The House on the Shore (52 page)

“Lynx Game King?” Anna asked.

The Inspector’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.
“How did you know?”

“I found two bullets in the firebox of the Aga.
I thought they must
been tossed into the cowshed by a passing sportsman
and
had
somehow fallen into the box of kindling
.
Then I wondered about the guy staying at the hotel
,
the one with the rifle.”

“Mr
.
Abercrombie
told us about him,” replied Inspector Drury.
“
We caught up with him at Glasgow airport.
Seems he was just a tourist hoping for some sport.
He didn’t
realize
the deer stalking season didn’t start until July.”

“Then I don’t understand.
Why would Alistair want Tigh na Cladach?
He has mor
e than enough land of his own.”

“The Grants are bankrupt,” Inspector
Drury
told her.
“Grant thought that if he could sell your land to an oil company to develop a deep water harb
our, he could save the estate.”

A soft gasp escaped her lips.
“Do you think he was behind the solicitor’s letter offering to buy the croft?”

“Almost certainly
, a
lthough
I’m
still waiting for confirmation from
my
colleagues in
Glasgow.”

“And when I didn’t accept he decided to renew our friendship,” Anna said.
“That explains why he came to see me and asked me out to dinner.
The night of the ceilidh, in particular, he kept talking of marriage.
I thought he was crazy.”
She turned to Luke.
“The same night I was so angry with you for acting like a pompous idiot.”

“I was jealous.
I’ll admit it.
The sight of you
in Grant’s arms made me nuts.”

“But he means
—
meant nothing to me.”

“I know that
,
my love.
After you turned Grant down, he gave MacKinnon the go-ahead to get you out of the way.
I suspect MacKinnon tampered with the brakes that night.”

Anna turned to the Inspector.
“What happens now?”

“MacKinnon has been charged with attempted murder.
I’m betting when we look more closely at his background, we’ll find he’s wanted for other
crime
s
,
the robbery at the Manse for one thing
.
Grant’s got prison in his future too.”

“Poor Alistair.
He should have swallowed his pride and sold the estate.”

“Maybe.
W
ith his Father still alive, he had no right to.
Thank you for your time, Miss MacDonald.
Y
ou
will need
to make a formal statement when you’re feeling better.
Perhaps you could
drop by the station in a day or two?”

“Of course, Inspector, anything to help.”

“Right then.
I’d best be getting back to Fort William.”
He turned to leave.
“Oh, one more thing, before I forget.
I hope you’ve got a licence for that gun, Mr
.
Tallantyre?”

“What gun?”

He shot Luke a knowing glance.
“Hmph.
Just as I thought.
Don’t get up.
We’ll see ourselves out.”

When the Inspector and his constable had l
eft, Anna snuggled up to Luke.

“I still can
’t believe Alistair could be so—
”

“Greedy?
Stupid?
That’s funny
,
I can.”

“For an artist, you seem to know a great deal about law-breaking.”

Luke smiled.
“
I haven’t always painted watercolours.”

“Oh?”

“
I worked for the
FBI
for twelve years
as a member of the art theft recovery team
.
When this first started, I thought I was the target
,
that someone I’d put away was seeking revenge.
It took me a while to work out that it was really you they were after.
If I ha
d
realized
that sooner, I might have been able to stop things before they got out of control.”

“You said worked for the
FBI
—
past tense.”

“Yeah.
I thought about quitting when
a colleague
got
shot on a case.
W
e
were
trying to recover
a stolen Rembrandt
.
H
e’d been working undercover for months, getting closer and closer to the group responsible
.
Unfortunately, h
is cover was blown.
I
t was Nicole’s death that finally made me
get out
.
I’ll never know whether she was the intended target, or I was.
A
fter she died,
I got out.
I
couldn’t put my family’s at risk
, so I’ve been painting
full-time now for five years.”

“You protected me.”

“No, I didn’t.
I should never have let you out of my sight after Morag disappeared.”

“You weren’t to know Alistair had hired MacKinnon or what he had planned.”

“M
y gut told me something was wrong.
And like an idiot, I
ignored
it.”

He kissed the top of her head.
“
G
et some rest.
The doctor said to take two of these.”
In his palm were two white tablets.
He handed her a glass of water.
“I’ll bring you something to eat later.”

The following morning Anna had another visitor.
A small, lean, sinewy grey-haired man popped his head round the bedroom door.

“How are you, lass?”

Anna shuffled up the bed.
“
Sandy
!
I was so
relieved to see you last night
or was it this morning?
I lost all track of time in that cellar.”

“Last night, but we’ll not argue over a few hours.”

“We all thought you
ha
d left the glen.”

The old man grinned and took Anna’s hands in his.
“What, let that upstart Mr
.
Alistair drive me away?
You know me better, lass.
The dogs and
I have been here all the time.”

“Where did you sleep?
What did you do for food?”

“
There
are plenty of disused cottages and places for a man to hide if he knows where.
I planned everything before I left
;
stockpiled tins here and there
,
and lived off the land as my forefathers did.
I trapped rabbits, ate berries.
I didn’t go hungry.”

“You amaze me.”

“I sensed there was something iffy about MacKinnon.
It didn’t take me long to suss out that he didn’t know one end of a sheep from the other.
I think the only time he saw lamb was on his plate, complete with m
int sauce and all the trimmings.
He certainly knew nothing about driving a tractor.
I hung around to see what he was up to and to watch over my best friend’s granddaughter.”

“I never saw you.”

The grey eyebrows arched.
“
The dogs knew I was here.
In fact, you nearly saw me that first night he tried to scare you.”

“So I did see a man!
I thought I was dreaming.
”

“No, lass, you weren’t.
That bastard was creeping around and if it hadn’t been for me, Ensay and Rhona would have alerted you to his presence.
As it was, t
hey only sensed an old friend.”

“Ensay and Rhona did their job.”

“Aye, lass, they’re grand dogs, even if I say so myself.
But I couldn’t watch
MacKinnon
all the time and I blame myself for him finally succeeding.”

She patted Sandy’s hand.
“Don
’t reproach yourself for that.”

“Y
ou have a good man here in Luke.
Which reminds me; I have a message for him from Ewan.
The part for his boat has arrived.”

Anna sank back into the pillows.
She felt the stab of another pain far worse than her physical injuries.
When she said nothing, Sandy interpreted her silence as tiredness.

“Ewan’s putting me up at the hotel until the bank decides what to do with the estate,” he continued.
“In the meantime, I’ve got my old job back, until a new owner is found.
Now, lass, I’ll leave you in the capable hands of your man.”
He kissed her on the cheek and quietly left the room.

When she heard Luke knock on the door a few minutes later, she feigned sleep.
Morag’s injuries, Luke’s imminent departure; it was too much to take
in.
She needed time to think.
Sooner or later she would have to tell him that the part for his boat had arrived.

But not just yet.

He’d never lied to her. H
e ha
d made it clear that he would leave once
the part for his yacht arrived, b
ut would the events of the last twenty-four hours be enou
gh to make him change his mind?

She doubted it.

She turned on h
er side and thumped the pillow.
Luke was a successful artist with a wonderful home and lifestyle
.
W
hy would he want to live in a tumbledown croft in the middle of nowhere?
B
esides, there was the woman he dated back home in Cape Cod.

Anna knew she couldn’t leave the croft.
Not yet.
She
couldn’t leave the glen while her friend was so ill.
There was
her book to
finish
,
if only to
prove that she had what it took to be a successful author.
Then
there were the dogs, Ensay and Rhona
.
Wh
atever happened,
she couldn’t leave them behind.

Of one thing she was certain.

She loved Luke.
She loved him completely.

Life was so complicated, she thought as she drifted off to sleep.

Three days later, her bruises had faded to a rainbow of colours.
Anna ran a comb through her hair and went downstairs.
Luke sat at the table nursing a mug of coffee.

“Do you feel up to a walk after breakfast?
Some fresh air will do you good.”

Anna helped herself to cereal and coffee.
“
Okay
, but nothing too energetic.
I’d like to go into the village later to post my claim to the insurance company for the Land Rover.
Once Morag’s out of hospital, Lachlan will need his pickup back
.
I’ll need to replace it before then.
I forgot to mention
, but Sandy told me the part for
your yacht
has arrived.
Ewan
is
keeping it for you at the hotel
.
”

“Would you like
to go see Morag this afternoon?
I
f so, we can drop your letter into the mail
box
,
and pick up the part at the same time
.
”

“I
f you
don’t have any other plans
.
I don’t feel up to driving yet.”

Later that afternoon Luke drove a frail and subdued Anna into Fort William to see her friend.

Sur
rounded by machines, her leg
in splints and a drip in her arm, Morag lay still and pale.
At first Anna thought she was asleep.
Then she
realized
it was more than that.