M Beaton: Death of a Valentine

Then came Detective Sergeant Andy MacNab with two policemen. “I’ll take over, Hamish,” he said.

“I’d like to ask them about Annie Fleming.”

“It’ll need to wait, Hamish. Daviot’s got his knickers in a twist about thon lion.”

Hamish called Josie out of the office. “We can’t do anything more here today. We’d best be getting back to Braikie.”

He drove up the drive and turned off on the road leading back towards Braikie.

Josie felt hungry. “Could we stop somewhere for lunch?” she asked.

“We’ll get something in Braikie. Heffens above!”

He screeched to a halt and Josie let out a scream of terror. A lion was standing in the middle of the road.

“I’ll chust see if I can be talking to it,” said Hamish.

“Are you mad!”

Hamish got out and went to the back of the Land Rover, where he had a haunch of venison given to him by a keeper the evening before. It was wrapped in sacking. He took it out and waved it at the lion. The great beast approached cautiously. Hamish tossed the haunch into the back of the Land Rover. The lion jumped in and Hamish slammed the back doors.

He climbed back in the front. “We’ll chust be taking the lion to that zoo in Strathbane. I am not having the beastie returned to that dreadful park.”

Josie wrenched open the passenger door and jumped out on the road. “It’ll kill us.”

“It’s locked off in the back.”

“I’m not getting in there.”

“Suit yourself,” said Hamish. He did a U-turn and sped off in the direction of Strathbane.

The zoo in Strathbane, he knew, was well run, unlike most of the rest of that dismal town. He wondered why he hadn’t been met on the road, feeling sure that Josie would have phoned to say he had a dangerous animal in the back of the Land Rover. He did not know that Josie had found the batteries in her phone had died. He stopped briefly on the road to phone Daviot and say the lion had been caught.

At the zoo, the head keeper cautiously opened the rear doors of the Land Rover. The lion was asleep.

“I don’t think the poor lion needs a tranquilliser gun,” said Hamish. “I should guess it’s awfy old. It came from some circus so it’ll be used to folks.”

Daviot had phoned the local papers, and several reporters and photographers were gathered.

“No flash pictures,” ordered Hamish. “It’s waking up. Let me see if I can get it out. Come on, boy. It’s all right.”

The lion blinked at him and slowly rose to its feet. The remains of the haunch of venison were lying beside it. “Now then,” cooed Hamish. “That’s the ticket. Slowly now. Just one wee jump. There we are.”

The lion stood beside him. The keeper said, “Maybe if you follow me to the cage, it’ll follow you.”

“It had better be a good big cage,” said Hamish.

“Och, it leads onto a bit of a field and a big auld tree,” said the keeper.

Hamish followed him and the lion followed Hamish. Once at the cage, Hamish walked into it with the lion behind him. The keeper opened a sack he had been carrying and threw a lump of meat into the cage.

The lion fell on it and Hamish slowly exited the cage. “Turn those lights off,” snarled Hamish at a television crew, “and give the lion a bit o’ peace.”

Hamish drove back to the wildlife park. The rain had begun to fall. Josie was standing outside the office, looking wet and miserable.

“They wouldn’t let me in the office,” complained Josie. “They said there wasn’t room and I wasn’t on the case.”

“Get in,” said Hamish. Josie meekly climbed in. “Now, what were you about, McSween,” said Hamish. “Thon lion was secure in the back. It’s where we put a prisoner, see? It couldnae have got at us.”

“I was scared,” mumbled Josie.

Hamish had been frightened as well but Josie did not know him well enough to understand that Hamish’s accent became more highland and sibilant when he was afraid. But overcoming Hamish’s fear was a desire to keep this noble old lion alive. He was sure if Strathbane police had arrived on the scene, then they would have shot it.

“We’ll say no more about it,” said Hamish. “I’ll switch on the heater. Do you want to go home and change?”

“I’ve only got the one uniform,” said Josie. “I’ll soon dry out. What are we going to do in Braikie?”

“I’m going to try to find out the names of some of Annie’s friends. I want to know whether she had met anyone who might wish her harm. But maybe we’ll begin at the post office and see if Georgie Braith, the new postmistress, can remember names of men or boys who bought valentines.”

“Isn’t it ‘postperson’?” asked Josie.

“We aren’t PC up here.”

Hamish parked in front of the post office. “Could we have something to eat first?” pleaded Josie.

“Time’s getting on. Stick it out for a bit.” He looked down at Josie’s dismal face. “Tell you what. You get something to eat. There’s the fish-and-chip shop over there. I’ll let you know if I find out anything. Meet me back at the Land Rover.”

Why did Josie stay on? wondered Hamish. He suspected she had given up going on calls. Why didn’t she just go back to Strathbane?

Georgie Braith was a tall, rangy woman with iron-grey hair and a beak of a nose. To Hamish’s questions, she replied, “The parcel wasn’t posted from here. I can tell you that. And how can I remember who bought valentines? It’s age. I can remember twenty years ago but don’t ask me about yesterday.”

“Did you know Annie Fleming?”

“Of course. You know what it’s like in Braikie. Everyone knows everyone else.”

“What did you think of her?”

“A very bonnie lass.”

“Do you happen to know who her friends were?”

“I remember now. She came in to look at valentines with Jessie Cormack.”

“Where will I find Jessie Cormack?”

“She works as a secretary up at the town hall-the building department.”

Hamish was just making his way out to the car when his attention was caught by a newspaper poster outside the newsagents. TV PRESENTER TO WED seemed to scream at him.

He went in to the newsagents and bought a copy of the Daily Bugle. He flipped open the pages and there it was: a photo of a smiling Elspeth Grant on the arm of a handsome man stared out at him. He read, “Our very own Elspeth Grant is to wed Paul Darby, heartthrob of the hospital soap Doctors in Peril.” His eyes skittered over the black print. Paul Darby was English, and the couple had met when Elspeth was on holiday in the Maldives.

Hamish stood there, feeling forlorn. He remembered all the times he had been on the point of proposing to Elspeth but something had always seemed to get in the way. A voice in his head sneered, “If you had been that keen, you’d have proposed.” But he felt depressed.

He put the newspaper in the rubbish bin outside and joined Josie in the Land Rover. “We’re off to the town hall,” said Hamish. “One of the secretaries there was a friend o’ Annie.”

“Anything the matter?” asked Josie, glancing sideways at his grim face.

“Nothing at all,” snapped Hamish.

Jessie Cormack was a tall, thin girl with brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. Her eyes were light grey in a pale face. Her mouth, however, was wide and sensual although free of lipstick.

The town hall was one of those red sandstone mock castles so beloved by the Victorians. Jessie’s little room was small and dark, separated from that of her boss by a plywood partition. It was very quiet. The thick walls blocked out all sounds from outside. The rain had turned to snow, and feathery flakes floated down outside the window.

“Do you know of anyone who might have wanted to wish Annie harm?” asked Hamish.