worried about money?”
Her amazement seemed genuine. “But he earned a very good pay as a dentist. He always had the latest car, dined at the best restaurants.”
“Was there another woman?”
“I think there was. I took to following him. Oh, it was silly. He found out right away and said if I didn’t give him space, he would have to get rid of me. He went down to Inverness a lot. I’m sure there was someone there.”
“If you can think of anything at all,” said Hamish, “just phone me. I’ll come over right away.”
Maggie sniffed miserably. “You’re very kind, not like those dreadful policemen in Strathbane.”
“Have the press been bothering you?”
“Yes, but this weather will keep them away, and they seem to have lost interest anyway.”
“Did Mr. Gilchrist have any particular friends?”
“No, for a time there was just me. Neither of us had any friends up here. We were all we needed.”
“And relatives? I mean, as far as I know, no relative has come forward.”
“He said he was an only child and that his parents were dead.”
“Odd that. You would think there would be a cousin or someone.” Wedding photographs; thought Hamish. Jeannie Gilchrist would have wedding photographs. Must see her.
He rose and said goodbye. He was grateful that Maggie had not commented on Sarah’s presence.
Once back in the Land Rover, he said, “I’ll drop you back at the hotel and go to Inverness. I want to talk to Gilchrist’s ex-wife again.”
“Take me with you,” said Sarah. “I’m not doing anything else.”
Hamish looked out at the steel grey sky. “The wind’s rising,” he said. “It might be a hairy journey.”
“Then let’s be hairy together.”
Hamish smiled at her suddenly. “Inverness it is.”
? Death of a Dentist ?
7
“Well, now that we have seen each other,” said the Unicorn, “if you’ll believe in me, I’ll believe in you. Is that a bargain?”
—
“There’s coffee in that thermos on the floor beside you,” said Hamish as they drove slowly along. “It’s got milk and sugar in it because I meant to use it to make any policeman on guard outside Gilchrist’s a bit friendlier towards me.”
“I don’t take sugar, but I may be driven to it if we’re trapped in this snow.”
“We’ll go over by Dornoch and take the bridge,” said Hamish, peering out into the gloom. “I think the snow’s getting a bit wetter.”
By the time they reached the long bridge over the Dornoch Firth, Hamish’s eyes felt tired and gritty with the strain of peering ahead. As they made their way over the bridge, Hamish could see a yellowish light at the end and wondered what it was.
He soon found out.
On the other side was a different world. They drove straight out of the swirling snow and blackness and into brilliant sunshine. Hamish looked back in his driving mirror in amazement at the black wall of bad weather behind him. “Let’s just hope the storm stays where it is,” he said, “and doesn’t follow us into Inverness.”
“I will never get used to this weird climate. What do you hope to find out from Mrs. Gilchrist?” asked Sarah.
“I want to find out all I can about the man. She surely knew him better than anyone else.”
“What about Maggie Bane?”
“She was just having the affair with him. Marriage fair brings out the beast in people.”
“Yes, it does,” she said sadly.
He glanced sharply at the hunched figure in the passenger seat. “What would you know about it?”
“Observation,” she said, “just like you.”
When they reached Anstrumer Road in Inverness, Hamish climbed down from the Land Rover and looked up at the sky. Long ragged trails of black cloud were streaming out from the west, the fingers of the storm clawing eastward.
Jeannie Gilchrist was not at home. “Of course, she’ll be back at work,” said Hamish. “Let’s go into Inverness and get something to eat and then we’ll try the council offices.”
They found a self-service cafe. Sarah had a salad and Hamish, a Scotch pie and chips.
“You don’t worry about your cholesterol level, I see,” remarked Sarah.
“It’s comfort food,” said Hamish. “Salad makes me tetchy.”
“I cannot imagine you getting tetchy,” said Sarah. “You seem much too laid-back.”
He smiled at her. “I have the vicious temper.”
“I don’t believe that. Look at all the people inside and out. Where do they all come from? I was amazed to find Inverness such a busy place.”
“Aye, it’s grown out o’ recognition. There’s something suddenly bothering me.”
“And what’s that?”
“Thon still o’ the Smiley brothers. I keep thinking of that long shed. I mean a few bottles here and there for the locals is all right. What if they were into big production?”
“You keep saying it’s hard to keep anything quiet in the Highlands. Someone would have told you. I mean, you said that Kylie girl in the chemists knew about them.”
“I suppose that’s true. Well, murder comes before illegal hooch.”
After their meal, they went to the council offices and found Jeannie Gilchrist. She led them into a side room. Hamish introduced Sarah, saying she was a friend he had met in Inverness and that she could wait outside if Jeannie objected to her presence. Jeannie shrugged. “I’ve no secrets. I will have to cope with Frederick’s funeral after the procurator fiscal releases the body.”
“That’s why I’m here. He had no wedding photographs or photographs of any kind in his house. There must have been some relatives at the wedding.”
“Oh, that’s easily explained. He hated photographs of himself. I think he carried a glamorised picture of himself in his head and didn’t like to look at the reality. He was very vain. There were no relatives at the wedding. He was actually adopted from an orphanage. The couple who adopted him are long dead. He had a few colleagues at the wedding.”
“You said something to me about thinking he might have been married before. Surely that would have come out in his papers when you were making the wedding arrangements.”
“He handled all that. No, I suppose he was never married before if there’s no evidence of it. It was just a feeling, an intuition that one time he had been heavily involved with someone and that no one else was ever going to match up.”
Hamish sighed. “Every time I think I’ve found something mysterious and significant, it’s all explained neatly away. I happen to know he was heavily in debt.”
“Finally caught up with him, did it?”
“What?”
“He liked to show off, big car, best restaurants, that kind of man.”
“Did you know he was having an affair with his receptionist, Maggie Bane?”
“I did not. But then I never saw or heard from him.”
“Mrs. Gilchrist, someone hated him enough to kill him in a savage way. Can you guess what he might have got into?”
She shook her head. “He was a braggart and a show-off but he was never involved in anything criminal.”
“Why do you assume that the murderer or murderers were criminals?”
