Quest for a Killer (21 page)

Jack took over. Vince came from Balmoral and they saw Danny laid to rest, as Sam Wild.

‘Someday the truth will out,’ Jack said. ‘Meantime we stick with the belief that Danny died in Arizona.’ Perhaps that was the truth.

The Lambsworths had been under investigation by the Edinburgh City Police since Felix Miles Rice’s obituary fell by chance into the hands of an old acquaintance of theirs now living in Glasgow. They had swindled him out of several thousand pounds in their London days. He had an account to settle and an interesting tale to tell.

Elma Lamb and Peter Worth had met a decade earlier, thespians in a small local company. They discovered that they shared the same birthday and as both were fair, blue-eyed, fellow actors they laughingly christened themselves ‘the twins’. They fell in love, married, and took the name Lambsworth.

On tour with a Shakespearean company, by chance Felix Miles Rice came to a performance. Enchanted by
Elma, he fell in love and, unaware that she was already married, he proposed – a wealthy man with much to offer. Peter, weary of touring and bad digs, decided that Elma should accept. She did so and by the time they had moved to Edinburgh, Peter had worked out a plan.

Both were aware that, if Felix found out about his bigamous marriage, the consequences would be disastrous. They had to get rid of him. As his widow Elma stood to inherit everything.

Peter had thought out the details meticulously. Among Elma’s friends she had learnt of a lady investigator, Rose McQuinn, and cultivating her friendship would provide the perfect alibi for Peter’s plan. He had left it too late. Felix was suspicious of their relationship. One step ahead, someone in the London branch of his firm discovered that Elma Miles Rice’s twin was in fact her husband.

So Felix had made an appointment with his lawyer for the next day to cut Elma out of his will. But proud and successful and with a belief in his own infallibility, and wishing to avoid a public scandal at all costs, he could not resist the temptation to let this miserable little swindler know the truth; it was his undoing, for Peter meant to kill him.

Unfortunately for him, he was seen in the garden by Hodge who, loyal to his mistress and her brother, could not bring himself to voice the suspicions which cost him his life. So he had to be disposed of by Peter, carried in a hiring cab, the one I encountered the day that Danny arrived at Solomon’s Tower.

Jack honoured Danny’s last wish, a promise to be there when I needed him. I knew that marriage would be included, if that was what I wanted.

I discovered that Jack was a better actor than I gave him credit for. One day he said, ‘How you managed to keep us both in the house without meeting was quite an achievement.’ He gave me a quizzical grin. ‘I guessed that the secret room had a new tenant.’

‘You knew?’

He nodded. ‘Almost from the beginning. I knew from my visit to New York that Danny McQuinn, your heart’s darling, was also Sam Wild. I just wondered how long I could keep that from you and from the Edinburgh City Police.’

‘And risk everything – including your career, if they found out.’

‘That too.’ He shook his head and said warily, ‘Then, at my folks’ golden wedding, I had thought you would be safe in the house with Danny to protect you but something was wrong. I had one of my weird moments. You were in terrible danger. It’s happened before.’

I knew it had, although Jack was always reluctant to admit that he might have a psychic side to his nature, defying all logic.

‘I’m grateful,’ I said.

He grinned. ‘I don’t want you to regard it as an excuse for a happy ending.’

‘The jury’s still out on that one.’ I laughed. ‘But it will be taken into consideration.’

Jack and I are close, but not lovers. Crimes solved, cases closed, explanations found.

All except one.

Over and over I have relived that moment of agony when Danny had died in my arms. No words for my bitter grief overflowing. For Danny. For Thane.

I had lost them both.

Jack had held me, let me weep. But there was no comfort on earth in that scene of desolation and heartbreak, no one could help me. I was alone.

But not quite alone. I looked down. My hand was wet.

It was being licked.

Thane!

‘Oh, Thane,’ I put my arms around his neck and cried, ‘That vile beast said he had killed you.’

Jack said, ‘He certainly killed something. There’s a dead sheep at the bottom of your garden. We almost fell over it.’

Life goes on, but there is this one tantalising mystery still unsolved. Maybe it never will be.

A
LANNA
K
NIGHT
has had more than sixty books published in an impressive writing career spanning over forty years. She is a founding member and Honorary Vice President of the Scottish Association of Writers, Honorary President of the Edinburgh Writers’ Club, and a member of the Scottish Chapter of the Crime Writers’ Association. Born and educated in Tyneside, Alanna now lives in Edinburgh.

www.alannaknight.com

T
HE
R
OSE
M
CQUINN
S
ERIES

The Inspector’s Daughter

Dangerous Pursuits

An Orkney Murder

Ghost Walk

Destroying Angel

Quest for a Killer

Deadly Legacy

T
HE
I
NSPECTOR
F
ARO
S
ERIES

Murder in Paradise

The Seal King Murders

Murders Most Foul

T
HE
T
AM
E
ILDOR
S
ERIES

The Gowrie Conspiracy

The Stuart Sapphire

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