Death of a Village Read Online Free

Death of a Village
Book: Death of a Village Read Online Free
Author: MC Beaton
Pages:
Go to
insurance money.’
    ‘How did you come by this?’
    ‘Dunblane, the boss, and two others were out. I know the temp. She let me into the safe.’
    ‘Macbeth! You cannot do that without a search warrant!’
    ‘So I need one now. The temp won’t talk. We’d better move fast.’
    ‘I sent Blair up to Braikie because Teller was threatening to sue. I’ll issue that search warrant and we’ll take Detective MacNab and two police officers and get round
there.’
    It was late evening by the time Hamish Macbeth drove back to Lochdubh. He was a happy, contented man. Blair had returned from Braikie in time to hear about the success of the
operation. The five other shopkeepers were being rounded up. They had claimed on supposedly stolen stock, taken it themselves and hidden it. So they gained half the insurance money and still had
their stock after they had paid Dunblane.
    That strange half-light of a northern Scottish summer where it never really gets dark bathed the countryside: the gloaming, where, as some of the older people still believed, the fairies lay in
wait for the unwary traveller.
    As Hamish opened the police station door, Lugs barked a reproachful welcome. Hamish took the dog out for a walk and then returned to prepare them both some supper. There came a furious knocking
at the kitchen door just as he had put Lugs’s food bowl on the floor and was sitting down at the table to enjoy his own supper.
    He opened the door and found himself confronted with the angry figure of Mary Bisset’s mother.
    ‘You leave my daughter alone, d’ye hear?’ she shouted. ‘She’s only twenty. Find someone your own age.’
    Hamish blinked at her. ‘Your daughter was of great help in our inquiries into an insurance fraud,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t tell her what it was about but promised to take
her out for dinner by way of thanks and tell her then.’
    ‘Oh, yeah,’ she sneered. ‘Well, romance someone of your own age. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. Casanova!’
    And with that she stormed off.
    Hamish slammed the door. Women, he thought. I’m only in my thirties and I’ve just been made to feel like a dirty old man.
     
Chapter Two
    The wife was pretty, trifling, childish, weak;
    She could not think, but would not cease to speak.
    – George Crabbe
    Hamish sat down at his computer in the morning to type out a full report of the insurance frauds. His long fingers flew rapidly over the keys. It was still sunny outside and he
was anxious to get out and go about his normal business of sloping around and gossiping with the villagers.
    The phone rang. He looked at it reluctantly for a few moments and then picked it up. ‘Hamish?’ said a scared little voice. ‘It’s me, Bella Comyn.’
    ‘Morning, Bella. What can I do for you?’
    ‘I’m frightened, Hamish. I want to leave him but I’m frightened of what he’ll do.’
    ‘Where is he at the moment?’
    ‘He’s down at the slaughterhouse in Strathbane.’
    ‘Give me half an hour and I’ll be over.’ Hamish typed busily, finished the report, sent it over to police headquarters, and then decided to find out what was up with Bella.
    He turned over in his mind what he knew about her and her husband, Sean, while he drove out in the direction of their croft. Sean had reached the age of forty, two years before. He was a quiet,
taciturn man. Then he came back from a trip to Inverness with a new bride – Bella. Bella was fifteen years younger than he, and the locals had murmured that never was there a more unsuitable
crofter’s wife. She wore flimsy, flirty clothes and could be seen teetering around Lochdubh in unsuitable high heels. She giggled and prattled and had seemed relatively happy.
    Hamish parked his car outside their whitewashed croft house and knocked on the door. Bella opened it. ‘I’m right glad you’ve come,’ she said. ‘I’ve been
wondering what to do.’
    Hamish removed his cap and followed her into the kitchen.
    ‘Would you like a
Go to

Readers choose

Nathan Ballingrud

Nicole Dennis-Benn

Susan Beth Pfeffer

Anne Forbes

V. C. Andrews

Michael Lister

Lilliana Anderson

Rosalind Noonan