“And you will not tell anyone?” Mr Ferrari demanded.
“Not unless it’s necessary, no.”
“It’s not a nice story. Lucia does not go out walking with any man without my permission. Sean asked her to go for a walk with him, she asked me and I refused. I did not want her tied to anyone who showed no signs of wanting to work. But he was a regular customer, although where he got the money from, I don’t know, and so he managed to speak to her…a lot. He was very handsome. So Lucia begged and begged to be allowed to go out with him, so I at last said she could on her day off, in the afternoon, but she was to be back at six o’clock. I sent Giovanni after them to keep watch. I tell you, Hamish,” he went on, “I’ve met a lot of bad people in my long life, and I had Sean marked down as a real bad one. But I couldn’t be sure. I kept wishing that wee lassie, Cheryl, had still been with him. Lucia wouldnae have dreamt of going out with him then.”
“So off they went and Giovanni set out after them. All excited he was, dodging in and out of doorways with a cap down over his eyes and a scarf over his mouth, and then creeping up the hillside. I thought Sean was bound to notice the idiot, but as it turned out, he did not.”
“They only went a little away up on the moor and they were sitting side by side on one of those big boulders. Giovanni crept up and lay in the heather behind them.”
“Sean began telling Lucia she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen and she asked if he’d been in love with Cheryl and he gave her a spiel that Cheryl was a waif frae Glasgow he was being kind to and what had bit the hand that fed it and all that rubbish.”
“Then he suggested she go back to that bus of his. He said he had some good videos. But she said it was their first time out and wasn’t the view lovely and maybe another time and so on. Then he grabbed her and kissed her and Giovanni said he didn’t know what to do because she was enjoying it and it was only kissing. Then Sean began to unbutton her blouse and Lucia pushed him off, but he tumbled her on to the ground and I believe Giovanni when he said it could have been rape if he hadn’t been there. So Giovanni ups from the heather and shouts, ‘Stop!‘”
“He said Sean looked like the very devil, those cat’s eyes of his glittering in the light, and Lucia, she was crying her eyes out. Giovanni said he was right glad he’d taken the meat cleaver with him.”
Hamish suppressed a grin.
“So Sean saw that cleaver and began to run and Giovanni went after him and chased him right back to that bus. Then he told me. So we all went to see him, me and Luigi and Giovanni, and we told Sean Gourlay that if he came near the restaurant or Lucia ever again, we would cut his balls off. So that’s it.”
“You should have told me this before,” said Hamish.
“Why?” demanded Mr Ferrari. “None of us killed him.”
But Hamish left very worried. There was a field at the back of the restaurant and from the field it was possible to cut across the other fields and get to the one behind the manse. And yet how simple it would be for him if, say, Giovanni had done it. How he longed for an outsider. And yet, although Mr Ferrari and his relatives had only set up their restaurant a short time ago in the village, they had quickly become a valuable part of the local life. The small shack which served as a Catholic church was to be gradually replaced by a brick building, money supplied by Mr Ferrari. The restaurant had become a gathering place for local birthdays and wedding anniversaries.
At the police station, he told Willie what had happened. “I should’ve been there,” said Willie. “Not that Lucia cannae protect herself.”
“In what way?”
“She told me she was walking home and one o’ the forestry lads grabbed her and tried to steal a kiss.”
“And?”
“She kicked him in the family silver.”
“You mean jewels.”
“Whatever.”
Could Lucia have done it herself? wondered Hamish. She had been keen enough on Sean to beg Mr Ferrari to let her go out with him. Was she one of the women who had gone to the bus? Cheryl wouldn’t know, for Sean’s pursuit of Lucia had started after Cheryl had gone.
He shook his head wearily. “Did Mr Ferrari blame me for reporting it?” asked Willie anxiously.
Hamish shook his head. “As long as you go on neglecting your duties and giving him free labour, he won’t go off you.”
“It’s not as if anything ever happens in Lochdubh,” said Willie sulkily.
“Except murder,” said Hamish.
¦
Hamish set out the next day to try to get his female suspects alone. He waited until he knew Dr Brodie would be at the surgery and went to call on Angela. He felt a pang of worry when he saw her. It was like that time when that woman had been murdered in Lochdubh, he thought, and Angela, who had been under her influence, had mentally gone off the rails. She looked now as she had then, thin and brittle.
“Not more questions,” said Angela when she saw him.
“I have to keep asking,” said Hamish patiently. “Can I come in?”
“I suppose so.” Angela led the way into the kitchen. The table was covered in textbooks. She shovelled a clear space at one corner and sat down. Hamish sat opposite her.
“I went to see Cheryl yesterday,” said Hamish. Angela pushed a tress of fine wispy hair out of her eyes. “And?” she demanded.
“I gather that some evenings, Cheryl was sent out for a walk while Sean entertained some ladies. You were one of the ones mentioned. The previous times I’ve spoken to you, you’ve always said you went over with cakes and things when Sean and Cheryl originally came to the village, as a sort of welcome. You never said anything about spending any time with Sean alone.”
“I didn’t want my husband to find out,” said Angela. “All that happened was that I went over one evening to talk about my studies because he had seemed interested, and John never listens to me. When I talk about anything to do with this Open University degree, he switches off. Cheryl went out when I arrived. I stayed and talked, had a few drinks and then left. I never went back again because I thought if John ever found out about it, it would…well… look odd.”
“And that’s all there was to it?”
“Yes, Hamish, what else could there have been?”
“Sean didn’t ask you for money or…” Hamish looked at her in growing concern…“drugs?”
“I thought you were a friend, Hamish. How can you say such things?” Angela covered her thin face with her thin hands and began to cry.
“Now, now,” said Hamish awkwardly. “Dinnae greet. I haff to ask these questions, you know that. Haven’t you anything you’d like to get off your chest?”
“I’d like you to get out of here,
Hamish rose to his feet and stood looking down at her. “I’ll go now,” he said heavily, “but I’ll have to be back.”
Priscilla, he thought, as he stood outside the doctor’s house, I need Priscilla. He drove up to the hotel in time to catch her closing up the gift shop for lunch.
“Hello, Hamish,” she said, “I’m just about to have lunch, coffee and sandwiches in the bar. You can join me, if you’d like.”
When they were seated in a corner of the bar, Hamish having agreed to coffee and refused whisky because he was driving, much as he would have liked one, for he had found the interview with Angela harrowing, Priscilla looked at him and said, “This case is really getting you down. Want to talk about it?”
So he told her all he knew from the beginning, outlining his fear that the murder had been committed by someone from the village.
“I think we should write some of this down,” said Priscilla. She rose and went through to the reception desk and came back with several sheets of paper. “Now,” she said, “let’s sort it out. All the women who have visited Sean have become wrecks. Mrs Wellington is a shadow of her former self. Angela is on the twitch and spending far too much money on clothes, which is totally out of character. The Currie sisters plan to sell up and move. Sean dies. They take the sign down.”
