My Bones Will Keep

‘And it was the wee images that were taken across to Grant of Coinneamh and his motor-van. I understand now. Pray go on.’

Corrie again referred to the activities of young Grant and reasserted that he himself had had orders to go to the public telephone on the Freagair road and ring up Bradan.

‘And you are certain that his was the voice you heard?’ Dame Beatrice deliberately spoke in a tone of doubt, but Corrie was adamant. He could have sworn to it anywhere, he declared.

‘I press the point,’ said Dame Beatrice, ‘because I cannot see how, if Mr Bradan was answering the telephone from Edinburgh at the time you say, he could have reached Loch na Greine at soon after ten.’

‘But wha spoke of Edinburgh?’ demanded Corrie. ‘It was an Inverness number I was to call.’ He went on to speak of meeting the station-master’s newly-repaired car and of the sorry state of Cu Dubh. He had smelled strongly of spirits and was in a comatose condition.

‘Ye’ll appreciate,’ said Corrie, ‘that I had no suspicion then that he had been hit on the head and was to die.’

‘You helped him up to the house and into it, believing that he was drunk.’

‘I did that.’

‘And you saw nothing of young Grant.’

‘I did not.’

‘Now, Corrie, Mr Macbeth has told us that you and another man had almost to carry Mr Bradan up to the house, and that young Grant was suspicious about this and, seeing the chance of a scoop for his paper, he bearded Mr Macbeth, who, by that time, must have been aware of what had happened to his cousin, and then Grant was told he might search where he pleased. He found the body in the cellar. What have you to say about that?’

‘Only that the puir gentleman must hae crept down there to get himself anither drink, as you said about Mr Macbeth. In my experience, when a man is fou, all he thinks about is how to get his hands on anither bottle. Doubtless that would be the finish of him, gin he’d been clouted over the head – skian- dhu or no skian-dhu.’

Dame Beatrice agreed that this was very likely.

‘There is one other point,’ she said. ‘Do you know whether young Mr Grant told Mr Macbeth at the time that he’d found the body in the cellar?’

‘Why else would the laird be piping first a lament and then a reel?’

So you knew what was in the will, thought Dame Beatrice. Aloud she said, ‘One more question, Corrie. The man who helped you with Mr Bradan that night was the porter from Tigh Osda, I take it? He was driving the car.’

‘He was.’

‘I see. Well, I have met him and I cannot believe that he had guilty knowledge of Mr Bradan’s death. Are you and your wife prepared to stay on and look after Mrs Gavin and myself for a week?’

‘It will be a pleasure – forbye we have naewhere else to gae.’

‘Right. Then I want you to take the boat across and bring back my chauffeur.’

‘At once, ma’am?’

‘Yes, please – and you had better tell your wife about the new arrangements.’

When he had gone, Laura said:

‘What do you make of this business of the body in the cellar?’

‘I think that Corrie’s explanation is probable, although I have another, even more likely one.’

‘You do believe, then, that Bradan was not only alive but blind tight when they brought him home?’

‘It is possible. It would explain a good many things. It might even explain why, after a knock on the head which was obviously meant to kill him, he was able to crawl into the cellar. I do not profess to explain it, but it seems to be a fact that when a man is very drunk he can sustain injuries which, in a sober person, might be fatal.’

‘Do you speak from experience?’ asked Laura, cheekily.

‘Professional experience,’ said Dame Beatrice, whose only tribute to the grape was an occasional glass of sherry. ‘I wonder how Mrs Corrie will react to the news that she has two women and an extra man to cater, cook and clean for, in place of the one man to whom she has been accustomed.’

Two men, surely?’ said Laura. ‘At one time, before he was turfed out, young Bradan must have lived here, and, for a bit, I suppose Bradan and Macbeth must both have occupied the house. Besides, one assumes that a Mrs Bradan would have been included, if young Bradan is really Bradan’s son.’

‘How right you are,’ said Dame Beatrice. ‘Of course, if he isn’t…’

‘I didn’t mean to infer that he wasn’t!’

‘It might help to explain the disinheriting.’

‘I thought the reasons given already were enough to explain that.’

‘Anyway, it is no concern of ours. What is interesting, though, is that Mr Bradan was not in Edinburgh, but in Inverness.’

‘Yes, it explains how he was able to get back here that night.’

‘Of course, the medical evidence must always leave a margin in determining the time of death, and the waters of the loch must be extremely cold at this time of year.’