“Did she tell you what it was all about?” he asked.
Maggie shook her head. “ There was a darts match in here last night. It was very busy. There wasn’t time to talk.”
One of the old men looked up from his dominoes and glared at the landlord. “ If someone got up off his backside,” he said, “ and stood behind that bar occasionally, we wouldn’t have to wait so long for our drinks when it’s crowded in here.”
Again Frank gave no acknowledgement that he had heard the comment. The red-faced man by the window stood up suddenly and brought his glass to the bar to be filled. While Maggie was pouring the beer, Ramsay turned round and addressed his next questions to the customers.
“Did she talk to anyone else last night?” he asked.
“No!” the old man said. “And that wasn’t like her. She might live in that big house, but she’s not one for sticking her nose in the air.” He turned towards the red-faced man, who had returned to his seat and his magazine. “ Not like some of the women in this village. Mrs. Parry usually brings her Guinness down here and has a chat with us. Last night she sat up at the bar and didn’t say a word to anyone. She was white as a ghost.”
“Which locals were in?” Ramsay asked. “ Colin Henshaw? Charlie Elliot?”
“Colin Henshaw doesn’t come in here often,” the barmaid said. “Charlie Elliot’s on the darts team, but he went just before Mrs. Parry arrived.”
“And that doesn’t happen very often, does it?” one of the darts players shouted. “ It’s not often that Charlie leaves before you do, is it, Maggie? Doesn’t he usually wait to walk you home?”
She looked suddenly angry and embarrassed, and Ramsay thought how difficult it was for an outsider to settle into a village like Brinkbonnie or Heppleburn. There was obviously some attachment or tension between Maggie and Charlie Elliot, and if he reacted wrongly, he would break the mood of the whole conversation. He decided to ignore the comment and continue with his questions. If the relationship between Charlie Elliot and Maggie was relevant to his investigation, it could be explored later.
“I was relieved Charlie went early,” Maggie said.
“I bet you were,” the darts player shouted again. “Been making a bit of a nuisance of himself lately, hasn’t he? You should tell the inspector about it. Perhaps he’d be able to arrange police protection, or perhaps you enjoy it, really.”
Again she ignored him. “I was relieved Charlie went early,” Maggie said, “because I was afraid he might make a scene. After the way he treated Mrs. Parry at the meeting.”
“Were you at the meeting in the hall yesterday afternoon?”
“No,” she said. “I couldn’t get there. But I heard what happened.”
Of course, Ramsay thought, the whole of Brinkbonnie would have heard about Charlie Elliot’s rudeness to Alice Parry.
“Did Mrs. Parry walk back to the Tower on her own?”
She looked at the old men. “Did anyone go up the hill with Alice?”
“Aye.” It was the old man with the almost unintelligible accent who regarded the landlord with such venom. “I took her home.”
“But that’s out of your way, Joe,” the barmaid said.
“All the same,” he said. “I think I’m enough of a gentleman to know what’s right. I took her home.”
“All the way?” Ramsay asked.
“To her drive.”
“Did you see anyone else on the way?”
“No.”
“You didn’t see Charlie Elliot?”
“I’ve told you. We didn’t see a soul. Besides, Charlie would have been long home by then.”
“Was there anyone in the churchyard?”
“I wouldn’t know,” the old man said. “I didn’t look.”
“Did you see Mrs. Parry into the house?” Ramsay asked.
“Nah! You can’t see the house for the trees. I’d seen her to her gate. I thought I’d done my duty.” He glared at the landlord. “ I’d spent an evening in here,” he said. “I was perishing cold.”
“Yes,” Ramsay said. “I see.”
He finished his drink, then went out into the street. He was almost at the church when he heard the sound of footsteps rattling on the frosty pavement. When he turned round, he saw Maggie running towards him, the tails of her scarf flying out behind her. When she reached him, she was breathless and her eyes were streaming with the cold.
“I wanted to talk to you,” she said, “ about Charlie Elliot.”
He felt a moment of satisfaction when he realised that his approach in the pub had been the right one. If he had started asking questions in front of the customers, she would have said nothing.
“Come on,” he said. “We’ll walk back to my car. It’ll be a bit warmer in there. Then I can drive you home.”
“You’ll be asking questions in the village,” she said. “I know you have to do that. You’ll hear about it anyway. You might as well have the truth. It’s nothing to do with Alice Parry’s death.”
He said nothing. It was impossible to know what was relevant to the investigation at this stage.
“They said that I led him on,” she cried suddenly, “ that he lost his career in the army because of me. But it’s not true. When I told him I was leaving David, I didn’t expect him to be so silly.”
Why do they talk to me like this? Ramsay thought. I have no real right to know.
“David was your husband?” he asked.
“Yes, and when I left him, I had to come back here. There was nowhere else to go. I couldn’t stay in the house. David’s a keeper on the Rutherford estate and it was a tied cottage.”
“I don’t quite understand,” he said, “where Charlie Elliot comes in.”
They turned into the churchyard, and the long grass was stiff with frost.
“Charlie and I grew up together,” she said. “We were in the same class at school, got the bus together everyday. I liked him. He was a good friend. Then, when we were sixteen, he started taking me out. Into Otterbridge to the pictures, to youth-club dances. I thought it was just a bit of fun. Other girls had boyfriends. I had Charlie.”
“But he took it more seriously?”
“Yes,” she said. “ On my eighteenth birthday when we were both still in school, he asked me to marry him.”
They had come to the wrought-iron gate into the Tower garden. Ramsay lifted the latch and pulled it open to allow her to walk through. But she stood facing him, wanting him to understand.
“I was young,” she said. “I was flattered. I liked him. I didn’t think it would do any harm. When I agreed to get engaged, I never really thought it would end up in marriage. It was an excuse for a party, for being the centre of attention for a while. You know what young girls are like. It made me special.”
Ramsay thought that he did not know at all what young girls were like and shut the gate behind her. He was not wearing gloves and the cold metal of the catch stung his hands as he struggled to fasten it.
“You changed your mind,” he said.
“Yes,” she said. “I changed my mind. Charlie became so serious and intense. He wanted me to spend all my time with him. He was only taking one A-level and some re-sits, but I was doing three A-levels. I wanted to go into nursing. He seemed to think that wasn’t important. Not compared with spending time with him.”
“How long did the engagement last?” he asked.
“Three months,” she said. “Then one evening we had a furious argument and I broke it off. He left school and went to join the army.” She paused. “I was quite proud of that,” she said bitterly. “It seemed very romantic.”
They reached the car. Ramsay opened the passenger door for her, then got in and started the engine so that he could switch on the heater. All of the windows were covered in ice.
“What did you do?” he asked.
“I passed my exams and started training to be a nurse,” she said. “I saw Charlie sometimes when he was home on leave. He was always polite but very distant. I thought he’d made his gesture and the whole thing was over. I met David at a young farmers’ dance and started going out with him, I got pregnant and we got married.” She shrugged. “ That time I thought I’d better see the thing through. On the day before the wedding I had a letter from Charlie saying I was making a terrible mistake and I’d never be happy.”