Old Sins, page 7
The light was on in the kitchen when he reached the house and he put his head round the door, just to say goodnight; he wasn’t planning to settle down again. But when he looked in Hattie was by herself with the dogs, who trotted across to welcome him.
‘Oh, I’m glad he didn’t keep you too long. Ran’s gone to bed. Would you like a cup of tea or anything?’
Kelso hesitated. He was ready for bed himself and he’d have to be on his way by six in the morning. On the other hand, he’d wanted to give Hattie the chance to confide in him, if she cared to take it.
‘Well – if you’re having one yourself …’ he said.
‘Kettle’s on the stove. I quite often sit on for a bit with the girls when they’ve been left all evening – you get a bit lonely, don’t you, poor old things? But how did you get on with Angus?’
He sat down at the table. ‘I liked him. Salt-of-the-earth type. But tell me, what do you know about Flora Maitland?’
‘Flora? I knew her to say hello to in passing, but not much more than that. She came a few years ago after old Willie Maitland died. She was in the pub propping up the bar most Saturdays.’
‘Did she often seem to get drunk?’
‘Drunk?’ Hattie paused to think as she warmed the pot. ‘Not that I ever noticed.’ Then she stopped. ‘But of course! So that’s why he wanted to speak to you! They said that was how she came to fall off the cliff, didn’t they? And I remember Angus was very upset about it, wouldn’t believe it could possibly have happened unless someone shoved her. Oh dear, I’m sorry if he was seizing the chance to bend your ear about it – how tiresome for you. I’m sorry.’
‘Don’t apologise. I was interested. He was very emphatic that it hadn’t been an accident at all, and he knew she’d been murdered, but he was evasive when I asked him why she should have been.’
Hattie brought the mugs and sat down. ‘I don’t know much about her, really, but there were always a few pursed lips among the older locals when she was mentioned. I suspect she might have had a bit of a rackety past. Not that that means much, probably; they’re still fairly traditional around here.’
‘Right,’ Kelso said. ‘He was quite convinced, too, that Sean Reynolds has let wolves loose on the estate.’
‘And you heard that howl!’ she exclaimed. ‘Oh, I wouldn’t put it past him. He’s such an arrogant sod. And he seems to have all the money in the world and it’s driving Ran insane. If Sean just goes on bidding up the price for the croft, no way can we match him.’
‘It does seem to be getting under Ran’s skin.’
‘I honestly don’t believe he can think about anything else. Oh, apart from my inadequacies as a wife.’ Hattie’s lip trembled. ‘I’m sorry. You’ve had enough to put up with, listening to us squabbling all the time. You don’t want to hear any more about this.’
‘I think he’s amazingly lucky having a wife like you. If you want to tell me about it, I’ll listen.’
‘Oh, I shouldn’t inflict it on you.’
‘Sometimes it helps to talk. Go on.’
It all came pouring out. Her hands gripping her mug so tightly that the knuckles showed white, she said miserably, ‘To be truthful, I’m in despair. I just can’t think what to do. There’s something wrong, but Ran won’t even acknowledge it – just walks off whenever I try to get him to explain what it is. Oh, we’ve always had quarrels, of course – all couples do, don’t they?’
‘Sure,’ Kelso said, though in fact he couldn’t remember anything more than a brief tiff in the three years he’d been married.
‘After we realised we weren’t going to have the kids we’d always wanted, it all got a bit more fraught. But it’s only lately he’s started treating me as if he almost can’t bear to have me around and it really hurts. Has – has he said anything to you?’
Kelso shook his head. ‘All he’s talked about is needing to get hold of the croft and expanding the fish farm.’
‘That’s the odd thing – I don’t actually see why he’s quite so desperate about it. We’re doing fine as we are, with what I bring in from catering. He only began talking about it after he heard that Sean Reynolds was interested. He thought he’d stolen a march on him by contacting Flora’s brother William whenever she died – they’d more or less agreed the sale – but then of course it turned out she’d left everything to Danni.
‘I don’t think he got on very well talking to her. He tends to come over a bit army with kids like her – you know, the officer telling the squaddies what’s expected of them. But he knows she won’t let him have it unless he’ll pay top dollar and of course Sean’s loaded, and I think Maia’s probably got money too. It’s absolutely eating him up.
‘It almost seems to have become some sort of macho thing, but I can’t see why he should feel he has to prove himself against Sean.’
Kelso had a sinking feeling that he knew why, but he didn’t feel pointing it out to Ranald’s wife would be helpful. ‘There’s always a tendency to make it a zero-sum game when two men want the same thing,’ he said. ‘And as I remember it in our army days, Ranald was always the competitive sort. If his squad didn’t have the fastest time on the task there was hell to pay.’
‘Oh, that was Ran all right!’ Hattie laughed, but it was a shaky laugh and there were tears not far behind it. ‘Those were such happy times. We were all right, then. Oh, I’m not trying to claim it was ever a match made in heaven, but it worked for us. It’s not working now.’
She sighed, but then stood up decisively. ‘Oh, listen to me! This is ridiculous. I’m keeping you out of your bed and I know you’ll be off at some ungodly hour tomorrow. Thanks, Kelso.’ She bent forward to kiss his cheek and stood up.
‘Will you be all right?’ he said.
The laugh was more confident this time. ‘Course I will. I’ll be fine. The old school motto was “Tenez ferme.” Which at the time I remember we all interpreted as meaning, “Keep your legs crossed”.’
He was laughing as he left the kitchen but he was worried for her. Despite the way she was being treated she still loved Ranald, and as he drove back to Edinburgh on Sunday she was much on his mind. They had a beautiful home and they lived in an incomparably beautiful place, but when you were as isolated as that you had to rely on each other for companionship and support and with Ranald offering little of either, hers was a bleak outlook.
Had he always been a bully? He was certainly acting like one now – and he was clearly infatuated with Maia Reynolds, though there hadn’t really been any noticeable sign that she was equally infatuated with him, and on balance Kelso thought it was unlikely. A very cool customer, Maia.
When he got time next day, he would have to fulfil his promise to Angus Mackenzie. He suspected there’d be nothing to investigate: elderly people being unsteady on their feet after a drink or two was hardly a hold-the-front-page story, however much they – or their friends – might protest. But there was something impressive about Angus’s steadfast loyalty, especially with Ranald’s behaviour leaving such an unpleasant taste in his mouth.
An odd little place, Inverbeg, with some very unhealthy cross-currents swirling about. The sleepy little township that he’d imagined, peopled by decent country folk going about their peaceful rural lives, existed only in his imagination.
He was glad to be returning to the big city. It might be bustling and dirty but it was more peaceful, in its way; you do what you like without anyone even noticing. And if it lacked the drama of the mountains and the seascapes, there was still nothing wrong with the view across the Firth of Forth from the window of his old fisherman’s cottage.
The rain came on in Inverbeg shortly before midnight, heavy and persistent. On this windless night it made a sound as soothing as white noise, a gentle hiss as it ran off the roof and fell in a sheet past Danni Maitland’s bedroom window.
She was just drifting off to sleep, having spent the day checking out the Visit Australia website. It had looked fabulous and the pictures she had seen and the plans she had been making had started to blur into a dream: Danni in her bikini, a wide, wide beach …
Then the world exploded, in a crash that shook the whole building and smashed the bedroom window. Shards crashed on to the floor and as Danni sat bolt upright in the darkness, screaming, her bedroom was transformed by the lurid light from an inferno of red and orange flames outside into a vision of hell.
CHAPTER SIX
The lights started springing out all over the township as Inverbeg startled into wakefulness. The blaze on the hill beside the Maitland croft house was subsiding into sullen, red, sooty flames as the little yellow Honda parked on the hardstanding at one side burnt itself out.
In blind panic, Danni leapt out of bed and ran to the door, heart pounding so that she could scarcely breathe. She didn’t even notice her feet were bleeding from the broken glass on the bedroom floor as she wrestled with the locked door then plunged outside and ran to the corner of the house.
Through the teeming rain she peered frantically about her, trying to make sense of what had happened. Oh no! Her car – her lovely yellow car! It was just a twisted mass of metal, the flames still licking greedily around it as they died back. The acrid smell caught at her throat and the smoke was stinging her eyes.
And now she noticed her feet were a mass of blood and gave a shriek of terror. How could they be? What else might have happened to her? She could hardly breathe – she could be dying! What was she to do? Coughing and giving strangled sobs, she huddled her arms around her as she was racked by paroxysms of shivering.
Then below, she saw the lights of a car speeding towards her from the direction of the Auchinglass Estate. Ben! she thought wildly. It was Ben, coming to rescue her. She’d only have to hold on for a few minutes now.
But as it drove round on to the road leading up, she heard a woman’s voice calling. ‘Danni! Hang on, I’ll be with you in a minute.’
In the flickering light she could see a figure below running along the road by the pub and starting up the path through the smoke to the cottage and recognised Hattie Sinclair. She came up more quickly than Danni ever could, though she was out of breath and coughing as she got to the top.
She was wearing an oilskin jacket over jeans and a hoodie and she pulled it off to put round Danni. ‘Get that on before you get hypothermia. Oh dear, your poor feet! Did you tread on some glass? Your bedroom window’s broken.’
Glass. Oh. ‘I-I suppose so,’ Danni gulped. ‘I didn’t know what it was. Just—the bang woke me …’
Hattie walked over to look. ‘Oh, it’s your car! I couldn’t think what on earth could have happened when I heard the noise. It must have gone on fire, for some reason, and then exploded. But look, it’s burning itself out now, so it’s safe enough. This smoke’s horrible, though – let’s get inside out of the rain and get your feet sorted out. But watch where you tread.’
She put her arm round Danni’s shoulder to usher her inside, but Danni hesitated, looking over her shoulder. ‘I think that’s Ben, coming to rescue me,’ she said as an SUV drew up on the road.
But it wasn’t Ben who jumped out of it, it was Sean Reynolds, his hair plastered to his head and wearing a zipped fleecy that was already soaked by the deluge.
He stared about him. ‘What the hell has happened? You all right, Danni?’
Hattie stepped forward. ‘Hello, Sean. I’m just trying to get her inside before she catches her death. You got here quickly.’
‘I was working late. When I heard the bang, I just ran out and then went to fetch the car when I saw the fire,’ he said, coming in behind them, with a glance over his shoulder at the dwindling flames. ‘Doesn’t look as if there’s anything more to worry about now, and it doesn’t look as if there’s been any structural damage. The rain’s helping to put it out, as well.’
As Danni hobbled in and collapsed onto a chair. Hattie switched on the lights and the heater. ‘I’ll just get a basin and water to clean your feet, Danni. Sean, if you could find a brush and shovel and clear up the glass in the bedroom it would help.’
Sean didn’t look pleased about being given orders, but he went over to the kitchen area, opening cupboards till one yielded up a broom and a dustpan, while Hattie examined Danni’s feet and the water in the basin turned red.
The girl was showing signs of shock and when there was a tap on the door and Angus Mackenzie appeared, in gumboots and with a wax jacket over his pyjamas, rain dripping down his face, she said, ‘Oh Angus – that’s good! Could you make Danni a cup of tea? You probably know where everything is.’
He was looking fairly shocked himself as he went to the stove to fill the kettle. ‘That’s a terrible thing. You poor lassie! And what’s happened to your feet?’
‘It’s not actually as bad as it looks,’ Hattie said. ‘The bleeding’s more or less stopped but I can see one splinter that’s still stuck in, so I’ll need tweezers and certainly some disinfectant. Do you have any?’
Danni was still whimpering in pain. ‘No. And I haven’t bandages or anything. And, anyway, I’m scared. I don’t want to stay here alone.’
‘Of course not. Look, never mind the tea, Angus. Sean, if you could give us a lift round to our house, you can stay with us, Danni. We’d better call the police too, I suppose.’
‘Not much point in that,’ Sean said. ‘The call will go through to Inverness or Glasgow or somewhere and if you tell them the fire’s out they won’t do anything.’
‘Actually, I’m sure you’re right. They never really leap to respond. You’ll need to report it for your insurance, Danni, but we can do that tomorrow. Now, I’ll just go and forage for night things and a toothbrush for you.’
Sean held out the brush to Angus and stood waiting for Hattie to return. Angus took it, then paused in the doorway to the bedroom.
‘I’ll phone the glazier first thing in the morning, Danni,’ he told her. ‘Don’t you worry. He’ll have the place weatherproof again in no time.’
‘I’m not staying here ever again,’ she said. ‘That’s it. It was a nasty creepy place before and I’m really scared now.’
‘Bit paranoid, surely? Car fires happen,’ Sean said. ‘Ah, there you are, Hattie. What a busy little bee you are, getting us all organised.’
Hattie had come back carrying a bundle of clothes and a zip-bag and had a towel over her arm. She crouched back down again and held it out to pat Danni’s feet delicately. ‘Sorry – I do tend to be a bit bossy after all those years with the army. Can you carry her to the car, Sean? You’re stronger than I am.’
‘Sure,’ he said, swung Danni up and carried her out. Hattie hesitated, but Angus said, ‘Off you go. I’ll take care of things here. And there’ll be others coming to find out what’s happened, I’ve no doubt.’ And sure enough, there was another car drawing up on the road already.
‘I’ll go, then. Thanks, Angus. Danni doesn’t need lots of people flocking round.’
Sean had deposited Danni in the back of the car with her feet up and Hattie climbed in beside him while they drove round the road to the Sinclairs’ house in silence apart from an occasional small sob from Danni.
As Sean parked at the back of the house the door opened and Ranald stood there in his pyjamas and dressing gown, his hair rumpled.
‘Hattie!’ he exclaimed as she got out of the car. ‘What on earth’s been going on? I was asleep – there was a bang.’ He peered into the back of the car. ‘Is that Danni Maitland?’
‘Car went on fire. Cut her feet on some broken glass,’ she said briefly. ‘Thanks for the lift, Sean. Ranald can carry her in now.’
‘Of course,’ Ranald said stiffly. ‘Lucky you were around, eh Sean?’
Danni edged forward so that he could lift her out and he carried her through the mud room to the kitchen where the two labs trotted forward with tails waving, pleased to have entertainment at this time of night.
He rapped out an order and they retreated, tails between their legs.
‘Put her in the chair by the Aga,’ Hattie said. ‘Danni, before I deal with your poor feet, I’m going to make you a cup of tea and put a slug of brandy in it – that’ll make you feel better.’
Danni was still shivering but she managed a weak smile and a thank you. It was a lovely cosy kitchen and with Hattie taking care of everything she was able to fight down the panic that had been threatening to overwhelm her.
‘Do you want tea, Ran?’ Hattie asked.
‘Not really,’ he said. ‘You must have got there pretty quickly?’
‘I ran up the path. I was just watching a programme’ – she gestured to the small TV that was still on – ‘when I heard the bang and dashed out. The whole sky was lit up at the time – it was almost like a fireball. Terrifying!’
‘You could say,’ Danni put in with feeling.
‘Right,’ Ran said and yawned. ‘I’ll just get back to bed, I think. I’m sure you’ll feel better in the morning. We can put in a report to the police to get a number for a claim.’
‘Too right, we can.’ Danni was reviving in the warmth. ‘And they can effing well come out here and examine it properly. Don’t see why my car should have suddenly gone on fire like that. And I don’t see why Flora should have just fallen off a cliff like that either. I’m certainly not going to sit there saying nothing until something happens to me. I’m going to make them find out what really happened to her.’
Hattie and Ranald looked at each other for a moment. Then Hattie said awkwardly, ‘Of course. Now, I’ll just go and get the first-aid kit.’
There was a backlog of reports when DCI Kelso Strang went into his office on Monday morning. He’d only had a few days off but he usually cleared his desk before he left each night and it surprised him how much had piled up. It was late morning before he got round to checking phone messages and emails and he hadn’t even thought about his promise to Angus Mackenzie.
