Flotsam and Jetsam (13 page)

‘I – er – would love to,’ she said. ‘When I’m off duty.’

His smile enchanted her. ‘That’s settled then.’ He handed her a card. ‘My mobile is on there. Just ring when you are free. Look I need to rush, myself. I have another appointment to keep. Look forward to our date.’

Morag stared at the door as it closed behind him. ‘I don’t believe it,’ she said to herself.

‘Ewan,’ she called through to the kitchen. ‘Am I dreaming or not? Did Sandy King just come in?’

‘He did, and he asked you out on a date.’

‘Were you listening, you big galoot?’

‘Of course I was, and I’m happy for you. Could you get his autograph for me, or maybe a football shirt?’

There was a chorus of laughter from the rest room and the Drummond twins appeared, both of them dressed in the West Uist police navy-blue jumpers.

‘Special Constables Wallace and Douglas Drummond reporting for duty, Sergeant Driscoll,’ said Wallace. ‘We just came in the back door in time for tea and heard the good news too.’

‘You’ll be asking Torquil for a holiday then,’ said Douglas with a grin.

The bell tinkled again and Torquil himself came in with Crusoe trotting loyally at his feet.

‘Did I hear someone mention the word holiday?’ Torquil asked, as he lifted the flap and let himself in. ‘I’m afraid there will be no holiday leave for a while folks. We’ve got a murder investigation to set up.’

Ewan made a huge pot of tea and distributed mugs to the team as they sat around the rest room listening to Torquil’s news.

‘Ralph McLelland is still conducting tests, but it is conclusive enough already to know that there has been foul play.’

Morag stared at him in disbelief. ‘So it is definitely murder? No mistake?’

‘Foul play, Morag,’ said Torquil as he absently stroked Crusoe who was lying contentedly at his feet. ‘It looks like murder, but that is not absolutely certain. What is certain is that he didn’t die on Kyleshiffin moor. His body was dumped there.’  

‘Aye, I see what you mean,’ said Wallace. ‘Why would someone move the body if he hadn’t been murdered?’  

‘But where was he killed?’ Douglas asked. ‘And why was he moved?’  

‘That’s what we need to find out,’ said Torquil. ‘But so far we know next to nothing about him, apart from the fact that he was an entomologist here studying midges.’  

‘He was a drinker,’ said Ewan. ‘He ruined that TV show,
Flotsam & Jetsam,
and he spent time in the cell.’ He patted Morag’s shoulder. ‘And if it is murder, then it lets all of us off the hook.’

‘Maybe, Ewan,’ Torquil replied. ‘But he would have been safe while we held him. Someone may have been waiting for him to be discharged.’

Ewan beetled his brows. ‘Och, but we didn’t know that. Surely the Press won’t keep up that tack?’

‘By the Press, did you mean Calum Steele?’ Wallace asked. ‘That wee toad has shown that he’d do anything for a story.’

‘So are you going to tell him, boss?’ Douglas asked.

‘I haven’t thought about that yet,’ Torquil replied. He bit his lower lip. ‘The first person I need to talk to is our esteemed Superintendent Lumsden. I tried to ring him last night after I found out from Ralph, but his wife said that he was out and she had no way of getting a message to him. She was all hush-hush about it. She said she was expecting him this morning at nine.’

Morag shook her head. ‘That man is not right in the head, I am thinking. He wants to know all that is happening, but he makes himself unavailable when something important comes up. It’s almost as if he knows how to make matters difficult for us.’

‘For me, you mean, Morag,’ Torquil corrected with a wry grin. ‘It occurred to me as well, but then I thought that’s just me being paranoid. How could he know anything about this? No, I’ll ring him in a minute and then we’ll go through the backlog of cases that need looking at, decide what can be held and divvy out the tasks to get this investigation on the road.’

He got up and headed towards his office. ‘I’ll get this over with now. Ewan, you get the case book and Morag can start going through it while I fill Superintendent Lumsden in.’

Cora was amazed at the speed with which Calum seemed to recover.

‘I told you, it was something I ate,’ he explained, as he tucked into a cold mutton pie. ‘I just needed to pump up the stomach contents and I knew I’d be fine.’

‘But why are you filling it up with that disgusting thing? Don’t you feel sick?’

‘Not now,’ Calum returned, wiping a trickle of cold grease from his chin then taking a hefty gulp of tea. ‘Cora, you have a lot to learn about journalism, but stick with me and I’ll teach you all you need to know. You may not think it, but I know exactly how to handle my stomach and what is good for it. Now, as for you and all that veggie stuff, do you really—?’

His mobile phone went off and he promptly answered it. ‘Hello, yes, Calum Steele speaking.’

Cora watched as his eyes turned into big round orbs to mirror the shape of his spectacles. ‘Sandy! Great to hear from you. Of course, one o’clock would be terrific. Excellent, I’ll see you there.’ He went silent for a moment, nodded his head, and then winked at her. ‘Wee Hughie asked that?’

He made a thumbs-up sign at her. ‘Oh I’ll pass that message on to her, but I can’t give out her phone – ethics, you know. But between us, I think she’d be delighted to see him. Tell him she’ll be there.’

Cora’s eyes went wild and she clenched her fists at him.

‘OK, Sandy. I’ll see you here at one o’clock and I’ll pass that message on to Cora.’

He snapped his phone shut and tossed it on to the desk
before taking another mouthful of pie. ‘See, it’s all working out smoothly, Cora. Sandy King is going to come here for an interview with me at one.’

‘I heard that. And what was that about me? Me and that ape, Wee Hughie? What did you mean I’d be delighted to see him.’

‘Apparently he’s smitten. Couldn’t stop talking about you last night. He’s asked that you meet him at one o’clock in the Commercial Hotel for a lunchtime drink.’

‘Oh Calum!’

‘What? Our plan worked, didn’t it?’ He winked. ‘Just like I thought it would. Now, look, I’m going to follow up on Sandy King and why he is here, and you are going to have lunch and find out as much as you can about what this hoodlum and his boss are doing on West Uist.’

‘But wouldn’t it be better if I did the Sandy King investigation?’ Cora asked pleadingly.

Calum winked at her over the rim of his mug. ‘Ah, the trouble is, Wee Hughie doesn’t fancy me.’

‘Well, Superintendent Lumsden was a delight, as usual,’ Torquil said as he returned to the rest room after his phone conversation with his superior officer.

‘He wasn’t pleased, was he?’ Morag asked, rhetorically.

‘A bit less than usual,’ Torquil returned. ‘He wants to be kept in the loop and he wants results yesterday.’ He clapped his hands. ‘So come on, folks, let’s get started. First of all, let’s have a run down on what we have on the book.’

Morag quickly ran through the cases, giving a thumbnail description of each and what stage each case was at. She and
Ewan added about their respective chats with Annie McConville.

‘So really,’ she said at last, ‘the way I see it, we have seven burglaries of assorted antiques, family knick-knacks, a couple of computer thefts, then there was the break-in at the
Chronicle
. And, of course, there is this dog and cat business.’

At the mention of this Crusoe momentarily lifted his head and wagged his tail a few times before lying down again and closing his eyes.

‘He’s just showing that he’s on the ball,’ Torquil grinned. ‘But although this murder investigation must take priority, we can’t let these other things slip.’ He turned to the big constable.

‘Ewan, you can do a bit of following up on the burglaries to show that we’ve made a start and are taking home crime seriously.’

‘Aye that’s it, Torquil. Give the big lad a bit of air. He fairly likes gadding about the island on his mum’s old Nippy moped,’ Wallace teased.

‘I’ll give you gadding about, Wallace Drummond,’ Ewan retorted.

‘Do you want us to look into this cat and dog affair then, boss?’ Douglas asked.

Torquil considered for a moment then shook his head. ‘No, I think that Crusoe and I will take a closer look at that when we have the time. It feels personal ever since he came to live with us.’

‘So it’s the
Chronicle
case then?’

Again Torquil shook his head. ‘No, I started that and I’ll keep it under my wing, too. But we’ll let him stew a little bit, I think.’ Then he grinned. ‘It will be good for him. Besides, I have another idea to teach the wee man a lesson.’ He clapped his hands and stood up abruptly. ‘In fact, no time like the present. I’ll just pop through to my office for a couple of minutes, and then we’ll pool all the information we have about Dr Dent’s
murder. Ewan, get the whiteboard ready, will you?’

Ewan wheeled the whiteboard that they used for major cases to the end of the room while the twins moved the table tennis table that they used for occasional recreation against the wall. Morag got out fresh ink markers and laid out paper and pencils for note making. By the time they had the room ready for the meeting Torquil had come back rubbing his hands with glee. Crusoe trotted loyally at his heels.

‘You look pleased, boss,’ said Douglas.

‘Fairly. Let’s just say that phase one has gone smoothly. Now let’s get cracking.’

Torquil picked up a marker and went to the whiteboard. In the middle he wrote DR DIGBY DENT and surrounded it with a circle. Then he added underneath: MURDERED, HEAD INJURY, DROWNED.

And underneath that BODY BEEN MOVED.

‘OK, brainstorming time. What do we know?’

‘He was the midge man,’ said Morag.

‘He was rude,’ added Ewan.

‘He got drunk on that TV show,’ Douglas volunteered.

Wallace glanced at Morag, and then said, ‘He was arrested and held here until he sobered up.’

‘I found him up on the moor,’ Ewan said mournfully, his face going pale at the thought. ‘My hammer was just inches from his head and I thought I had killed him.’

Torquil held up his hand. ‘OK, that’s enough now. Let me get this all down.’

He began making one line notes of all the suggestions so far under the name of Dr Dent, then to the left he wrote FLOTSAM & JETSAM and enclosed it in a square. Underneath it he wrote the names Fergie and Chrissie and circled each.

‘He was rude, as Ewan says. And he came in here to
complain about Bruce McNab and his fishing and hunting clients.’

To the right of Dr Dent’s name he wrote FISHING PARTY, put it in a square, and then underneath drew four lines. Under the first he wrote Bruce McNab, circled it, under the second added Sandy King and circled it as well.

‘Who were the others, Morag?’

Morag checked her notes of the meeting she had. ‘Mr Dan Farquarson and Hugh Thompson. They called Thompson Wee Hughie, which is a bit of a misnomer, since he’s built like a proverbial.’

Torquil added the names and circled them, adding Morag’s details underneath. He looked over at her and noticed the blush that had crept into her cheeks. ‘Are you all right, Morag? You look flushed.’

‘Ah, that’s love, boss,’ said Douglas. ‘Tell him, Morag.’

‘Tell me what?’ Torquil asked.

‘I – er – I have been asked out for a drink by Sandy King. Is that a problem, do you think?’

Torquil stared at her for a moment then shrugged. ‘I don’t see any problem, except he is on this board.’

‘But he’s not a suspect, is he, Torquil?’ Wallace queried.

‘We haven’t got as far as making anyone a suspect, Wallace. But we just need to bear this in mind.’ He clicked his tongue. ‘Who knows? It might even be useful.’

He turned his attention to the board again. ‘It isn’t a lot to go on, is it? We’ll need to check things out with the University of the Highlands.’ And so saying he added U of H to the notes underneath the name of Dr Dent.

‘Which reminds me,’ he said after a moment, ‘the Reverend Kenneth Canfield is on the island at the moment. He’s one of Lachlan’s golfing chums. He is the chaplain at the university.’
He added his name and circled it. ‘I’ll have a word with Lachlan and see if he knows anything of interest.’

‘Did Dr Dent have any relatives?’ Morag asked.

‘Not that I know of. Ralph McLelland contacted his GP and as far as they know he was a man on his own. No parents, no siblings, no cousins.’

‘So where do we go from here, boss?’ Wallace asked.

‘We gather as much information as we can. So let’s divvy things up. First we need to find out all that we can about Dent. I think that will mean a bit of phoning about. Morag that’s your forte, isn’t it?’

Morag pouted. ‘How did I guess you were going to say that?’

‘You know me, I think,’ Torquil replied. ‘Just as Wallace and Douglas know what I’m going to ask them to do.’ He looked expectantly at them.

‘It will be the heavy job,’ Wallace replied.

‘Or the dirtiest job,’ Douglas added. ‘But go on, boss, tell us. We’re up for anything.’

‘It’s not dirty and shouldn’t be hard either,’ Torquil returned. ‘I need you lads to go and check out Dent’s cottage. We just need to know that the place is secure.’

‘We can do that,’ Wallace said. ‘But what about Sherlock Holmes over there?’ he said, grinning at Ewan. ‘Isn’t he going to be given something to test his mettle?’

‘I’ll test your mettle, you long drip of—’

‘Ewan! Don’t rise to the bait,’ Torquil said calmly. ‘You’ve got an important series of jobs to do.’

‘Name it Torquil. I am keen to get whoever did this thing.’

‘It isn’t the Dr Dent case, Ewan. As I said, I want you to go and make a start with these burglaries. Then once we’ve got things up and running and we know a bit more about Dr Dent
then you can come on board with the murder investigation.’

Ewan’s expression showed his disappointment, but he straightened. ‘Of course, sir. Whatever you say.’

‘And what are you going to do, Torquil?’ Morag asked.

Torquil reached down and scratched Crusoe’s head. ‘I am going to make a start on this cat and dog business. I am going to see Annie McConville first, then I am going to see if I can catch up on Uncle Lachlan to see if I can get hold of the Reverend Kenneth Canfield.’

He glanced at his watch. ‘Let’s aim to meet back here at lunch, and then we’ll see where we go next.’

Ewan made his way along Harbour Street on Nippy. The street was busy with both the market-stalls on the sea-wall side and the multi-coloured shops doing a brisk trade.

He was feeling a little peeved at being kept out of the murder investigation, especially since the Drummond twins had been given a job that he felt he, as the regular constable, should have been given.

‘Och! And they are just special constables,’ he muttered under his breath. ‘Sometimes I think Torquil goes a bit easy on them because of that.’

But in a way he was pleased to have been given the other task. After all, he knew that despite his size he had a squeamish side and the memory of finding Dr Dent’s body face down in the bog-pool had kept coming back to him.

‘That cheeky streak of nonsense called me Sherlock Holmes! They think they are so much smarter than me. Well, I’ll show them. I’m going to solve some of these burglaries and then I’ll
make them laugh on the other side of their faces.’

He opened up the throttle and peddled hard to give the moped more power to get up the hill.