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“Which church?”
“The Free Presbyterian Church in Braikie.”
“So A
“She was a bit of a flirt.”
“Oh, she was, was she?” said Hamish. “You seem to be taking her murder calmly.”
“She was asking for it,” said Jessie in a burst of sudden anger. “She flirted with my boyfriend and then laughed in his face when he tried to ask her out. He didn’t have any time for me. He followed her around like a dog.”
“Name?”
“Percy Stane.”
“And where does he work?”
“Waste disposal. Across the hall.”
“Right.” Hamish got to his feet. “Did you get all that, McSween?”
Josie blushed. She had been daydreaming.
Hamish sighed and took out his notebook. “Right, Jessie, I’ll need you to go over it again.”
Percy Stane-what misguided parent called a child Percy these days? wondered Hamish-turned out to be a spotty youth of nineteen years. He had thick glasses through which pale blue eyes stared at them like a rabbit caught in the headlights.
“We just want to ask you a few questions about A
Percy’s eyes darted this way and that. “We have good forensic evidence,” said Hamish severely, hoping Percy would think his card had been found.
“I-I d-did s-send one,” he stammered.
“Now, that’s all right,” said Hamish soothingly. “You didn’t send her a parcel?”
Hamish’s mobile phone rang. “Excuse me,” he said. He answered it. It was Jimmy. “Thought you’d like to hear the latest. At the autopsy, they found tablets of Ecstasy sewn into the hem of her jacket. It fortunately hadnae been burnt, thanks to that McGirty woman.”
“I’ve just learned she had been frequenting a disco called Stardust in her lunch break,” said Hamish.
“Good man. I’ve been dying for an excuse to raid that place for ages.”
Jimmy rang off.
Hamish went and sat down facing Percy again. “Did you say anything in your valentine?”
Percy blushed deep red. “Do I have to tell you?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t put a poem. I just wrote, ‘Come back to me. Love, Percy.’ ”
“So she had been your date?”
“Not exactly.” Percy wriggled in his hard chair. “A
“You mean Jessie Cormack?”
“Yes.”
“Didn’t it strike you as rather mean that A
“I was…dazzled.”
“Did you follow her?”
He hung his head.
“Come on, laddie. Out wi’ it!”
“I called in sick one day and went to the wildlife park. As I approached, she was just driving off. I followed. She went to a disco. I followed her in. She was over at the bar with some lowlife, laughing and drinking. I went up to her and she threw her head back and laughed. I said, ‘What about a dance, A
“What did he look like?”
“Greasy hair, black eyes, leather jacket, tattoo of a snake on his wrist, and a bit older than her. He frightened me. I got out of there. I was determined to stay clear of her, but after a few days, I… I…”
“You followed her again?”
“I waited outside her house one morning to try to speak to her but she said if I didn’t leave her alone, she would call the police. That frightened me. My valentine-well, it was one last desperate try.”
“Did you see her with any other man, other than this fellow at the disco?”
He shook his head.
“Did you know she took drugs?”
Percy looked shocked. “She couldn’t, she wouldn’t…”
“She did,” said Hamish flatly. “I’ll be talking to you again.”
Out in the hall again, Hamish said, “Back to Jessie.”
“How did you know she took drugs?” asked Josie.
Hamish told her what Jimmy Anderson had said. He opened the door to Jessie’s office. She was sitting at her computer typing busily.
“Stop for a minute,” ordered Hamish. “Did you know that A
“No!”
“Never talked about it? Never hinted?”
“Not a word.”
“I’ll be back to see you. Here’s my card. If you can think of anything, phone me up. There may be something you’ve forgotten.”
Hamish dropped Josie off at her car. “I’m going back to Lochdubh,” he said. “You may as well get home and change. Take it easy. The snow’s still light but it could get heavy any moment.”
Josie drove off, peering through the windscreen as the hypnotic flakes swirled and danced in front of her. At the manse, she changed into civilian clothes and brushed down her uniform and then went down to the kitchen to borrow an iron and an ironing board from Mrs. Wellington.
“You’ve had an exciting day,” said the minister’s wife. “Hamish is quite the hero. I saw him on the television rescuing that lion. Were you frightened?”
“All in the day’s work,” said Josie.
Chapter Four
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
– W. B. Yeats
Jimmy called at the police station that evening. “You’ll never get back,” said Hamish. “The snow’s coming down thick and fast.”
“You may as well put me up for the night,” said Jimmy. “I’ve got to be in Braikie first thing in the morning. What a waste of time. We raided the disco. Clean as a whistle.”
“I might go over there myself tomorrow for the lunchtime session,” said Hamish. “I’m looking for someone called Jake.”
“You’ve been on the telly. Everyone will recognise you.”
“I’ll go in disguise.”
“You’ll be poaching on Blair’s territory.”
“Then don’t tell him.”
“So what do you do if you find Jake?”
“Try to find out where he lives and give you the information. I might take McSween.”
“How’s that going, Hamish?”
“I don’t know why that one ever wanted to be a policewoman. She hasn’t a clue. Anyway, help yourself to a dram and I’ll call her.”
Josie had just finished speaking to her mother when her phone rang again. She listened to Hamish’s suggestion that they go to the disco tomorrow if the snow allowed them to travel to Strathbane.
Her eyes were once more full of dreams as she rang off. Her mother had seen Hamish on television and was loud in her praise. Hamish began to appear a heroic figure in Josie’s mind. He had said he would be in disguise but she needn’t bother: just wear something suitable for a disco. They would dance, he would hold her in his arms, he would say…
“Are you finished with that iron?” said Mrs. Wellington, coming into the kitchen.
The countryside looked like an old-fashioned Christmas card when Hamish collected Josie the following day. Blair’s desire to keep Hamish out of every investigation meant that he was not constantly being given orders or monitored.
Josie barely recognised Hamish. He had a false ginger beard and moustache and small John Le
She thought he looked awful.
The music blaring from the disco when they arrived was so loud that as they walked towards the club, Hamish was sure he could hear the beat reverberating through his shoes.
Inside the club, Josie took off her enveloping fun-fur coat to reveal that she was wearing a short red leather skirt, fishnet stockings, and a gauzy glittery blouse with a plunging neckline. She took off her boots and slipped on a pair of high-heeled red stilettos. Josie was also heavily made up.