‘We return to Tannasgan and endeavour to track down and interview the Corries. There may be considerable importance in what they tell us.’
‘
‘His grandparents will probably refuse to part with your son.’
‘What a hope! Anyway, you’ve now put me wise about Macbeth and his fabulous beasts. The very fact that I’d forgotten for the moment that the basilisk and the cockatrice are one and the same creature means that there are sister ships… the reference to the salamander, a lizard which is always connected with fire, means that a ship got burnt out… I say, do you really think so?’
‘It is only a theory and may be wildly wide of the mark. It gives us something to work on, that is all.’
Chapter 13
Story told by the Corries
‘
« ^ »
IRRATIONALLY to Laura’s surprise, the lantern and the bell on the mainland were answered at once. The boatman was Corrie, whom she had known previously only as a waiter at table. Also, to her astonishment, he spoke.
‘You’re welcome. Maybe you can speak up and save us all this anxiety.’
‘Right,’ said Laura. ‘All aboard!’ She handed Dame Beatrice (who needed no such assistance) into the broad- beamed rowing-boat. ‘And how’s the laird?’
‘He does well enough in his grave.’
‘Oh, come now! You know perfectly well that I was speaking of the one who calls himself Malcolm Donalbain Macbeth,’ said Laura, stepping into the boat.
‘He’s awa’ to Dingwall.’
‘Did he do it? Did he kill the laird?’
‘I dinna ken. Maybe he did, and maybe he did not.’
‘Fair enough. What is your own opinion?’
‘I have given it to you. What will be your business this time at An Tigh Mor?’
‘You’ll find out when we get there,’ said Laura, matching her tone to his. He dug the short oars into the calm waters of the loch and soon was tying up on the other side.
‘Come ben,’ he said, leading the way to the house.
‘Is your wife at home, Mr Corrie?’ asked Dame Beatrice, addressing him for the first time.
‘Ay.’ The front door was open. ‘She will be speaking to you in the dining-room. Mr Macbeth said to be always keeping a fire in the dining-room, for he didna ken when he would be coming back.’
He showed them into the dining-room and drew an armchair a little nearer to the fire for Dame Beatrice. She and Laura seated themselves and in a moment Mrs Corrie came in and stood between them and the enormous dining-table.
‘Well, well!’ she said, grimly smiling at Laura. ‘Such a to-do when the laird came down to breakfast and I had to report that you were missing.’
‘Yes, it was very ungrateful of me to sneak off like that after all his kindness – and yours. But I had to get back to Freagair, to my hotel, you know. I didn’t want to be reported to the police as a missing person,’ said Laura, improvising with some success. Mrs Corrie wagged her head in sympathetic agreement.
‘Police!’ she exclaimed. ‘We were swarming with them after they discovered the old laird’s body. Police all over the house and all over the policies. They rowed themselves about on the loch and they searched the wee inch with the trees on it – ay, and every nook and cranny on the other rocks that stands up out of the water.’
‘Ah, yes,’ said Dame Beatrice. ‘I wonder what they made of the statuary?’
‘They speired at us about that, but we could tell them nothing. My man had seen the strange beasties, but I had not. Those were here before our time, and that’s as much as we could say.’
‘Mr Corrie told us that Mr Macbeth had gone to Dingwall. Did the police take him there?’
‘No, no. He went of his own will to make a statement and to see a lawyer.’
‘And he went – when?’
‘Corrie took him across the loch the morn.’
‘Today?’
‘Ay.’
