6 The Queen of Scots Mystery Read Online Free Page A

but he couldn’t have claimed to be watching it. His gaze often strayed to the window and occasionally he would make a foray into the kitchen, where he would open a food cupboard and stare miserably at the contents, or to the front door, where he willed the doorbell to ring heralding Amaryllis’s arrival. After he had worked out that the doorbell could equally be a harbinger of doom, he stopped doing that. Amaryllis rarely used the front door anyway.
    So when the bell did ring in the early evening on Saturday, he didn’t rush to the door immediately. Either it was bad news, or Jock McLean, which amounted to much the same really.
    He wasn’t sure to be relieved or irritated when the door opened and Jock McLean’s head popped round it.
    ‘Anybody in?’
    ‘Yes,’ he said.
    ‘You’ll never guess what’s happened!’ said Jock, advancing into the house with only this small amount of encouragement.
    ‘No, I don’t suppose I will.’
    ‘It’s the Queen of Scots.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘It’s shut,’ said Jock. ‘Police tape all across the front door and everything.’
    ‘Police tape?’
    Christopher had started to develop a headache already. Jock sat down on the chair that had once been Christopher’s father’s. He pulled his pipe out of his pocket, looked at Christopher’s expression and put it back again.
    ‘And danger of death signs,’ he added hopefully.
    ‘All right,’ said Christopher wearily. ‘You might as well tell me.’
    ‘They’ve found Liam Johnstone. Dead. In the cellar. Karen Whiteside told me.’
    ‘She shouldn’t have told you anything of the kind, should she?’
    ‘She was standing outside guarding the place when I was round there… They’ve arrested Neil Macrae.’
    ‘Who’s Neil Macrae?’ said Christopher.
    ‘The landlord,’ said Jock.
    ‘But I thought nobody knew his name,’ said Christopher.
    ‘Hmph. That’s what he wanted you to think,’ said Jock scornfully. ‘Anyway, what happened was that there was some sort of gas leak first thing this morning, and Liam got stuck in the cellar and breathed in the fumes.’
    ‘But gas isn’t poisonous these days, is it? It just explodes.’
    ‘I don’t know about that. I’m only telling you what Karen told me. Jemima and Dave and me were around when Neil first found the gas leak, but we had to go and get our breakfast. Jemima had got smokies in. When’s Amaryllis due back? We need her here to sort this out. We can’t have Neil Macrae locked up and the Queen of Scots out of bounds. Where will we go? What will we do?’
    ‘That’s a bit selfish, isn’t it?’ said Christopher. ‘What about Liam Johnstone?’
    ‘Good riddance,’ said Jock callously.
    ‘But what about Zak and what’s-her-name?’
    ‘Penelope,’ said Jock, giving him an odd look. ‘You know that. We’ve known her for years. And don’t you remember she and Liam separated? And Liam got arrested last year for firing his gun without due care and attention, or whatever it was. She didn’t have any more to do with him after that. Jan at the wool shop said she was getting a divorce. Come to think of it, she was just leaving the pub when we were there this morning. She caught the first bus. Neil told us some sort of story about her missing the last one the night before.’
    ‘I don’t keep all those things in my head the way you do,’ said Christopher crossly, rubbing a hand across his brow.
    Jock stared at him again. ‘Do you want a cup of tea?’ he asked unexpectedly.
    ‘Tea isn’t the answer to everything, you know,’ said Christopher.
    ‘Have you got anything stronger in the house?’
    ‘No. Caroline was over last week for a few days. I don’t like to put temptation in her way.’
    ‘Toast?’ said Jock.
    It was tempting, but somehow toast made him think of Amaryllis. Everything made him think of Amaryllis. He would have to try and push his massive anxiety about her to one side and get on with his life.
    ‘All right, let’s have a cup of