‘I can see why you look a wee bit shocked, Inspector McKinnon,’ came Jock McArdle’s voice from behind him. ‘He’s not a pretty sight, is he?’
Torquil turned round and found himself looking down the barrel of a short-barrelled revolver. The laird of Dunshiffin was standing behind the door with the gun in his outstretched right hand and a cigar clamped between his teeth. ‘I never liked the little pip-squeak,’ he went on conversationally. ‘He didn’t really hide the fact that he resented me and my boys.’
‘And so you killed him?’
Jock McArdle shook his head. ‘Oh no I didn’t! It wasn’t me; he did it himself. He was showing me how he poisoned my dogs.’
‘And he did this while he was playing billiards with you?’ Torquil asked, sarcastically.
McArdle laughed. ‘You’re having a wee joke with me, is that right, Inspector? No, you are right. He croaked in my office and I carried him here to bait my wee trap. And it was working fine, until you came charging in like the seventh cavalry.’
‘It looked as if you were about to be shot in the head,’ Torquil said, equally conversationally. ‘As a police officer I couldn’t allow that.’
McArdle nodded. ‘Oh yes, I should be grateful, shouldn’t I? And if you had just hit him a wee bit harder you would have saved me a job.’
Vincent groaned and put a hand to his head.
‘But you see what I mean,’ McArdle went on with a deep sigh. ‘I’ll have to finish him myself.’
Torquil stood straight. ‘I can’t let you do that.’
Jock McArdle sneered. ‘You are hardly in a position to do anything about it, Inspector. In fact, I didn’t expect any of you flatfeet to arrive so quickly. It would have been convenient if you had come along afterwards, but as it is, I’ll have to dispose of you as well.’
Vincent was trying to roll over.
‘Just stay where you are Mercanti!’ he barked.
At the mention of the name, Vincent went rigid, as if a button had been pressed. He slowly turned to face the laird. ‘Cardini! You murdering bastard. I almost had you!’
Jock McArdle waved the revolver in the direction of the snooker table and the propped-up body of Jesmond, ‘Actually, I’m afraid not, pal. You fell into my trap, hook, line and sinker.’
Torquil had edged slightly away from the table, but McArdle snapped at him, ‘Stay exactly where you are – both of you. This is a Smith & Wesson 360. It has a light trigger – which you might remember, Enrico. A quick move from either of you and I’ll cut you in half.’
Vincent looked up at Torquil. ‘He means it, Inspector. Don’t do anything stupid.’
McArdle guffawed. ‘Aye, Inspector. You see Enrico here – not Vincent as you know him – knows his guns. We were partners, you see. Comrades and punishers together.’ Then his semi-affable grin suddenly disappeared. ‘Until the little bastard betrayed me!’
Torquil nodded. ‘I know what you are saying – Giuseppe Cardini. I know all about you and the Dragonetti gang.’
Giuseppe Cardini stared at Torquil in amazement for a moment, then he laughed heartily again. ‘So you lot are not as stupid as I thought.’
‘And I know all about your prison stretch for culpable homicide, your petty little gang war and your change of name by deed-poll.’
Cardini pointed the gun at Vincent. ‘And how much do you know about Enrico here? He was supposed to be dead, you know?’
‘I know about the bullet riddled car in the Clyde,’ Torquil replied. ‘And I know that it was a piece of investigative journalism by Rhona McIvor that sent you to prison.’
‘The bitch!’ McArdle almost screamed. ‘I’ve wanted to get even with her for years, but she disappeared. It was only a few months ago when she started writing articles for the magazines that I realized where she was. I wanted her to suffer. And I have the means to do these things legitimately these days. I wanted an estate in the islands and this place came up. A snip for me. It was as if it was all meant to be.’
‘And this wind farm plan, that was all part of your way to get even with her?’
‘Of course. The stupid old bitch didn’t recognize me after all those years.’ He touched his cheek. ‘Not surprising maybe, since I’ve had a spot of cosmetic surgery, but she was going blind as a bat. That made it easier.’ He laughed. ‘A wind farm! I ask you, why would I be interested in anything like that? It’s pathetic. Give me the National Grid any day.’
Vincent had eased himself into a sitting position on the floor. ‘You killed Rhona!’
‘Not me, pal. She killed herself all those years ago when she took you in. Tell us about it.’
‘Drop dead, Cardini!’ Vincent retorted.
There was a thunderous noise as Cardini took aim and shot Vincent in the foot. Blood immediately gushed out of a hole in his boot and he gasped as he writhed in agony. Torquil made to move to help him but the sound of Cardini tut-tutting halted him.
‘I said – tell us!’
Vincent’s face was covered in perspiration, but he gritted his teeth and tried to talk.
‘You were always a sadistic bastard, Giuseppe. That was one of the reasons I needed to get away. Rhona gave me the means of escape.’
Cardini snorted disdainfully. ‘Aye, she was a good-looking woman and we never suspected she was a journalist, a spy. She got herself a job as a cashier in one of Luigi Dragonetti’s betting shops, then gradually worked her way up to be a manager. That allowed her to get properly in the know of things. And that’s when she started shagging Enrico there.’ He spat on the floor by Vincent’s feet. ‘And that’s when he betrayed his family!’
‘Does family mean mafia?’ Torquil asked.
Cardini guffawed. ‘Naw! You’ve been watching too many Godfather films. Luigi Dragonetti was just a god. He was like a father to us – him and me. Before him we were just slum tinkers. He gave us respect and gave us lives.’ He shook his head and took the cigar out of his mouth. ‘I tried to be like a father to my boys, Liam and Danny.’
‘That’s rubbish!’ Vincent snorted. ‘Luigi Dragonetti was a sadistic sod who modelled himself on Al Capone. He used folk like us to punish people. He didn’t give a stuff whose lives we pissed on as long as he got what he wanted. Rhona taught me that.’
‘Then that was another reason for her to die! I hated that bitch for the five years I lost in prison.’
‘So was that your real reason for coming to West Uist?’ Torquil asked. ‘To arrange for her death.’
Cardini shrugged non-comittally. ‘That was the ultimate aim. But first I planned to destroy her. And it was happening too, until this bastard started killing my boys.’
‘Did you, Vincent?’ Torquil asked.
Vincent’s face was fast draining of colour as blood oozed from the hole in his foot to form a gory puddle on the floor.
‘No – and yes,’ he replied in a rasping voice. ‘I killed the first little sod, but I didn’t mean to. I just got so angry over that letter and how he talked to Megan. Especially when we were getting close. When I left Megan I waited for him to come back by the causeway. When I confronted him, man to man, he spat in my face.’ He glared at Cardini. ‘That was one of the things you used to do before you hurt people. Anyway, he tried to throw a punch but he was drunk and slow. I knocked him off the causeway, then I jumped down and dragged him to the pool.’
Cardini let out a howl of rage. ‘My boy! You drowned my boy!’
Torquil realized that Cardini’s temper was brewing up to volcanic proportions. He needed to keep things flowing for the present. ‘So what about the other man, Danny Reid? Did you kill him too?’
‘I did. But it was because Rhona warned me about Cardini.’