‘I don’t matter any more,’ he breathed. He gestured with the gun in his hand at Calum. ‘Put that camera and your recording machine on the floor and switch them off.’
Torquil nodded to Calum, who acquiesced and laid down his digital camera and his Dictaphone.
‘That’s good, because I don’t want any more of this being recorded,’ Vincent said wheezily. ‘I made a fool of myself with … a young woman last night. I never thought I would have a relationship with anyone after Rhona – especially not after she tossed me aside for Geordie Morrison.’
He coughed and his frame shook. Perspiration was pouring from his brow and he wiped it away with the back of his left hand.
‘Who was this woman?’ Torquil asked. ‘Was it Megan Munro?’
‘Aye, and I feel bloody guilty about it. But we were … attracted to one another … and she was probably using me against her man, Nial Urquart.’
Then he shook his head emphatically. ‘But like I said, none of that matters now.’ He stabbed the gun in the direction of the still unconscious Giuseppe Cardini. ‘It is about him coming back into our lives. I thought that I had broken free from the Dragonetti gang and their ugly world of death and violence when Rhona helped to stage my disappearance and set me up with a croft here twenty years ago.’ His eyes seemed to mist over. ‘Clever woman, Rhona. She persuaded the old lady who owned it – she was ill and dying, ironically after a heart attack – to pass it on to me as if I was a relative. She sorted out my new identity, national insurance number, absolutely everything.’
Cardini began to stir as he made a slow return to consciousness.
Vincent rallied at the sight and aimed the gun at him. ‘He deserves to die!’ he exclaimed.
‘The law will deal with him, Vincent. Don’t do anything stupid.’
Cardini heaved himself up on his elbows, his eyes suddenly widening with alarm when he saw the gun in the hand of the blood-soaked Vincent. He gasped in horror as he realized he was staring death in the face.
The gun-hand began to waver and Vincent’s eyes started to roll upwards. ‘At … at least … I can now—’
Suddenly, as if every last ounce of energy had been used up, he slumped sideways and the gun fell from his hand.
Torquil swiftly produced handcuffs and cuffed Cardini. Then he and Calum turned their attention to Vincent. A quick examination failed to find a pulse and the enlarging pool of blood suggested that resuscitation would be hopeless. Nevertheless, while Calum called for medical assistance Torquil attempted cardio-pulmonary resuscitation.
By the time that Ralph McLelland had arrived, it was all too clear that the man they knew as Gilfillan was truly dead.
Giuseppe Cardini had been watching all that time, cursing them and making scathing comments. Now, he tossed his head back and began to roar with laughter. ‘That serves them all—’
He suddenly went silent as Calum Steele seemed accidentally to trip, and kicked him the groin.
Neither Torquil nor Ralph McLelland saw it happen.
Katrina sipped the hot tea that Morag had brewed back at the station.
‘I really liked him, Sergeant!’ she explained. ‘Ewan, I mean. But Kenneth McKinley just wouldn’t leave me alone, and Ewan started to get jealous and suspicious. It is all my fault.’
‘Why do you say fault?’ Morag asked, as she jotted things down with her silver pen.
Katrina put the mug down, her expression a mix of pain and guilt. ‘Because Kenneth was working for me, and it all got out of hand. He was working … clandestinely.’
Morag raised her eyebrows quizzically. ‘Go on.’
‘You have no idea how hard it is to make a living as a vet in the Hebrides. I was in debt up to my ears. I had a colossal student loan to pay back, and even working abroad in the East for a couple of years didn’t make much inroad into it. When I took over my uncle’s practice I didn’t realize that I’d be taking over his debt as well. He’d mismanaged things in a most appalling manner – as well as having a personal debt of several thousands with his gambling.’ She looked beseechingly at Morag for some sign of sympathy. ‘I was desperate and I had to make money as fast and as quickly as I could. There was no legal way I could do that.’
Morag made a conscious effort not to let her face register any sense of judgement. She had to let Katrina willingly offer the information. ‘And so what did you do?’
Katrina bent her head in embarrassment. ‘I had contacts from my time in the East. Dodgy contacts with people working in the animal trafficking black market.’
Morag made notes and said nothing, merely encouraging the vet to continue with a nod of her head.
‘In Thailand and China seal penises and genitalia are used to make virility medicines. In the Hebrides we have an almost limitless supply of them.’
Morag was unable to keep the revulsion out of her voice. ‘But you are a vet! How could you contemplate such a thing?’
‘I am a vet, but I eat meat. It is easy to judge me, but the seals were a rich source of revenue that I could tap into. I had a regular courier all lined up to take the stuff over on the ferry to the mainland along with my bona fide samples. From the mainland he would arrange to ship them abroad. His exact route, I don’t know.’
‘We’ll find out, don’t worry,’ Morag replied curtly. ‘And what about Kenneth McKinley, how did he fit in?’
‘He went out in his boat and shot them – procured their organs – then disposed of the bodies. He liked it, because he was a bit of a Walter Mitty. He liked to call himself the “assassin”.’ She leaned forward and pummelled her temples with her fists. ‘I was such a manipulative cow. I fuelled his fantasy.’
‘We know about his fixation with guns,’ Morag said. ‘And we are aware that Ewan McPhee suspected something about him.’
Katrina burst into tears. ‘I know and I hate myself for it. That was how Ewan went missing. Kenneth told me that he had taken out – that was how he described it, as if he was a hit-man or something – a family group of seals. Ewan must have followed him and Kenneth jumped him or something. He said he had him holed up somewhere, and that he was teaching him – and me – a lesson. I think he had some idea that I would sleep with him to get Ewan free. He wore disguises when he was out shooting and I think he meant to frighten Ewan.’ She bit her lip. ‘Then it all went badly wrong. I met him up on the ledge in the Corlins and I tried to get him to tell me where Ewan was, but he was obsessed with shooting the golden eagles. Anyway, I didn’t see it clearly in the mist, but I think one of them flew at him and seemed to hit him. He staggered over the edge and … fell to his death.’
She began sobbing again and Morag waited until she settled. Under other circumstances she would have made comforting noises, but she was feeling too angry and too revolted by the woman in front of her to do so.
‘I went down to him,’ Katrina went on at last, between sobs. ‘He was dead, of course. Then I – I scratched his face, to make it look as if an eagle had struck him with its talons. I didn’t know what else to do. I had to find Ewan, but I didn’t know where he could be.’
‘What about the rifle?’
‘I took that and hid it. You’ve got it now.’
‘And what made you go to the lighthouse-keeper’s cottage?’
‘I had scoured the whole island without luck over the last few days.’ She looked up at Morag who was staring at her with her best poker face. ‘I guess you probably know that I have just started an affair with Nial Urquart.’
Morag shrugged non-commitally. ‘Go on.’
‘Well it was this morning on the news. Calum Steele mentioned about those wind towers and the cottage burning like beacons – brighter than the old lighthouse. Then I thought that had to be it. Kenneth could have easily got to and from there from the Wee Kingdom. It is just below their croft. And, as you know, that’s where he was. The poor man could have been dead, all because of me.’