‘Good of you to join us,’ he growled.
Hamish glanced at his watch. Seven was not what you’d call a slovenly hour to wake up.
‘Are you here for breakfast?’
‘We had breakfast an hour ago.’
‘We?’
‘The girls and I. Kirsty’s taken Rose home with her. Susie’s searching the bushland behind the garden. I’ve come back to make a few phone calls. We’ll get some back-up.’ His voice was so cold each word was practically an icicle ‘I want Susie to get some rest. She’s not fit to be searching as she’s been doing all night.’
His heart stilled.
‘Taffy,’ he said. ‘Hell, she didn’t find Taffy.’
If anything, Jake’s expression grew colder. ‘She said she told you the pup was lost. I thought she must have been mistaken. To let her stay up all night…’
‘She didn’t stay up all night.’
‘Oh, she didn’t?’ Jake said. ‘Fine.’
Hamish stared at Jake in consternation. Jake stared back, as if Hamish was something lower than pond scum.
‘I offered to search with her,’ Hamish said desperately. ‘She said she was sure the pup was somewhere in the castle. That she’d howl when she woke up. She’s good at howling.’
‘It’s not much use howling when you’re outside,’ Jake muttered, more to himself than to Hamish. ‘There’s owls hunting at night. If Taffy’s attracted one of them… I’m thinking that’s what will have happened.’
‘She’s not outside,’ Hamish said flatly. ‘She’s in the castle.’
‘If she was in the castle she’d be howling by now. She’s a ten-week-old pup who hasn’t been fed for twelve hours.’
‘But she was locked in the wet room. Susie put her there when she put Rose down for the night.’
‘I gather Marcia used the wet room as a passage early last night,’ Jake said. ‘It seems she left the door open.’
Hamish thought back. Marcia in the conservatory, fielding phone calls. Marcia walking back to the house to get notes. She’d never notice a pup…
‘Where’s Marcia now?’
‘On the phone to New York. Where do you think?’ Jake’s voice said Marcia was right there in the pond with Hamish.
‘She hasn’t seen the pup?’
‘What do you think?
Hamish was already backing out the door, heading for some clothes. ‘Why are you here?’
‘Susie rang Kirsty at dawn.’
‘Over a dog?’
‘Dumb, isn’t it?’ Jake said cordially. ‘Only a dog. But Susie loves her.’
Hamish closed his eyes. ‘I’ll get dressed.’
‘Right,’ Jake said politely, turning back to the phone. ‘I’ll add you to the search party, shall I?’
‘She’ll be dead.’ Susie stood in the middle of the cove and stared despairingly along the beach. ‘She’ll have been taken by an owl or an eagle. It’s just dumb to keep looking. Dumb, dumb, dumb.’
‘Hey, it’s not hopeless,’ Kirsty told her. She’d left all the kids with her housekeeper and come straight back. ‘We have half Dolphin Cove out searching. Jake says the numbers are up to eighty already.’
‘Eighty?’ Susie hiccuped on a mix of laughter and a sob. ‘For one little puppy.’
‘Everyone loves you,’ Kirsty said solidly. ‘There’s people coming from everywhere to look.’
‘She’ll be dead.’
‘We’ll keep looking until we find her.’
Hamish couldn’t believe it. He’d been out in the bushland behind the castle-three hours of combing the rough gullies and hillside, searching in what seemed an increasingly hopeless case. He’d returned to find the kitchen like a military planning area.
‘What’d happen if a child was lost?’ he asked in amazement.
Kirsty looked up from the table where she was crossing grid lines off a map and gave him a weary smile.
‘More of the same.’ She shrugged. ‘Much more. OK, it might be over the top but the wind’s up, which means the fishing fleet can’t get out, so the fishermen don’t have anything else to do. And everyone knows Susie’s leaving tomorrow. We’re upset about it already, without this happening.’
‘Where’s Susie now?’
‘I talked her into having a lie down.’ She hesitated. ‘You know, Susie’s not just devastated because of the puppy.’
He thought about it and decided, yes, Kirsty was right, but he knew where Kirsty was headed and there were places there he didn’t want to go.
‘She’ll miss you, too,’ he said, deliberately obtuse, and she gave him a long, thoughtful look that reminded him uncomfortably of her twin.
‘As you say.’
‘Is Jake out searching?’
‘Jake had morning surgery. He had to go.’
So Jake was getting on with business. ‘Well, someone has some sense.’
Her face stilled at that. Yes, she really was very like Susie, he thought, and then he thought about what he’d said. Maybe it hadn’t been…sensible?
‘Sense is a really strange thing,’ she said softly. ‘Just when you think you have it cornered, it turns into something else. Be careful what you think is sensible, Hamish Douglas. It might just turn around and bite you.’
‘Hamish.’
As if on cue, a voice came from the door. He turned and Marcia was standing in the doorway, looking displeased. ‘Where have you been?’
‘Out searching.’ The cell phone in her hand vibrated before he could say any more. She stared at the screen, prioritised and abandoned the caller.
How often was she separated from her phone? Hamish thought, and then he wondered how often he’d been separated from his. Until he’d come here, maybe never.
‘You’re wanted,’ she said briefly, obviously annoyed.
‘Susie wants me?’
‘By the hotel assessor,’ she snapped. ‘You knew he was coming this morning. He’s in the drawing room. I’ve shown him around but he wants to talk to you-and to Susie.’
‘I’ll come,’ he said wearily, raking his hand through his hair. ‘But Susie’s not to be disturbed.’ He turned back to Kirsty. ‘Let me know if there’s any news.’
Hamish had to focus.
Lachlan Glendinning was the representative of an international realty firm. He’d been valuing a hotel up in Northern Queensland and he’d taken time and considerable trouble to travel to Dolphin Bay. Telling him he couldn’t spend time with him because a puppy was missing-especially when Susie had the whole town combing the surrounding estate looking for him-seemed crazy.
But there was no mistaking that outside with the search party was where Hamish wanted to be.
Why? he wondered as he answered Lachlan’s endless questions, going over the family history as he knew it. Luckily he’d read many of Angus’s family papers so he had the answers to most questions. But his eyes kept straying outside. People were going back and forth under the window. He could see people down on the beach.
‘I hear there’s a lost dog,’ Lachlan said genially. He was smooth and slick and clever, knowing exactly what he was looking for in the real estate market and knowing he’d found it in Loganaich Castle. ‘This is quite some community spirit you have here. The town’s picturesque, too. I’m thinking we could build this really big.’
