The House on the Shore (50 page)

“Be a good girl,” he said, continuing to paw her breasts until tears ran down her cheeks, “give me what I want, and I’ll make sure it doesn’t hurt too much when I kill you.
But if you don’t, well,
I’ll let you think about that.”

Anna focused her mind on Luke.
Once he
realized
she was missing, he’d come for her.
He wouldn’t leave her here to di
e at the hands of this lunatic.

As suddenly as it started, MacKinnon’s abuse stopped.
“As much as I want to continue our little tête à tête, it’s time to move.
Come on.
”

He dragged Anna to her feet.
Her legs buckled.
He scooped her up
and slung
her over his shoulder as if she were a sack of oats
.
His
arms clamped round
her thighs.
Already dizzy from his earli
er blows,
her
reality slipped away.

***

“What the
h
ell do you think you’re doing breaking into my house and going through my desk, Tallantyre?”

“Well, well, well.
It’s
the Laird himself.
The game i
s up
,
Grant,
I know all about your little scheme
.
I
t’s all here in your files.”
Luke tapped the folder in front of him.

“I have no i
dea what you’re talking about.”

“Sure, you do.
You’re bankrupt, Grant.
The ancient family seat is mortgaged to the top of
the
chimneys.
Your only hope rested on Anna’s grandmother selling
you the croft, b
ut she died and left it to Anna.
But you weren’t going to let a mere woma
n stand in your way, were you?”

“I…I
’m
desperate!”

“I’ll bet you
are
.
You saw the article in the paper about that company looking for a
deep-water
loch.
They planned to fabricate drilling platforms for the oil industry.
The loch’s perfect.
It’s deep and wide
,
and remote.”

“It’s my land
,
damn it!”

“It’s Anna’s
,
and you can’t sign the contract until you make it your land.
Y
ou got your lawyers to make her
a huge offer for the croft, b
ut you didn’t count on sentimentality.
Y
ou hired someone to scare her off.
Or did you change your mind and out and out plan to kill her?”

Grant sank to his knees and buried his face in his hands.
“It was MacKinnon.
H
e was only supposed to scare her, I swear!”

Luke grabbed Grant by the collar of his jac
ket and hauled him to his feet.

“Oh, yeah?
He did more than that.
He tried to shoot her.
Fortunately for Anna, I saw the sun reflect off his gun when he took ai
m
.
I
pushed her out the way.”

“You’re lying.”

Luke shook his head.
“
I have the cartridges to prove it.
How did you hook up with him?”

“A friend... a friend in the South of France recommended him.”

“Some friend!
What is he?
Ex-army?
That would explain his choice of shell.
Lynx Game King
, produced
solely for the African market.
Africa is just a short hop across the Mediterranean from
Southern
France.”

“I…he’s…I thought he was just your typical thug, into petty crime.
I had no idea—
”

“Obviously beneath your social station.
You’re as guilty as he is.
Where’s he holding Anna?”

“I… in the cellar of one of the ruined farmhouses… but he was talking about moving her.”

“Where to?”
When Grant didn’t answer, Luke belted him across the face.
A piece of tooth went flying, along with a spurt of blood.
“Need me to ask you again?”

“I don’t know—”

Luke pushed Grant away in disgust.
“The police are on their way
,
I think I hear their sirens now.
There’s nowhere for you to run.
You’d
better pray I find her alive.
”

He ran out of the house as two police officers raced up the steps.

“You’ll find Grant in the library!”

“But, sir!
Sir!
We need—”

The police officer’s words were lost in a hail of gravel and dirt as Luke
sped off down the drive.

As he reached the gates, a middle-aged, unshaven man dressed in camouflage jacket and trousers stepped out of the bushes.
Luke slammed on the
brakes and skidded to a halt.

“You old fool!
I nearly ran you down!”
When the man didn’t move, Luke shouted, “Who are you?
What do you want?”

“I’m Alexander Gordon, although most folk know me as ‘Sandy
.’
I’m ghillie to the Laird.”

“The Laird?
I don’t want to talk to anyone who works for that weasel.
Get out of my way!
Can’t you see I’m in a hurry?”

“
I’m ghillie to Mr
.
Alistair’s
father
.
I think you should listen to what I have to say.
It concerns the lass
,
Anna.”

Luke froze.
“What do you know about Anna?”

“That she’s not been seen since this afternoon.
She’s missing, isn’t she?”

“
A
n
yone
at
the
hotel
could have told you that.”

“Maybe.
I know who’s scaring her.
And I know why.”

“Get in!”
Luke thrust open the p
assenger door
and o
ffered his hand to the old man.

Deceptively strong for his age, Sandy pushed Luke’s hand away and c
limbed into the passenger seat.

“Calm down, laddie.
C
oncentrate on driving while I tell you what I know.”

“Tell me about Anna!”

“Things have not been the same on the estate since Mr
.
Alistair’s father
became
ill and moved to London.
I lost my
job when the son
took over and appointed a new ghillie.”

Luke rubbed his chin.
“Yeah, yeah.
Get to the point, man.”

Sandy smiled benevolently.
“I’ve followed MacKinnon’s every move since he arrived on the estate.
Of course the man’s too stupid to notice he’s being stalked like a stag.
I’ve seen the way he watches Anna.
I can tell you, the man is pure evil.”

“Grant said
MacKinnon was holding Anna
in the cellar of
a ruined farmhouse, but he was about to move her.
Any idea where
MacKinnon would take her
?”

Sandy thought for a moment.
“There are umpteen empty farmhouses and ruined cottages, not to mention bothies on the estate.
He could be holding her in any one of them.
It would take hours to search them all.”

“Then what are we waiting for?
Tell me where to go.”

“Don’t be so hasty, laddie.
MacKinnon’s a devious bastard.
He’ll want to be sure he
’s not
disturbed.
You said he was about to move
her.
”

“
For all we know, h
e could be dump
ing
her body in the loch
.
”

“
H
e won’t do that.
He’d have to drive through the village
,
and run the risk of being seen.”

“Come on, Sandy, time’s run
ning out.
Think man!
Think!”

Sandy rubbed his whiskery chin.
“There’s an old
ice-house
near the walled garden.
It’s about a half mile from Killilan House.
I reckon that’s where he’ll take her.”

“
T
e
ll me how to get there, and you ha
d better do it now!”

“
I’ll do better than that laddie,
I’ll come with you.
It’s the least I can do for Alisha’s granddaughter.”

Luke was about to argue, but the grim determination in the older man’s face told
him he’d be wasting his time.

“
W
hich way?”

“Turn right by the stable block.
We’ll leave the pickup there and go the rest of the way on foot.”

A short time later, Luke crouched behind the crumbling masonry of the walled garden and waited for Sandy.
Somewhere in the trees above his head an owl hooted.
He’d always hated
stakeouts
,
waiting for
the bad guys
to
show up.
The silence and the familiar rush of adrenaline, accompanied
by a slight feeling of tension
and uneasiness, always made his palms itch.
Too many things could go wrong
,
and tonight was no exception.
If Sandy’s description of MacKinnon was right, things could turn to fr
om sugar to shit at any moment.

Always prepare for the worst; that was his motto.
He
removed
his gun
from
its
specially designed
holster.
It was loaded.
The safety catch was on.
The scene was set
.
A
ll he needed were the players.

Leaves rustling alerted him to the older man’s presence.
Sandy knelt down beside him and whispered in his ear.

“MacKinnon’s vehicle has just turned into the back drive.
He should be here in a minute.”

“Is he alone?”

“
W
e’ll know soon enough.”

Luke nodded.
Show time
.

Staying low, he and Sandy pushed their way through overgrown bushes and bracken toward the
ice-house
.
No more than a tunnel carved into the hillside, it stood as a reminder of days long past.
With only one way in and out, it was a tactical nightmare.

Overhanging ferns partly concealed the small metal door.
Luke and Sandy positioned themselves to one side of the doorway and sat down.
They didn’t have long to wait.

A twig snapped.
The owl hooted once more.
Someone cursed.

Finally, a shadowy figure carrying something large across its shoulders emerged from the tree-lined pathway.
Luke’s eyes narrowed as he tried to distinguish the man in the moonlight.
At that moment he would have given anything for a pair of high-tech night vision goggles.
He couldn’t be su
re it was MacKinnon.

His gut told him it was.

And that Anna was with him.

***

Anna didn’t know what was worse
,
MacKinnon’s sour body odour or the constant pounding in her head
.
Both made her want to vomit.

He carried her over his shoulder as if she weighed no more than a child.
She tried to hold her head up to see where
he
was taking her, but the strain on her neck muscles made her nausea worse.
Hysteria bubbled in her throat and she
wondered how she ha
d
come to be
in such a
predicament.

Her hipbone banged against a wall.
Pain ripped through her body
and
add
ed
to the nausea.
Som
ething sticky clung to her skin and s
he felt something crawl through her hair.
A spider
?
She shivered.