for promotion. Besides, you've seen a wee bit of Strathbane. Would you like to work there?"
"It's not very different from Glasgow. Aren't you ambitious?"
"Not at all."
"That's very odd."
"I suppose it is, but it makes for a contented life. I love Lochdubh."
"What's so special about the place?"
"It's easygoing, the people are friendly, I've got my bit of croft at the back of the police station. It's beautiful everywhere you look. If I moved to Strathbane, I'd be old before my time. I don't have to deal with any bad crime-well, not lately. The odd burglary, boundary disputes, sheep-dip papers, things like that."
"Don't you get bored?"
"Hardly ever."
"You're not married."
"No," said Hamish flatly.
"Which way now?"
"The signpost to Drim is just coming up. Make a left round the next bend."
They made their way down the one-track winding road which led to Drim. Olivia could just make out the gleam of the sea loch. The wind had died down and everything was very still. A few lights twinkled in the cottages.
Because of the towering mountains above Drim and on either side of the loch, Olivia felt they were sinking down into complete blackness.
"Just stop the car outside the stores there," said Hamish. "We'll get out and walk."
"I don't much like the atmosphere of this place," said Olivia with a shiver. "At least no one is about to see us."
"Oh, they've seen us all right," said Hamish. "Every curtain in the village will have been twitching."
"So why doesn't someone come out and ask us what we are doing?"
"That's not their way. They prefer to speculate. Much more fun. The path is along here. We'd better switch on our torches. As we get near the sea, we'll switch them off. The mountains fall back there, and there'll be enough light from the sky. I suggest we don't talk anymore. Sound carries a long way up here."
He took out a black woollen hat and pulled it over his hair. "Just in case we meet someone who shouldn't be here, my hair shines out like a beacon."
After some time, they heard the sound of the sea and switched off their torches.
"All quiet," whispered Olivia.
"Get down and don't make a sound," Hamish hissed suddenly.
"What…?"
"I sense something."
Hamish pulled up a clump of heather from the side of the path. "Take some of the dirt and black your face."
They smeared their faces and then waited in silence. Olivia began to relax. Hamish was a nice fellow but she was beginning to think he was eccentric, maybe a bit touched in the head.
She was just about to press his arm, to say something, when two great green eyes glared at them out of the blackness. "Don't move," urged Hamish. The eyes came closer. They were attached to a small head and long prehistoric neck. In the faint starlight, they could make out the coils of a serpentine body.
They waited. Olivia could feel cold sweat breaking out on her face. Then the creature turned and disappeared around the bend to the sea. Olivia tried to rise to her feet but Hamish grabbed her shoulder and pulled her down. "Wait!"
They waited for what seemed to Olivia like an age. Then Hamish rose and pulled her up and said, "Come on. Let's see who's playing tricks."
"We're unarmed and I don't have the thing with the panic button with me," muttered Olivia. "We're not in a position to confront drug smugglers."
"I haff this feeling it is not the smugglers. Let's see."
They walked quietly to the end of the loch. The sound of the sea was very loud now and would, Hamish hoped, drown any sounds of their approach.
"A cave. There must be a cave around here."
His keen eyes scanned the steep rocks on either side of the entrance to the loch. "Over there," he whispered. "Do you see that dark cleft? I bet it's there. Over on the other side."
"How do we get over there?"
"We swim. You can swim?"
"Yes, but…"
"And you'd best keep close to me. The current can be strong."
Olivia thought miserably as she entered the loch after Hamish that it must be the coldest water in the world. She was a strong swimmer but found she had to use every ounce of energy to battle with the current. Hamish reached down and pulled her up on the other side.
Together they approached the entrance to the cave. "Just leave the thing to deflate," said a voice. Jock Kennedy, thought Hamish. The bastard!
"Come on," he said to Olivia. "It isn't the drug smugglers."
He strode into the cave. By the light of the hurricane lamp he saw Jock Kennedy and two men. The rubber neck of the monster was making a hissing sound as it deflated.
"Whit's the meaning of this, Jock?" demanded Hamish sternly.
"Och, it's yourself," said Jock in a disgusted voice. "I thought I had frightened you off"
"What the hell were you up to?"
"Trade at the shop has been that slack. I thought if I had a monster and spread stories that the folks would come. You know what they're like in Drim, Hamish. They're aye putting the tourists off. I thought a monster would draw folks."
"But you told me not to encourage Ailsa in thinking she had seen a monster."
"Aye, but I didn't want you to take it seriously or I know you would start poking your nose in."
"How did you know we were on our way?"
Jock held up a mobile phone. "We just happened to be along here putting more finishing touches."
"Finishing is the word," said Hamish bitterly. "Get rid of that damn thing and, instead, try to get the villagers to be nice to strangers. How did you get over here?"
"There's a track a bit up the mountain on this side."
Olivia found her voice. "Book him," she said savagely.
"Oh, I don't think that will be necessary," he said soothingly. "Jock won't be pulling that trick again."
"Outside, Macbeth," snapped Olivia.
He followed her out. "You cannot be calling me Macbeth and giving me orders in front of the locals," he chided, "or they will guess you are a senior officer, and gossip spreads like wildfire in the Highlands. It wass only a prank and we've got more important work to do than charge Jock Kennedy. Surely the drug job is too important."
"Just get me out of here," she shouted.
Hamish went back into the cave. "You'd best lead us back, Jock."
"Who is the lady?"
"Some monster hunter like they get up in Loch Ness. And she's really sore with you."
"Sorry," mumbled Jock. "But it was the grand monster."
They silently followed him up the mountain and along a rocky track, broken in places by falls of scree.
Then they walked around the end of the loch to where Olivia's car was parked.
"Come in and dry yourselves and have a dram," said Jock.
"That would be grand," started Hamish, but Olivia said furiously, "Just get in the car. We are leaving… now"
"Very good," said Hamish meekly.
CHAPTER FIVE
What a lass that were to go a~gypseying through the world with.
– Charles Lamb
"Don't say anything at all," she snapped as she drove towards Strathbane. "I will speak to you when I am dry."
When they arrived at the bungalow, Hamish followed her meekly in. "I will use the bathroom first," she said.
He went into the living room and switched on the electric heater and stood shivering in front of it.
At last she reappeared, dressed in a high-necked nightgown under a camel-hair man's dressing gown. "Your turn," she said.
He went off to the bathroom, stripped off, had a hot bath and, wrapping a large bath sheet about him, went to his bedroom and put on pyjamas and a dressing gown.