Crystal fled down the road and onto the beach. She cast one anguished look behind her and ran straight into the sea, her wrists still handcuffed. Tearing off his sweater and vest while he ran, Hamish ran into the water after her. A Sutherland gale was blowing and whipping spray from the white crests of the waves into his eyes.
He reached Crystal as she was plunging under the water and caught hold of her. She struggled and fought. He drew back his fist and socked her on the jaw and then dragged her unconscious body back to the shore.
Mary came running down the beach to join him. “Is she dead?”
“No, she’ll do,” said Hamish. “I had to knock her out.”
“How did you survive that shot? I thought you were dead.”
“I borrowed a bulletproof vest. But God, that shot made me feel sick.”
“We’ve a lot of explaining to do,” said Mary. “Them in Strathbane won’t like me poaching on their territory and making them look like fools.”
“They’ll have to live with it. I’ve got some dry clothes in the Land Rover,” said Hamish. “I’d better get them on.”
Crystal began to come round. A stream of filthy oaths emerged from her mouth.
“Here they come,” said Mary. She undipped her torch and flashed it.
Police cars screeched to a halt in front of the beach.
Blair was the first out. He came stumbling down the beach, his heavy face contorted with fury.
“What’s all this about?” he shouted. He confronted Mary. “And what are you doing on my patch?”
Fortunately he was followed by Superintendent Daviot. “Let me handle this,” he said. “Explain yourself, Inspector.”
Crystal was still letting out a stream of curses. “Take her into custody,” said Mary. “She is responsible for the deaths of Mrs. Gillespie and Shona Fraser, and we have all the proof you need. She also shot Macbeth, but he was wearing a bulletproof vest.”
Daviot gave instructions to police officers who had joined them, and Crystal, kicking and screaming, was dragged off towards the police cars. Jimmy Anderson now joined them.
“It’s like this,” said Mary, trying to remember the story she had rehearsed with Hamish. “I was checking security at Inverness airport when I saw Constable Macbeth getting off a Glasgow plane. He told me he had been to Glasgow to check on Mrs. Barret-Wilkinson’s alibi.”
Her calm, steady voice went on until Daviot had all the facts.
“What I want to know,” raged Blair when she finished, “is what this highland loon was doing going to Glasgow without permission?”
“You wouldn’t have given me permission,” said Hamish. “You would have said that her alibi had already been covered by Strathclyde police.”
“Let’s get off this beach,” said Daviot. “Good work, Hamish, and good work, Inspector.”
¦
Back at police headquarters, Hamish, after he had typed out his statement, said to Mary, “I’ll be off.”
“It’s your show. Don’t you want to sit in on the interrogation?”
“I’d rather leave it all to you, Inspector.”
Hamish drove happily back to Lochdubh. He felt as if a dark cloud of menace had been lifted from the whole Sutherland area.
He called at Angela’s and told her and her husband the whole story. “You’d better let me have a look at you,” said Dr. Brodie.
Hamish lifted up his sweater. “A nasty bruise, and it’ll look worse by tomorrow,” the doctor said. He prodded around. “No, no broken ribs. You’re a lucky man.”
“I know. If she’d shot higher or lower, I might not be here now.”
Hamish collected his dog and cat and drove the short distance to the police station.
Home, he thought. Safe home.
He cooked himself a meal of sausage and bacon, ignoring Lugs’s insistent paw on his knee and the yellow glare from Sonsie, sitting up on a kitchen chair opposite.
Then he undressed, washed, and fell into bed and straight into a long and dreamless sleep.
¦
A hammering on the kitchen door awoke him late the next morning. He struggled out of bed, put on his dressing gown, and went to answer it. A furious Elspeth stood there with Luke behind her.
“Why didn’t you phone me?” she shouted. “We’ve been to a press conference in Strathbane, and we’ve only got what all the other papers have. You’ve just used me as you’ve used me before as a sort of Watson. I never want to see you or speak to you again!”
She stormed off, deaf to Hamish’s apologies. Luke followed. He turned at one point and gave Hamish a mocking smile.
¦
Elspeth and Luke drove back to Strathbane to see if they could pick up any more information before driving to Styre to get the reaction from the few locals.
Luke then suggested they should go back into Strathbane and treat themselves to a slap-up meal at the Palace Hotel. They had cocktails and then a bottle of wine each to go with their lunch. Elspeth usually didn’t drink so much, but she wanted to drown out the pain of what she saw as Hamish Macbeth’s cynical and self-seeking behaviour.
Luke set himself out to be charming and amusing. He told Elspeth she was the most attractive woman he had ever met. Tipsy, and feeling happier, Elspeth reflected that Hamish had never said one nice word about her appearance. On the contrary, he usually criticised what she had on.
Over coffee and large brandies, Luke reached over the table and took her hand in his.
“We make a good team, Elspeth,” he said. He rose and got down on one knee beside her chair. Still holding her hand, he looked up into her face and said, “Beautiful Elspeth, light of my life, will you marry me?”
The other diners fell silent. Elspeth thought of her lonely flat back in Glasgow. She thought about how stupid she’d been to ever have fancied such as Hamish Macbeth.
“Yes,” she said.
The diners cheered. Luke rose and pulled her to her feet. “Let’s go and get the best ring Strathbane has to offer.”
¦
Unbeknownst to them, Hamish Macbeth had just left the main jewellers’ shop before they arrived, a sapphire and diamond ring in his pocket. He had at last decided that if marriage was what Elspeth wanted, then marriage was what she would get. As he drove back to Lochdubh, he conjured up happy pictures of Elspeth working in his kitchen with a small son at her heels.
But when he arrived at the Tommel Castle Hotel, there was no sign of Elspeth. He mooched around, getting more and more anxious as the day wore on, until Mr. Johnson invited him into his office. “Sit down and have a coffee. You can see the car park from the window.”
Hamish sat down. He took out the ring in its little red leather box and flicked the lid up and down until Mr. Johnson told him to stop it. “She’s out reporting, that’s all, Hamish.”
“Did I tell you why she was mad at me?”
“Only about a hundred times,” said Mr. Johnson, then hearing the sound of car wheels on the gravel outside, he added, “Someone’s arriving.”
Hamish went to the window, and Mr. Johnson joined him. Elspeth and Luke got out. They were both laughing at something. Then Luke took Elspeth in his arms and kissed her. She put her hands up to caress the back of his neck, and one last ray of bright sunlight sparkled on a large diamond ring on her finger.
Hamish made for the door, but the manager held him back.
“Leave it, Hamish. There’s nothing you can do now.”
¦
Back at the police station, Hamish found Inspector Mary Gannon waiting for him. “I’m off back to Inverness,” she said. “I dropped by to thank you. Blair’s in the doghouse again with Daviot for having decided the prof was the villain.”
“Come ben,” said Hamish. “Drink?”
