“What?” he asked, picking up his glass to take a mouthful of wine.
“Your thirtieth’s coming up.” I told him, “and just look at you.”
“Your Da still looks ten years younger than he is,” he pointed out. “So it isn’t just the diet. There’s the genetic factor too. You could be well under thirty yourself on your good days, although you seem determined to give the opposite impression on purpose most of the time.”
With good reason. New colleagues were startled enough to meet such a youthful DCI as it was. Some of them just didn’t seem able to take me seriously until I’d proved myself. Even Caitlin had been a bit like that when we’d first met.
“Besides,” my cousin added emphatically, “I’d rather put up with looking like this than risk all the nasty system failures that would start happening if I didn’t take care of myself properly. You need the right fats, amino acids, minerals, vitamins and a shit ton of other stuff to keep everything in good working order, especially the brain. I’d start thinking about easing up on the dead animal consumption a bit more if I were you.”
“You’ve cut me down to once a week on red meat already!” I protested. “Well, maybe twice, now and then if I’m lucky. And you can shut up, with all the desserts you stuff down.” He opened his mouth to protest, but I cut him off. “It’s still sugar, Shay, even if it comes from honey or fruit or raw cane, so don’t even try to tell me it’s health food.”
He sniffed but let it pass, and we applied ourselves to our dinners for a while.
“So,” I asked, when we’d scraped out our pots, “who are you going to be when we fly over tomorrow?” He sipped at his wine, considering it.
“Myself,” he decided. “Anderson had the right idea. I’m your cousin and an accredited civilian specialist that your department uses. I’ve got SOCO and admin experience, as well as being your ‘tech’ guy. McKinnon could more easily spare a civilian all-rounder like me than send a proper partner or a larger team out there to assist you.”
“Keeps things simple,” I agreed. “Alright. You’ve been temporarily assigned as my PA, for the duration of the case.”
“Just don’t expect me to call you Sir or Boss, Cuz,” he grinned, and I snorted. Perish the thought! I flicked the coffee machine on, and Shay dealt with the modest washing up while we waited for it to heat up. We drank our espressos standing, and he washed those cups too before filling us a glass of water each. One of the first things he’d done, when we’d got here, had been to fit filter systems on the taps. We headed back to the living room.
“Fancy watching anything?” I asked. We wouldn’t be able to make any more progress on the case tonight, not until he started to get more results in.
“Yeah, why not?” he said. “Let’s watch Whisky Galore, the 1949 one, not the new one.”
Oh, that was a good idea. I hadn’t seen that for years. He went over to where da had shelved his DVD collection, his fingertip going straight to the right spot to pull at the top of the box and tip it out. He flicked the wall sockets on, then came back to hand me the remotes and flop down by my side.
“They filmed this one on Barra, didn’t they?” I asked as we pushed our laptop trays out of the way. I dragged the coffee table a bit nearer so we could both put our feet up.
“Mmm. They did. I doubt we’ll end up down there, though. Go on, hit play.”
Da came back in time to catch the last half hour with us, and we moved over so he could take his place in the middle. He smelled fresh and soapy, and his hair was still damp. It was considerate of him to clean up at his friend’s place. He was always good about little things like that. He shook his head as the final credits rolled.
“Only one real Scot on the whole bloody island.” He chuckled, still tickled by the fact that most of the islanders back then had been more Irish than Scottish, whether they knew it or not.
“They left out the whole part about the Catholics from the book, too,” Shay agreed. “Mackenzie was not thrilled. It’s still entertaining, though.” He stood and stretched. “Well, I’m for bed, so goodnight to the pair of you. Don’t turn my laptop socket off, Uncle Danny. It’s got work to do tonight.” Da had a bit of a compulsion about switching everything off before he went to bed.
“Right you are,” Da acknowledged the caution. After Shay had gone, he clapped my arm, “You’d best get on up too, son, early start tomorrow.”
Good advice. I was more than ready to fall asleep where I was.
“Yeah,” I made myself move. “Night, Da, thanks for the grub. Another winner.” I left him to check doors and flick switches and went up to collapse into bed. I dozed off, wondering if poor Vanessa Price would be able to get any sleep tonight.
Four
Our airbus wasn’t quite as quick as the seven o’clock Loganair flight would have been, but it got us to Stornoway in just under an hour, and without all the bother of checking in and hanging around waiting at the airport too. I was grateful to the Chief for arranging the transport for us. Our pilot was quick to assure us that the winds were nice and low today, so there wouldn’t be any problem landing. Besides, he’d been told to drop us off at the Coastguard Station on Battery Point in Stornoway, and that was more sheltered than the airport.
He wasn’t wrong. When we thanked him and climbed out, the breeze from across the water, where Lews castle was nestled in its generously treed grounds, was not at all strong.
