My Bones Will Keep

‘Deliberately?’

‘No, no. There was nothing helpful that I could tell them. They speired at me where had the laird been, if, as I told them – and it’s the truth – he was away from home all that day. I told them that I was not in the laird’s confidence. Then I had to give an account in detail of my actions from the time I came to Tannasgan until the time of the death.’

‘Did you tell them that I was here for part of that time?’ asked Laura.

‘I did not. The death was nothing to do with a young lass like yourself.’

‘Very chivalrous of you to say so, but wouldn’t it have been wiser to have mentioned my visit? It’s going to be a bit awkward for you if it comes out now – perhaps for me, too.’

‘Havers!’ He gave the word all the contempt in the world.

‘I don’t think it’s nonsense,’ said Laura. ‘You see, I thought it as well to go to them and give them a full account of what I did and where I went that evening. I told them that I was here, and that you gave me food and shelter. Of course, I didn’t know your name, but I described you and the others, so, even if I were willing to keep quiet about it, I shouldn’t be able to now. If they question me, it’s bound to involve you.’

‘I see that. There’s the fellow who followed you and spoke to you, of course.’

‘And the other fellow, who gave me a lift to Freagair that same night. He knows I was here. He can confirm my story. And there’s the first fellow, the one who got me on to the island.’

‘Ay.’ He continued his furious puffing while he pondered. ‘I would advise you to communicate with the police and get them to deal with him. A man like that might be dangerous.’

Laura decided to change the subject.

‘It was you playing the bagpipes that night, I suppose?’

‘Your supposition is perfectly correct. Did you like my playing?’

‘Well, it was a useful cover while I got away from this house. In any case, I always like the sound of the pipes.’

‘And now,’ said Dame Beatrice briskly, ‘what about this account you’re going to give us of all that took place on Tannasgan and at An Tigh Mor on the day that Mrs Gavin turned up on the shore of the loch? You were good enough to take her in and give her food and shelter, but on that same night your cousin was killed and his body put into a barrel.’

‘Och, that!’ There was another long silence, then he said, drawing his thick brows together, ‘In a barrel was where he belonged, the drunken stot! Whisky Johnny should have been his name. But his death and the manner of it is the business of the police, and neither themselves nor you will get any more out of me than I’m prepared to tell. And what I dinna ken I canna tell, now can I?’

‘At least tell us one thing,’ said Laura.

‘And what would that be?’

‘Is this Loch na Greine? – and is this house An Tigh Mor?’

He looked at her and put on a crafty smile.

‘You must just please yourself,’ he replied. ‘Maybe they are—and maybe they’re not. And now, if you’ll just excuse me, I have work to do.’

‘Will you allow us to borrow a boat to cross the loch?’

‘Ay. Tie up on the other side and somebody will be back to bring it over. How did you get here?’

‘I swam and then I rowed back for the others.’

‘You did? I kenned you were a braw lassie as soon as I set eyes on you. You swam, eh? Well, well, I’ll no insist that you swim back.’

With this he leaned back in his great armchair and closed his eyes. Laura glanced at Dame Beatrice and they walked to the front door and joined George who, spanner in hand, was keeping guard under the front windows. He seemed relieved to see them.

He rowed them across the loch and handed them out on to the little stone jetty. Soon all three were in the car. He turned it, with infinite care, on the rough grass and on to the road, and Laura, who was on the right-hand side of the back seat, glanced out. On the other side of the water stood a man, but it was not Macbeth. For a moment Laura could not place him, then it came to her who he was. She was about to draw the attention of Dame Beatrice to his presence, when he ducked into the boathouse and was lost in the shadows.

Dame Beatrice, who missed nothing, had noticed him, however.

‘So there was one more person on Tannasgan than we realised,’ she said. ‘I wonder whether the manservant Corrie was in the house after all?’

‘That isn’t Corrie,’ said Laura. ‘Corrie is older and shorter than that. No, that’s the young man I told you about – the one who met me in the rain and rather – well, it was a nerve, really – insisted on sending me over to Tannasgan. He was on the mainland side then, of course, and worked the signal and rang the bell to bring the boat over. I had no notion that he was actually connected with the place, though. I assumed he was out for a walk and had been caught in the storm, like me. In fact, I think, looking back, that I imagined he was going to cross the loch, too, and try to get shelter, but, when he walked off, I suppose I concluded he had a place of his own near at hand, or else was so wet that he couldn’t get any wetter.’

‘I wonder what, if any, his part is in the drama? Everything in this little adventure seems more than a little odd.’

‘Absolutely off-beat.’

‘This new friend, I must say, intrigues me. I wonder whether it was chivalry, or something much less admirable, which caused him to expedite your first visit to An Tigh Mor?’