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They moved onto the dance floor. Josie was a good dancer but to her dismay, Hamish danced like a demented stork. A young man came up and began to dance with Josie, cutting Hamish out. Hamish gave her a quick nod to say it was all right and made his way to the bar. “I’m looking for Jake,” he shouted to the barman.
“Ower there,” the barman shouted back, pointing to a man in a black leather jacket at the end of the bar.
Hamish approached Jake. He tapped him on the shoulder and flashed a thick wad of what appeared to be fifty-pound notes. Actually it was one fifty-pound note wound round paper. “Come outside,” he said. “I’ve a big deal for ye.”
On the way out, he tried to signal to Josie. But Josie was lost in the music, her eyes closed, her hips swaying.
Outside, Hamish flashed his warrant card and said, “I would like you…”
But that was as far as he got. Jake took to his heels and ran but skidded in the snow and went down heavily. Hamish handcuffed him and hauled him to his feet. He realised if he phoned Jimmy, it would take Jimmy an hour to get from Braikie to Strathbane. He’d just need to take him to police headquarters. Where the hell was Josie? He shrugged. He couldn’t waste time going back for her, and Jake could have friends in the disco who might cause a fight.
Hamish had Jake searched at police headquarters and found he was carrying a good supply of Ecstasy and heroin. He had him put in a cell after being charged with possession. Then he phoned Jimmy.
Blair was sitting in his car, eating a mutton pie, when Jimmy told him the news. Blair let out a string of oaths, ending up by saying he would have Macbeth’s guts for garters for poaching on Strathbane’s beat.
“Maybe,” said Jimmy. “But this Jake Cullen sounds like A
To Jimmy’s surprise, Blair said, “I’ve got work to do. Get yourself ower there and keep in touch.”
The owner of Stardust, Barry Fitzcameron, was a friend of Blair’s. Barry also owned a couple of pubs where there were always free drinks for the detective inspector. Blair had tipped him off about the raid. When Jimmy had gone, he decided to find a public phone box and call Barry.
Hamish sat in on the questioning. To his surprise, Jake seemed quite cocky. He denied supplying A
Hamish said, “We have witnesses who can testify that you were intimate with A
“Look, I’m popular wi’ the lassies,” said Jake. “I may have given her a leg over. There are so many, I can’t remember.”
“Stop havering, laddie,” shouted Jimmy. “A
But Jake continued to stonewall until his lawyer was allowed in. He was told to appear in the sheriff’s court in the morning. He was charged with having possession of and supplying drugs, and led away to the cells.
Blair got on the phone in a call box and phoned Barry Fitzcameron. “Thon numptie, Jake, has got himself arrested,” he said.
“Has he now,” said Barry. “Don’t worry about him. I’ll see to him.”
“Where’s your sidekick?” asked Jimmy as he walked Hamish to the door.
“I couldnae hang around waiting for her. Jimmy, do me a favour and get her transferred back.”
“I’ll see what I can do. Oh, there’s the lassie, waiting for you.”
Josie was slumped in a chair in the reception area. Hamish opened his mouth to blast her for having been so absorbed in dancing that she had forgotten her duties, but then decided wearily it was a waste of time.
“I’m sorry,” babbled Josie. “I heard you arrested Jake. I looked round and you’d gone.”
“I’ll take you back, McSween,” said Hamish wearily. “Chust don’t say a word.”
He dropped Josie off at the manse and told her to take the rest of the day off. Looking along the waterfront, he saw the press outside the police station. He guessed they wanted quotes about the lion. He did a U-turn and drove first to the Italian restaurant where he found his pets in the kitchen, collected them, and drove to the Tommel Castle Hotel.
Priscilla was crossing the reception area when he arrived. “Still here?” asked Hamish.
“Leaving tomorrow. I read in the papers about Elspeth getting engaged.”
“Good luck to her,” said Hamish with badly pretended indifference. “I’ve escaped up here to get away from the press. They probably want quotes about thon lion.”
“I should think they’re there to ask you about the murder. Blair killed the lion story. He’s quoted on the radio and television saying the lion was very old, nearly dead, and a child could have rescued it.”
“He doesn’t know he’s done me a favour,” said Hamish. “Too much favourable publicity and Daviot’ll have me off to Strathbane. I’d like to talk about it for a bit. My head’s in a muddle.”
“Mr. Johnson’s away. Come in to the office and have some coffee. Yes, you can fetch the cat and dog in if you want.”
Settled in the office with Sonsie and Lugs at his feet, Hamish told her all he knew about the case. He ended by saying, “I thought it would be easier. But it turns out that A
“You mean God might have told him to bump off his harlot of a daughter?”
“No. He wouldn’t have sent something so elaborate as a letter bomb.”
“Does it take a lot of skill to make a letter bomb?”
“The bomb’s not hard. It’s aluminium powder and iron, I think. But the skill comes in making the fuse and making it all so cleverly that it won’t go off in the post sorting office.”
“So you should be looking for someone with a terrorist background or someone with a good knowledge of chemistry? What about Harry Etherington? His friends knew how to detonate dynamite. Maybe one of them’s got an iffy background. ”
“Nothing showed up on the computer but a few drunk and disorderlies. Anyway, young Harry hadn’t long arrived in the area. He didn’t have the time to make A
“What about the wildlife park? What’s it like?”
“Hard to tell now that the animal libbers have let all the creatures out of the cages, but if the lion’s anything to go by, I think the whole sorry place was a desert of mange and mud. Owners are Jocasta and Bill Freemont. Jocasta is posh and overworked. Bill is lower down the social scale.”
“Bit of a rough?”
“Not that low down. A chancer and, I guess, a fantasist. I think he sold poor Jocasta some dream of the Highlands that only the lowland Scots on the tartan lunatic fringe know how to do.”
Priscilla frowned. “Do you think this Bill…how old is he?”
“Older than her. Maybe getting on for fifty.”
“I wonder if he or his father or anyone in his family were ever associated with the militant side of Scottish nationalism.”
“There’s a point. I think I’ll pay them an evening visit.” Hamish stood up and lingered by the office door. “I suppose I’d better say goodbye-again.”
“ ’Fraid so.”
He moved a little forward as if to kiss her. Priscilla sat down abruptly behind the desk and began to shuffle papers. Hamish trailed out with his dog and his cat behind him.
He stopped on a rise on the road before the wildlife park and let the dog and cat out. He knew they liked playing in the snow and they needed to run off some of the fat they had gained by mooching in the kitchen of the Italian restaurant.
It was a bright moonlit frosty night. He smiled indulgently as Sonsie and Lugs tore through the snow.
It was on nights like this that Sutherland became a fairy county, all black and white, the silhouettes of the mountains rising up to a sky blazing with stars. He wished this murder could be quickly solved. Then he would concentrate on getting rid of Josie.