Death of a Village Read Online Free Page B

carefully and said, ‘She’s a flighty little thing and he should never have married her, but she does need to get out a bit
and the Mothers’ Union always needs new members.’
    ‘She doesn’t have children.’
    ‘Neither do the Currie sisters,’ said Mrs Wellington dryly. ‘But that doesn’t stop them from trying to run everything. Leave it with me, Hamish.’
    Hamish walked back down to the Highland Times office to look for Elspeth. He found her sitting at her desk, moodily stabbing a pencil into her hair.
    ‘So what about Stoyre?’ he asked.
    ‘I took a run over there,’ she said. ‘Nothing. No one in the church.’
    ‘So that’s all you wanted to tell me?’
    ‘I think you should go back. There’s an odd feeling about.’
    ‘What sort of feeling?’
    ‘Fear.’
    ‘It’s probably the fear of some Calvinistic God. They seem to have gone all religious.’
    ‘Could be. But I smell something else.’
    Hamish suddenly felt ravenously hungry. He had not eaten any breakfast. To make up to Elspeth for his recent rudeness, he was about to ask her to join him at the Italian restaurant, but she
looked up at him and grinned and said. ‘What’s all this about you romancing Mary Bisset?’
    ‘There iss nothing in that,’ said Hamish stiffly, and walked out. Irritating lassie.
    Hamish went back to the police station and took a trout out of his freezer to defrost. Lugs let out a low grumbling sound. He did not like fish and felt his master was being
selfish, but he brightened when Hamish began to fry up some lamb’s kidneys for him.
    Food ready, he loaded it all on to a tray and carried it out to the front garden. He placed Lugs’s bowl on the grass and settled down to enjoy a meal of trout dipped in oatmeal, salad and
chips.
    The foxy face of Jimmy Anderson peered over the hedge. ‘That looks good,’ he said. He opened the gate and came in.
    ‘I hope you’ve eaten,’ said Hamish. ‘I don’t feel like cooking any more.’
    ‘No, I’m fine.’ Jimmy sank down in a chair next to him. He looked around: at the rambling roses tumbling over the front door and then over the hedge to where the loch sparkled
in the sun. ‘You’ve got the life o’ Riley here, Hamish,’ he said. ‘Enjoy it while you can.’
    ‘What do you mean?’ demanded Hamish sharply.
    ‘Well, because of you solving that big insurance case, Daviot’s beginning to make noises about you being wasted up here, and Blair’s encouraging him.’
    ‘Why? He loathes my guts.’
    ‘He feels if you were transferred to Strathbane, well, you’d just be another copper and he’d be more on hand to take the credit for anything you found out.’
    ‘And what brings you up here?’
    ‘Day off. I came to warn you about what was brewing, and I think you should be offering me something to drink.’
    Hamish sighed but went into the house and came back with a bottle half full of whisky and a glass, which he set on the table. ‘Help yourself.’
    ‘Thanks.’
    ‘So what do I do to stop getting a promotion?’ asked Hamish.
    ‘I dunno. Disgrace yourself – mildly.’
    ‘How do I do that?’
    Jimmy took a mouthful of whisky. ‘You’ve always managed before,’ he said.
    ‘I do not want to go to Strathbane,’ mourned Hamish. He waved his hand round about. ‘Look what I’ve got to lose.’
    ‘It’s grand today, I’ll give you that. But what about the long winters?’
    ‘Believe me, long winters in Strathbane would seem worse than they do here.’
    ‘Have it your way. Once a peasant, always a peasant. Stuck up here talking to the sheep would kill me.’
    ‘If the bottle doesn’t get to you first.’
    ‘I can take it. Wait a wee bit: I’ve got an idea.’ Jimmy drank more whisky. ‘There’s a pet o’ Blair’s just joined the force. Red-hot keen. Arrest anyone
on sight. Today, he’s standing out on the main road afore you get to Strath-bane with a speed camera. You could pelt past him at a hundred miles an hour.’
    ‘In a