The House on the Shore (43 page)

“
That’s the strange thing.
If it had broken down, Morag would have left it at the side of the road and walked to the nearest house, assuming there was one.
If there wasn’t, she would have stayed with the vehicle, no matter what.”

“Did Lachlan
call the police?”

“
They
won’t do anything for forty-eight hours.
Ewan’s called in the local mountain rescue team
, but
it will take them awhile to assemble and get here.
Rather than wait, we’ve decided to
organize
our own search.”

The fingers of his left hand curled under her chin
and tilted
her head to his.
“I’m glad someone’s thinking on their feet.
Sitting around waiting doesn’t help anyone, especially Morag.
I know her friendship means a lot to you.”
He gently brushed away her tears with his thumb.
“Tell me what we need.
If she’s out there, we’re
going to
find her.”

“
I hope so
,
Luke
.
If she was out all night in the storm God knows what state she’ll be in.”
Anna shuddered as she thought about the possibility of her friend lying hurt.
“It’s not going to be easy.
It’s more than fifty miles to Fort William by road.
That’s a huge area to cover, and if Morag abandoned the Land Rover and took to the fields, it could be even further.
Are you sure you want to help?”

“I’ll do whatever i
t takes.
Now what do we need?”

“Proper clothing and footwear to start with,”
Anna said,
glancing at his T-shirt and jeans.
“Water and a first aid kit
,
there’s one in the bathroom.
There’s a spare rucksack in the bottom drawer of the chest in your room.
I’ve got two
foil
heat-retaining
blankets, so we can each carry one.
Y
ou’ll need a walking stick to search the undergrowth with.
There’s a couple in the hall.”

They hurried into the croft.
While Luke changed, Anna made sandwiches and filled two flasks with hot, sweet tea.
Then, taking the stairs two at a time, she hastily swapped her own clothes for a pair of thick denim jeans, a lightweight sweater, and walking boots.

Luke threw the first aid kit into his rucksack along with an extra sweater and his oilskin.
He sat down on the edge of the bed, laced up his boots and tried to piece things together, but came up with a big fat zero.
He didn’t like the situation one bit, and the fact that Morag had been driving Anna’s Land Rover was all the more disturbing.

The life he’d tried so hard to forget suddenly came flooding back.
There
ha
d been that kidnap case he and his partner had
been involved in just after he ha
d joined the agency.
They ha
d searched for the missing teenager for best part of three weeks, before finally locating her body hidden in a disused well on property owned by her uncle.
He’d interviewed the uncle twice, and although he couldn’t find any evidence linking him to the girl’s disappearance, his gut had told him the man was involved.
Luke blamed himself for not following his insti
ncts and finding her sooner.

The sound of Anna’s voice calling him brought hi
s thoughts back to the present.

He checked the safety catch on his gun, slipped it into the specially designed h
olster in the back of his jeans
and pulled on his
lightweight
j
acket.

The bar of the hotel was crowded when Luke and Anna walked in fifty minutes later.
Anna
recognize
d some of the faces.
There was Mr
.
MacIver and the Fraser boys, and two of the farm hands from the estate.
The Reverend Cameron had put aside his church duties to join the searchers.
Even a couple of guests had offered to help.

A pale-faced Lachlan stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Ewan in front of everyone.
Ewan banged his heavy fist on a
table and the room fell silent.

“
I
f I can have your attention
,
everyone.
I want you to work in pairs
,
”
h
e told them
.
“N
o searching on your own.
We don’t want anyone else getting lost.
Katrina, would you hand the maps round, please?
Thank you.
Morag was driving Anna MacDonald’s old Land Rover.
Yo
u all know what it looks like.”

“Aye, more rust than Land Rover!”
Mr
.
MacIver said.
His comment
gathered a few nervous laughs.

“Well, just in case you’ve forgotten
,
let me remind you.
It’s pale gre
en in colour and has a red hood
.
”
Ewan pointed to areas on his map.
“If you’ll follow along, you’ll notice that e
ach area I’ve marked covers two miles
.
For those of you searching the village, make sure you knock on every
door;
check every byre
and garden shed
.
The rest of you will use the road as your reference and search it, and the fields and moorland either side, up to a distance of half a mile.
Morag could be anywhere between here and Fort William.”

Anna put up her hand.
“Morag’s been out all night.
She’ll be cold and wet, and probably very scared.” she said, trying
,
but failing
,
to hold back her tears.
“Make sure you carry
extra clothing or a blanket, as well as water and a hot drink.”

“
Okay
, folks.
Ti
me isn’t on our side,” Ewan said, pinning his map to the wall
.
“There are short wave radios on the table.
Please take one on your way out.
I’ll stay here with Lachlan and act as co-ordinator.
It’s now eleven thirty
.
I suggest we meet back here in five hours
.
A
greed?”

Everyone in the room nodded and said yes.
Anna glanced at the map in her hand
,
and then turned to Luke.
“We’ve got a section of the road
from the hotel to the crossroads,” she said, shouldering her rucksack and turning to leave.

“Anna, if you have a moment,” Ewan called.
“I thi
nk it best you and your friend
search the estate
,
rather than the road.”

“But...I
—
”

Gently, he
took the map from her hand
and replaced it with one of the estate.
He looked at Luke for support.

“Anna, I know what you’re thinking.
Y
ou and Morag are good friends.
It’s bad enough that she’s missing.
I don’t want you to be the one to find her, not
if she’s—
”

“She won’t be!”
Anna cried.

Luke took Anna by the shoulders and turned her to face him.
“Ewan’s right, sweetheart,” he said, wiping a tear from her cheek.
“Trust me; you couldn’t live with that kind of pain.”

“But
—
”

“Come on,” Luke took her ha
nd
and led her out of the hotel.
“You know the estate pretty well
,
where’s the best place to start?”

“The stables and outbuildings
,
they’re closest to the road.
And there are numerous cottages and bothies.”

“
All right
, we’ll start with the cottages.
Tell me, was there a special place you used to meet
,
a place that only you and Morag knew about?”

“You mean when we were teenagers?”

“Yes.”

“We always met in the village
,
at the croft, or at her parents’ home.
Why?”

“Sometimes when people are scared
,” Luke replied, “
they go to a place where they felt happy and secure.”

“But Morag had no reason to feel unhappy or insecure.
She was happy and eager to see Lachlan.
”

“I know.
I just want you to think where she might go, if she were, that’s all.”

Apart from giving him directions, Anna
hardly spoke
until
they stopped
outside an abandoned croft.
Sh
e climbed out of the Land Rover
and h
eld the door open for the dogs.

“
Ensay, Rhona, seek—find Morag!”

The two dogs eagerly circled the cottage, sniffing every bush, every rock, before returning to Anna, and sitting at her feet.
Luke walked up to the door of the cottage and tried the handle.
The door was firmly locked.

“Stay here,” he said, before disappearing round the side of the squat building.

A few moments later, the front door opened.

“Before you ask, I climbed in through the kitchen window
.
”
Luke stepp
ed
aside to let her in.
“It doesn’t look like anyone’s lived here for quite a while.”

“It used to be Sandy’s croft.
He was the ghillie
, but h
e left earlier in the year.”
Th
e front door opened directly in
to the sitting room.
It was empty apart from an old sofa and an armchair.
The room smelled of damp, and mice had taken over, removing the stuffing fro
m
the chair
for a nest.

“I’ll check upstairs just in case, but I think you can cross this one off the map.”

“Would you mind if we left the Land Rov
er here and continued on foot?”

“Good idea.
We can cover all the ground in between as well as the buildings.”

By two-thirty the rain clouds
had
pushed away to the east, and although the sun was yet to put in an appearance, the temperature had risen considerably.
After searching four abandoned crofts
,
Luke suggested they take a break.
They sat down in the shelter of a dry-stone wall
.
T
he
dogs lay on the grass nearby.
Luke opened his rucksack
and offered Anna a s
andwich from his lunchbox.
She shook her head.

“You need to eat, Anna.”

“I can’t.
I’m too concerned about Morag.”

“
At
least have a drink.”
He popped the tab on a ca
n of soda and handed it to her.

“Luke, what if we don’t find her?”

He grasped her hand firmly.
“We will.
It might not be today, or tomorrow, but I
promise you, we will find her.”

Anna’s face said she wished she could believe him, bu
t deep down he knew she didn’t.

Throughout the afternoon
they continued to search, the two-way radio Luke carried remain
ed
silent.
Dejected, they returned to the hotel shortly before six.
Anna dropped her rucksack on the floor and slumped into a chair, the dogs at her feet.

Ewan raised an eye at the two collies, but said nothing.
He didn’t have the heart to tell her to take them outside.

“Did you
find anything—anything at all?”

Luke shook his head.
“Nope
, n
ot a sign.
What about the other searchers?”

“They’ve not found anything either
, a
lthough not everyone has reported in yet.”

“
Has
the mountain rescue team
arrived
?”