My Bones Will Keep

‘Well, well,’ said Macbeth. ‘So the water-kelpie has come ashore again!’

‘Unicorn on leash,’ said Laura, advancing with a smile.

‘Unicorn?’ He looked puzzled. Laura waved a large and shapely hand.

‘One of the fabulous beasts not on display,’ she said. ‘What did happen to the salamander, by the way?’

‘Not by the way, but on the sea. Burnt out. I managed it myself to spite Cousin Bradan, but that he never knew.’

‘Nonsense!’ said Dame Beatrice, suddenly entering the room. ‘You knew nothing about it until you heard that it had happened. Now tell us about the bagpipes.’

‘The bagpipes? Oh, yes. Well, what about them?’

‘Why were they played on the night Mr Bradan died?’

‘Do you know about salmon?’ asked Macbeth.

‘Indeed I do. Their life-story has been a study of mine for many years.’

‘And of mine. Well was he called Bradan, good Gaelic for Salmon. He was spawned in the Spey, gravitated – I call it that because of the very strong pull – to South America, returned to his native river and has fouled it ever since. Now all that he held is mine.’

‘Yes,’ said Dame Beatrice, ‘but could he really bear to disinherit his only son?’

‘His only son, say you? Well, but, mistress, what about Grant of Coinneamh?’

‘I see,’ said Dame Beatrice. ‘And what about the young Mr Grant who lives at Crioch post office?’

‘Oh, that one,’ said Macbeth. He waved a hand, imitating Laura’s gesture. ‘That would be a collateral branch, maybe. A clansman, ay, but nothing – I would say nobody – to signify.’ He was extremely drunk.

‘But the bagpipes! You must remember the bagpipes? Mrs Gavin heard them and so did this young Mr Grant.’

‘Ah, so that’s the limmer you mean? I ken him well. He was a rare nuisance here, speiring after the laird. I was telling him I was the laird, but he would none of it. He said he would be claiming squatter’s rights until the laird came home, so I bade him go squat in the policies, for I would not have him in the house.’

‘Yes, he squatted in the boathouse,’ said Laura. ‘I nearly fell over him when I left An Tigh Mor that night. A fine old fright he gave me, because, of course, I wasn’t expecting to find anybody there. Still, he made up for it by rowing me across the loch, and it was then that we heard you playing a lament on the pipes.’

‘Me? That was no me.’

‘Corrie, then?’

‘No, no.’

‘Don’t tell me Mrs Corrie plays the pipes!’

‘It was no Mrs Corrie, although, between you and me, mistress, I do not believe they twae are married.’

‘That’s as may be. Well, there was nobody else on the island at that time, was there?’

‘Nobody but the Great Silkie of Sule Skerrie.’

Laura stared at him.

‘Oh, well,’ said Dame Beatrice, rising, ‘whoever played the pipes knew that Mr Bradan, or Salmon, was dead.’

But Macbeth was not to be drawn. Laura got up, too, and the inspector opened the door for them and followed them into the hall. Here he jerked his head towards the room they had just vacated and significantly tapped his forehead.

‘And you know he did not kill his cousin?’ murmured Dame Beatrice.

‘Impossible that he committed the deed with his own hand, but less certain that he was not the head of a conspiracy to make away with him.’

‘Is there any possibility that Grant of Coinneamh is Mr Bradan’s son?’

‘None in the world, ma’am. We know a good deal about that Mr Grant. We know that he has shipping interests and we know the names of the ships and that one of them, the Saracen, as you already know, blew up and was written off as a total loss.’

‘Sabotage, do you suppose? – or done to collect the insurance money?’ asked Laura.

‘There was no reason at the time for any suspicion, Mrs Gavin. She was not over-insured and she was a well- found ship, so far as we know. No, no. It was just one of those things and the case is too firmly closed for anybody to reopen it now, even if there seemed any reason for doing so.’

‘What happened to the officers and the crew?’ asked Dame Beatrice.

‘Unhappily, all lost. I would say they never stood a chance of surviving.’

‘I suppose it would be possible to obtain a list of their names?’

‘Certainly.’

‘I should be grateful if I could be furnished with such a list.’

‘You’re not suggesting…?’