Authors: Janet O'Kane
‘This is the only way to get into the public bar.’
‘And why are we going there?’
‘They’re huddled too close for me to read their lips. They don’t know you, so you can go in there, sit down near them and listen. I’ll wait here for a while then come in myself.’
‘That won’t work. I met Gregor recently. He’s bound to recognise me.’
‘Damn. Oh well, the only alternative is direct action.’ Kate wrenched the door open and strode into the public bar. Zoe initially hung back, then followed.
Kate halted in front of the table in the corner. Alice and the two men stared up at her.
‘Hello,’ Kate said. ‘Fancy seeing you here.’
Kate was clearly enjoying herself. After offering condolences to Alice and Gregor on the deaths of their respective parents, she introduced Zoe and pulled over two stools from the next table. Zoe sat down, wishing she had her friend’s ability to barge into awkward situations unchecked by self-consciousness.
The looks on the faces of Gregor and his step-sister changed rapidly from surprise to unease and, in Alice’s case, outright hostility. She bore little resemblance to the grieving daughter pictured in the newspaper. Zoe stared at the girl’s piercings, which were halfway up one ear and through her nasal septum and lower lip. She had certainly looked more sympathetic without those.
Had it been Alice’s idea, or the photographer’s, to remove them?
Kate chattered on, pressing for an introduction to the one person she did not know.
‘This is Terry,’ Alice said. Her voice sounded a lot older than she looked.
‘Hi Terry.’ Kate stuck out her hand. ‘Alice used to be married to my cousin. I’m deaf by the way, but you needn’t shout. I can read lips, as long as you don’t all speak at once.’
Terry looked sideways at Alice, as if seeking her permission, then unenthusiastically grazed his hand against Kate’s. He heeded her request not to shout, instead mumbling a few words which communicated little to Zoe other than he was a Geordie. She doubted Kate was able to interpret what he said either, but her friend had already turned her attention back to Alice.
‘Are you up here to make arrangements for the funerals?’ she asked.
Alice swallowed a mouthful of Guinness before responding. ‘Police won’t release the bodies yet.’
‘Will it be a joint ceremony?’ Kate directed her question at Gregor this time. He sat next to Alice, their shoulders nearly touching, while Terry faced them on the opposite side of the table. ‘I’m sure it’s what they would have wanted.’
‘Dunno,’ Gregor said. Apart from fixing those blue eyes on her, he was not wasting any of his charm on Kate.
As her friend struggled to keep the conversation afloat, Zoe realised her own embarrassment had been replaced by antipathy towards the sullen threesome.
Kate wasn’t the only one who could be unsubtle
. ‘I met Angie and Maddy the other day, Alice. They’re lovely girls.’
Alice flicked her hair out of her eyes. ‘They ill?’ she asked. So she knew that much about Zoe.
‘No, I babysat for a short time.’
‘Round at that Jean’s I suppose.’ Alice wagged her finger at Zoe. ‘You can tell her she won’t get my kids, even if she does marry Tom. Not after what Mum told me about him.’
‘What was that?’
Gregor nudged Alice. She lowered her hand and put it around her glass. ‘He’ll find out soon enough.’
Even Kate had no response to this.
Alice finished her drink then stood up, pulled on her denim jacket and looked down at the two men. Gregor rose first, and a couple of beats later so did Terry. All three trooped out through the door into Harbour Road.
‘The pied piper and her rats,’ Zoe said.
Kate laughed. ‘Terry must be the boyfriend Chrissie told everyone Alice had settled down with. I wouldn’t be happy if that was the best one of my girls could do. Those trousers aren’t even real leather.’
‘I wonder how he gets on with Gregor.’
‘Alice and Gregor look like they’re still very comfortable with each other. Poor old Terry’s definitely the odd one out.’
‘But she’d look upon Gregor as her big brother, wouldn’t she? They must have lived in the same house while she was growing up. I wouldn’t know, of course, but I don’t expect that familiarity ever disappears.’
‘Or
over
-familiarity,’ Kate said.
‘Are you suggesting what I think you are?’
‘I can remember Mum telling me she wouldn’t trust Gregor Baird to live in the same house as anyone’s teenage daughter, let alone one like Alice.’
‘You mean there were rumours of something physical going on between them?’ Zoe had assumed that if Gregor and Alice conspired to murder their parents, they were motivated by greed. But here was another possibility.
‘I lived away at the time and had my own problems, so I didn’t take much notice. What Mum said has only just come back to me.’
‘If you’re right, perhaps Chrissie found out what they were up to. That would explain the animosity between her and Gregor.’
‘I’ll ask Mum if she knows anything.’
Zoe was on the point of reminding Kate to be circumspect with her questions when she saw movement up at the bar. They had forgotten their drinks, and the barmaid was pointing at the two halves of lager, untouched and not even paid for. Zoe went to fetch them.
‘Do you know much about Scots law?’ she asked when she sat down again.
‘I’ve picked up a bit during my work,’ Kate said. ‘Unfortunately most of it dates back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Why do you ask?’
‘It would be interesting to know who inherits Horseshoe Cottage. Jimmy was a lot older than Chrissie, so he probably left a will but I wonder if she did.’ There was surely no harm in discussing this, given that Mather had not told her anything definite.
‘I remember when Auntie Louie, Dad’s sister who stayed up near Aberdeen, died unexpectedly a few years ago. Nobody could find her will and there was a terrible stushie about who got the house. In the end, it had to be sold and the proceeds shared out among her children. Her husband had died years before, and his children from an earlier marriage got nothing.’
Zoe sipped her drink. ‘So Chrissie dying intestate would mean that Jimmy inherited everything, although he didn’t live to collect it. And even if his will named Chrissie as his sole heir, because she was already dead the estate might revert to his nearest living relative, Gregor.’
‘Unless Jimmy formally adopted Alice,’ Kate said. ‘Knowing Chrissie, he may have had no choice in the matter.’
‘I wondered about that too. But maybe money’s not the motive. We’re not talking about an estate worth millions, are we?’
‘Aside from what Horseshoe Cottage, which he bought years ago, is worth, Jimmy sold the pub outright to the Andersons. The profits from that must be stashed away somewhere. He’s unlikely to have spent it. The only indulgence he allowed Chrissie was getting her hair and nails done every week.’
‘Which means even if Alice and Gregor have an entirely normal relationship, it could have been profitable enough for them to get together and bump off their parents.’
‘You’ve convinced me.’ Kate took a mouthful of lager and put her glass down on the wooden table. ‘This has been a good evening’s work, hasn’t it? We’ve solved a double murder that was baffling the police.’
Zoe laughed, despite being unsure if Kate was actually joking. ‘Don’t you think we should consider some alternatives?’
‘Why? Gregor and Alice have a motive, maybe more than one. Finding them here proves they’ve got something to hide.’
‘No it doesn’t. It’s perfectly natural for them to meet up and discuss what’s happened.’
‘But why come here? Why not go to The Rocket?’
‘Perhaps they want to avoid village gossip. I can’t say I blame them.’
Kate sighed in exasperation. ‘Okay, but who else is there?’
‘That argument I overheard between Ray and Hazel Anderson suggests they’re hiding something from the police, and there was definitely bad blood between them and Chrissie. Remember Ray telling everyone about how she still treated The Rocket as though she owned the place?’
‘That wouldn’t be a strong enough reason to kill someone.’
‘By itself, no, but I think there’s more to their relationship with Chrissie than that. Ray was very disparaging about her, and he’s usually so affable.’
‘Aye, you’re right,’ Kate said. ‘I’ve never known him utter a bad word about anyone before, and there he was suggesting she had a lover. Hearing interesting stuff and not passing it on is one of the rules of running a successful pub. Much like being a doctor.’
Zoe ignored this dig. ‘Their marriage was definitely under strain even before I mentioned having seen their car the day Jimmy died.’
‘I still can’t imagine Hazel sneaking off for a torrid sex session with a secret lover while Ray thinks she’s shopping in Kelso.’
‘Why not? She’s only in her early fifties. That’s not nearly past it these days.’
‘I’m not suggesting she’s too old for a fling, only that it’s very unlikely. She hasn’t recovered from their son’s death yet. You saw how drunk she was the other night. That’s been happening a lot lately.’
‘When did the son die?’
‘Less than a year ago – just before they moved here. He’d been ill for a long time apparently, some sort of cancer.’ Kate shuddered, her usual exuberance briefly stifled. ‘It must be unbearable to lose your child, even when they’re grown-up. You’d do anything to make the pain stop.’
Zoe remembered how her grandparents dealt with the loss of their only daughter. They hid their own heartache and never spoke about what happened, a well-meaning attempt to spare Zoe further distress which left her feeling even more bereft. She could date her curiosity about her father from those days. Until then she had rarely given him a thought.
‘Everyone handles it differently,’ she said. ‘And unfortunately some people turn to alcohol, although that’s never the answer to anything. But can we agree Ray and Hazel’s relationship with Chrissie Baird is worth looking into?’
‘I’d like to find out more about Chrissie’s alleged affair too,’ Kate said. ‘She’s much more likely to have had a lover than Hazel, although I can’t believe the news hasn’t leaked out before now.’
‘We don’t want to spread ourselves too thin.’
‘Speak for yourself. I’ve never been too thin for anything.’ Kate patted her stomach and grinned. ‘If she was having an affair, it can’t hurt to find out who it was with.’
‘I don’t recall anyone in the pub rushing to agree with Ray when he mentioned this. For all we know he could have made it up.’
‘Why would he do that?’
‘Because he’s hiding something?’
Kate shrugged. ‘Okay, but we should keep it in mind when we’re talking to people. Everyone’s on their guard when they’re being questioned by the police, but they’ll speak freely to us.’
‘Not necessarily.’
‘In which case we’ll have to draw as many conclusions from what people don’t tell us as from what they do. I’m going to follow my instinct and try to nail exactly what Alice’s relationship with Gregor is. Do you want to visit the Andersons and try to get to know them better?’
‘They’re not likely to welcome me with open arms after I set DCI Mather on them with questions about their Volvo.’
‘That can be your excuse. Say you must have made a mistake and want to apologise. I suggest you do it tomorrow morning.’
‘Why so soon?’
‘Ray’ll be off on his weekly run to the cash and carry, so you should find Hazel on her own. Your being a doctor will help. You just need to turn the conversation round to the son, which won’t be difficult. His name was Duncan, by the way.’
‘That seems callous.’
‘As you keep on telling me, we’re dealing with someone who’s a lot worse than callous. Anyway, you’re a doctor and a nice person, so she’ll probably feel better after talking to you. She won’t realise you have an ulterior motive.’
‘You really are devious.’
Obviously choosing to take this as a compliment, Kate beamed. ‘And you need to stop being so caring and polite. Sometimes the only way to get the truth out of people is to provoke them.’
‘I’ll try to remember that.’ Zoe finished her drink and looked at her watch. ‘Now we have a plan of action, will you take me home? My ribs have started to ache again and I forgot to bring my painkillers with me.’
As soon as Zoe got inside and locked her front door she dialed 1471; Neil had phoned ten minutes earlier. It was unlikely to have been the first time, but she hoped it would be the last, at least for tonight.
She changed into her pyjamas and sat down in front of the woodburner with Mac to think over the events of the evening. What stood out most was Alice’s violent reaction to the prospect of Tom marrying Jean, which seemed to have strengthened her resolve to gain custody of the twins. Tom claimed not to know what Chrissie had planned to use against him, but Alice obviously did. His troubles had not died along with his mother-in-law.
Now Zoe faced another dilemma. She could rationalise looking into who killed the Bairds as a means of unmasking her own aggressor, but did she really want to get tangled up in the domestic disputes of others? Then again, Tom and Jean deserved some consideration. He was Kate’s cousin, after all, and she was employed by the practice and had just lost her mother.
Should Zoe warn them about Alice’s intentions?
‘We’re walking to the village this morning,’ Zoe told Mac after breakfast as she put him on his extending lead. Despite feeling less sore than the previous day, she was not yet up to chasing him across a field.
They met no one on the way, but once on Main Street several people, most of whom Zoe did not know, approached to ask how she was feeling. She knew they meant well, but it was a relief to reach the sanctuary of the shop. Brian stood on his own behind the counter, taking money from a queue of customers buying cigarettes and snacks on their way to work. Zoe amused herself by comparing newspaper headlines about the latest political maelstrom until she and Brian were alone.