The House on the Shore (51 page)

Then the air changed.
It was no longer musty and damp.
She breathed in.
The scent of pine filled her no
strils.
She was in the forest.

All at once the world was full of noise.
Birds.
Wind.
MacKinnon’s heavy breathing, and the crunch of his footsteps on the gravel path.
The th
ud of her own heart.

She tasted blood.
Her lips throbbed where Mac
K
innon had struck her, but the pain checked her panic.

Somewhere to her right
,
a tawny owl hooted
, and she
listened for an answering call.
When it came, it sounded unlike any owl she’d ever heard before.
Then something clicked in her brain.

Sandy
!

Sandy had taught her how to put two leaves together to make that sound.
She felt a vague glimmer of hope
and renewed strength.
S
he shifted her weight, trying to unbalance her captor, but he merely tightened his
grip and shortened his stride.

“Do you think Anna heard you?
”
Luke
asked in a hushed voice
.

“Aye.
If the lass is conscious, she’ll know it’s me all right.”

“
Y
o
u’re sure you know what to do?”

“Don’t worry about me and yon lassie.
Just make sure you get the bastard!”

Luke briefly rested his hand on the old man’s shoulder, before disappearing into the undergrowth.
It took him several minutes to get int
o position above the
ice-house
.

Seconds ticked by.

With care, he parted the heavy growth of ferns and peered out.
MacKinnon
climbed the hill and
was close enough for Luke to hear his laboured breathing.
He had just one chance to get it right.
Then, as he’d predicted, MacKinnon dum
ped Anna on the concrete floor.

Luke waited until MacKinnon stepped forward to unlock the door.
He jumped,
land
ed
on MacKinnon’s back
,
and
knock
ed
him to the ground.
Th
e Factor groaned and struggled.

Right on cue, Sandy leapt forw
ard and dragged Anna to safety.

MacKinnon fought dirty.
He rolled to one side
and pushed Luke off, kneeing him in the groin in the process.
The air whooshed out of Luke’s lungs.
MacKinnon landed a heavy blow to Luke’s jaw, before sprinting down th
e path towards the stable yard.

Dragging air in between his teeth, Luke followed as best he could.
He reached the courtyard in time to see Sandy step out of the bushes and level his shotgun at MacKinnon’s chest.

MacKinnon skidded to a halt.
Icy contempt swept into his eyes.
“Get out of my way, old man.
We both know you won’t shoot me.”
He walked slowly toward Sandy.

“He won’t, but I will,” Luke took aim.

MacKinnon spun round towards the sound of the voice behind him.
He weighed up his chances of making it to the bushes, but didn’t like the
odds.

“I’m just a simple hired hand.
It was the Laird’s idea,” he shouted.

“
Grant
was babbling like a jackass when I left him half an hour ago.”
Luke said, walking slowly towards him.
His finger tightened on the trigger.
“How much is he paying you?”

“A pittance.”

“I said how much?”

“Fifty grand!”

Luke snorted.
“That’s peanuts compared to what
he would receive
if his plan worked.
I guess you were
okay
with that
.
R
ight, asshole?”

Anger flashed in MacKinnon’s eyes.
His muscles tensed.
Suddenly, his foot shot out
and k
icked the gun out of Luke’s hand.
It skidded along the path.
A shot rang out.
MacKinnon sank to the ground
.
C
lasping his right knee,
he screamed
in agony.

“Go on, laddie, go see to your lassie.
I’ll watch this piece of vermin
until
the police arrive,
”
Sandy
said with a nod of his head.

Luke found Anna propped up against a tree.
He gently removed the gag from her mouth, then pulled a knife from his pocket and set about cutting the twi
ne binding her wrists and feet.

“Oh, Luke,” sh
e sobbed.
“I heard a shot.

“MacKinnon.
Don’t
worry;
he
’s not
going anywhere.
Sandy’s with him.”
He knelt down and pulled her into his arms.
He did a swift assessment of her condition.
She had a nasty cut on the back of her head, which would require several stitches.
Her beautiful face was battered and bruised, and covered in grime.
There were rope burns on her wrists and ankles.
He cursed silently.
For the second time in
his life, he wished a man dead.

“Shush,” he said wiping away her tears with his thumb.
“You’re safe now.
If I help you, could
you walk as far as the drive?”

“I think so.”

He helped her to her feet, and
,
wrapping his arm around her
waist
, led her back to where he an
d Sandy had left their vehicle.

“I still think you should have done
as
the doctor suggested and gone
to hospital,” Luke frowned.

“I’m fine,” Anna said.
“I prefer the comfort of my own bed.”

“
Y
ou’re not fine.
You’ve got a concussion
, and a
bunch of contusions.
He really did a number of your lower lip, too, the bastard!”

“There’s no need to remind me.”
Anna replied, gently touching her mouth.

“You’re darned lucky to be alive.”

“Luke, stop fussing.”

Anna was silent for a moment.
“If Morag had remembered to put petrol in her pickup, she wouldn’t have borrowed the Land Rover.”

“Come on.
You know you didn’t create this mess.”

“Perhaps.
But I can’t help thinking I’m partly to blame for her accident
.
”

“Hey, don’t cry, love.”
Luke
sat on the edge of the bed and
gave her a hug
.
“She’s strong.
She’ll pull through.
We should know more from the hospital later today.
The police are downstairs.
Do you feel up to answering their questions?”

“Only if you’ll stay with me.”

“I’ll be right by your side, honey.”
He kissed her forehead and went downstairs, returning a few moments
later with two police officers.

“I’m Inspector Drury, and this is Constable MacFarlane.
How are you feeling miss?”

Luke sat beside Anna and
held her hand
.

“Tired.
A bit bruised and battered,” she answered softly.

“I’ll try not to take too long, then.
Why don’t you start by telling me how you came to be with MacKinnon
?”

“Alistair—Alistair Grant found me.
He said he had a message from Ewan and that I was to search the far side of the river.”

“That would be Ewan
Abercrombie
, the manager of the Monymusk Arms?”

“T
hat’s right.
I asked him why Ewan hadn’t called on the radio.
He said he’d tried, but the batteries on the set must be dead.”

Anna hesitated and dabbed at her bottom lip.

“Go on.”

“I made my way up to the suspe
nsion bridge, as he’d suggested.
”

“My God, that was barely a mile from where I found Morag,” Luke said.

“I sat down on a rock to have a drink and the next thing I remember is waking up in some sort of cellar.
I kept drifting in and out of consciousness.
MacKinnon came.
He hit me.
I
knew he was planning to rape me.
I was so scared
—
I just wanted him to get it over with!”

Luke swore.
Anger blazed in his eyes.
He pulled Anna into his arms, rocking her bac
k and forth, stroking her hair.
“Hey.
Hey.
It’s all over,” he assured her.
When he felt her body relax he eased her back on the pillows an
d wiped away her tears.

“Can you go on, or should we come back later?”

“I want to get this over with.
MacKinnon is a monster.”

The Inspector nodded.
“He is that.
He’s got a lengthy list of offences and
is
no stranger to the prison system.
He’s a mercenary who hires himself out to the highest bidder.
We’re pretty sure he was responsible for Mrs
.
McInnes’ accident
.
”

Anna’s head snapped up.
“I don’t understand.
I thought the steering failed.”

“Something failed
,
but not in the way you think,” Inspector Drury said.
“
Someone tampered with the brakes
.”

Anna gasped.

“I’m glad I checked for leaking brake fluid,” Luk
e said,
“
otherwise
, everyone would
believe
it was just an accident.”

Anna turned
to him
.
“But I drove the Land Rover to work
,
and the brakes were fine
.
I would have noticed i
f something was wrong with them.
”

The Inspector shook his head.
“Not necessarily.
The mechanic who inspected the vehicle afterwards said the hole in the brake pipes was tiny
,
probably made by a
sharp implement of some sort.
The brake fluid would h
ave drained away little-by-
little, each time the pedal was depressed.
We found an ice pick in MacKinnon’s cottage
.
H
is prints are all over it
and on
the Land Rover
too
.”

Luke squeezed her shoulder.
“The Land Rover is totalled.
Sorry, honey
—
”

“So what?
I can replace it.
I can’t replace my best friend.”

“
You can’t.
And thank God, you won’t have to.”

Suddenly, Anna
realized
what it all meant.
“I
t wasn’t Morag he meant to kill,
i
t was me.”

“Yes, babe, but MacKinnon didn’t act alone.
Grant was paying him.”

Anna’s eyes opened wide.
“Alistair?
Are you sure?”

Luke nodded.
“
I’m af
raid so.”

“But I don’t understand.”

“Alistair wanted your land, so he hired Mac
K
innon to scare you away.”

“
Mr
.
Tallantyre is correct
,
”
the Inspector said.

“He was the prowler?”

Luke nodded.
“Among other things.
Do you remember that day on the hill, when we were shot at?
I went back later and found the spent cartridges he’d used.
They matched those the police discovered in his cottage.”