He ducked and made his way round to the front of the house, ducking below the living room window. He stood up at the front door and was putting an ear to it when suddenly the door swung open.
He drew a fist back, but stopped when he saw there was no threat. He pulled the ski mask off.
‘I thought you were never going to get round to coming to the front door,’ Missy Galbraith said.
‘I was just making sure it was you.’
‘Don’t stand there; come in and I’ll make coffee.’
He walked in, fairly sure he wasn’t going to be ambushed, but the copper in him inspected every element of the hallway. Sensing no threat, he followed her through to the kitchen he had just seen through the window minutes earlier.
‘Nice place,’ he said.
‘It’s Zachary Wolf’s now. If he lives long enough to claim it. Milk and sugar?’
‘Milk, please. What do you mean, “if he lives long enough”? Are you just going by recent events or do you know something? The reason you asked me along here?’
‘A little of both,’ Missy said, pouring boiling water into two mugs. She stirred in the instant granules and added milk from the fridge. ‘Come on, let’s take these through to the living room.’
Harry hadn’t paid too much attention to Missy’s facial features, but up close she appeared to be a little older than he’d first thought. They each sat on a large, comfortable chair with a side table.
‘What is this place?’ he asked, taking a sip of the coffee. He was tired now, the combination of the long day, the flight and something that Edinburgh didn’t have an abundance of these days: fresh air.
‘It’s the house that Clive Wolf was left in the will.’
‘Does this have any bearing on his murder?’ Harry said.
‘I think it does.’
‘That’s why you sent me a text asking me to meet you here?’
She drank some of her coffee. ‘Yes. Clive was scared. He confided in me. People thought he was just some stuck-up spoiled brat, but I saw a different side to him. I would come across here with Thomas when Oliver needed some legal work done. I’ve been with the firm for five years now and I’ve got to know the Wolf family very well. But there’s been a shift in the whole dynamic of the Wolf clan.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘There’s just something not quite right about the heirs. Of course, they used to squabble at family gatherings, but not all the time. And now there’s an air of fear, for want of a better word. That’s why Clive came to me and confided in me.’
‘What about?’ Harry loosened his jacket. The logs in the fire were crackling and spitting but the heat they kicked out felt good.
‘He was scared, Harry. Scared for his life. The only other person he trusted in the world was his twin sister, Shona. But he knew I could keep a confidence. Thomas and I came across from the mainland a few days ago, to prepare for the memorial and get things up and running. Shortly afterwards, Clive met me here, in private.’ She paused for a moment. Drank some of her coffee.
‘He overheard people talking, in the big house. He couldn’t make out everything that was being said. But one thing he did hear was them talking about where Murdo Wolf was buried.’
‘Why didn’t he contact us?’
Missy looked at him for a moment. ‘Who would have believed him? Clive had been known to shout his mouth off. Not many people liked him, especially Sergeant Turnbull. So Clive did the next best thing: he went looking himself.’
‘It’s just as well you weren’t with him, or else you might have been a victim too.’
‘Trust me, I wanted to go with him last night. He wouldn’t hear of it. He asked me to stay and be his eyes and ears in the house.’
Harry drank more coffee, feeling the effects of the heat from the fire starting to grip him. The warmth was nice. Summer was never roasting in Scotland, but being on an island that was wide open to the Atlantic didn’t help. The last thing he wanted was to doze off.
‘Did you hear anything?’ he asked.
‘No, nothing. They were all about how they were going to spend their money.’
‘Let me ask you what you think of them.’
‘They were typical spoilt brats. I know people thought Clive was spoilt, but whenever he was across on the mainland we had dinner and he was really good fun. He treated me like a lady. Unlike some of the animals I’ve been out with.’
‘He trusted you, in other words.’
She looked at the floor for a moment before answering. ‘Yes, he trusted me completely. And I trusted him. He was the only Wolf family member I would trust.’
‘Do you think one of them killed him?’
‘I wouldn’t put it past them. But all I know is, he left that afternoon and I didn’t see him again. I couldn’t go looking for him, because that would have shown my hand. But the others were in the hotel, helping out with the memorial. Whoever killed him, I don’t think it was one of the Wolf clan.’
‘Did he give you any sort of idea who he overheard talking about killing old Murdo?’
Missy looked at the fire before looking back at Harry. ‘I wish I had pressed him more to remember, but all he said was that it was two men.’
‘We know it wasn’t Fenton and Zach, because they were only children at the time.’
‘If Clive knew, he didn’t say.’
They both heard the creak of the floorboards at the same time. Just before all the lights in the house went out.
The interior door banged open and a masked figure ran in, illuminated only by the flickering light from the fire.
Harry saw the man was holding a hammer. He dropped his cup, reached over for a burning log, grabbed hold of it and swiped it at the running man. This stopped
