M Beaton - Death of a Valentine

“No. Annie was popular with everyone.”

Hamish was sitting opposite her desk. Josie had taken a chair against the wall next to a radiator. Hamish leaned back in his chair and said quietly, “The time for lying is past, Jessie.”

Jessie studied her hands in her lap. Then she said, “Her parents will be mad.”

“It doesn’t matter what her parents think, and they can’t get mad wi’ a dead body,” said Hamish brutally. “Out with it!”

“Well, it was like how she said the Freemonts who run the wildlife park didn’t have a clue how to go on. She said they were losing money hand over fist. It was all Bill Freemont’s fault. It was his dream and his wife’s money. Anyway, they tried to get Annie to do some work round the cages, cleaning and that, but Annie said she was employed as a secretary and that was that.

“One day recently she heard Mrs. Freemont shouting that they didn’t need a secretary because there wasn’t enough work but Bill said they needed someone to answer the phones and take money from people when they weren’t there.

“When they went off somewhere, Annie would lock up at lunchtime and go to that disco, Stardust, in Strathbane. They have a lunchtime session. She said she met a dreamboat there.”

“Name?”

“Jake something or other. She was going to take me there one Saturday and introduce me.”

“Anyone else?”

“She said Bill Freemont had come on to her but she threatened to tell his wife and he backed off. Och, it was her parents’ fault. They were that strict. You know, church and Bible classes on the Sunday.”

“Which church?”

“The Free Presbyterian Church in Braikie.”

“So Annie liked to rebel?”

“She was a bit of a flirt.”

“Oh, she was, was she?” said Hamish. “You seem to be taking her murder calmly.”

“She was asking for it,” said Jessie in a burst of sudden anger. “She flirted with my boyfriend and then laughed in his face when he tried to ask her out. He didn’t have any time for me. He followed her around like a dog.”

“Name?”

“Percy Stane.”

“And where does he work?”

“Waste disposal. Across the hall.”

“Right.” Hamish got to his feet. “Did you get all that, McSween?”

Josie blushed. She had been daydreaming.

Hamish sighed and took out his notebook. “Right, Jessie, I’ll need you to go over it again.”

Percy Stane-what misguided parent called a child Percy these days? wondered Hamish-turned out to be a spotty youth of nineteen years. He had thick glasses through which pale blue eyes stared at them like a rabbit caught in the headlights.

“We just want to ask you a few questions about Annie Fleming,” said Hamish. “Did you send her a valentine?”

Percy’s eyes darted this way and that. “We have good forensic evidence,” said Hamish severely, hoping Percy would think his card had been found.

“I-I d-did s-send one,” he stammered.

“Now, that’s all right,” said Hamish soothingly. “You didn’t send her a parcel?”

Hamish’s mobile phone rang. “Excuse me,” he said. He answered it. It was Jimmy. “Thought you’d like to hear the latest. At the autopsy, they found tablets of Ecstasy sewn into the hem of her jacket. It fortunately hadnae been burnt, thanks to that McGirty woman.”

“I’ve just learned she had been frequenting a disco called Stardust in her lunch break,” said Hamish.

“Good man. I’ve been dying for an excuse to raid that place for ages.”

Jimmy rang off.

Hamish went and sat down facing Percy again. “Did you say anything in your valentine?”

Percy blushed deep red. “Do I have to tell you?”

“Yes.”

“I didn’t put a poem. I just wrote, ‘Come back to me. Love, Percy.’ ”

“So she had been your date?”

“Not exactly.” Percy wriggled in his hard chair. “Annie was always flirting and I thought she fancied me. I couldn’t look at my girlfriend after Annie came on to me. I thought about her night and day.”

“You mean Jessie Cormack?”

“Yes.”

“Didn’t it strike you as rather mean that Annie would flirt with you and then turn cold when she’d got you away from her friend?”

“I was…dazzled.”

“Did you follow her?”

He hung his head.

“Come on, laddie. Out wi’ it!”

“I called in sick one day and went to the wildlife park. As I approached, she was just driving off. I followed. She went to a disco. I followed her in. She was over at the bar with some lowlife, laughing and drinking. I went up to her and she threw her head back and laughed. I said, ‘What about a dance, Annie?’ and her face went all hard and the fellow with her said, ‘Bugger off or I’ll glass your face.’ ”

“What did he look like?”

“Greasy hair, black eyes, leather jacket, tattoo of a snake on his wrist, and a bit older than her. He frightened me. I got out of there. I was determined to stay clear of her, but after a few days, I… I…”

“You followed her again?”

“I waited outside her house one morning to try to speak to her but she said if I didn’t leave her alone, she would call the police. That frightened me. My valentine-well, it was one last desperate try.”

“Did you see her with any other man, other than this fellow at the disco?”

He shook his head.

“Did you know she took drugs?”

Percy looked shocked. “She couldn’t, she wouldn’t…”

“She did,” said Hamish flatly. “I’ll be talking to you again.”

Out in the hall again, Hamish said, “Back to Jessie.”

“How did you know she took drugs?” asked Josie.

Hamish told her what Jimmy Anderson had said. He opened the door to Jessie’s office. She was sitting at her computer typing busily.

“Stop for a minute,” ordered Hamish. “Did you know that Annie took drugs?”

“No!”

“Never talked about it? Never hinted?”

“Not a word.”

“I’ll be back to see you. Here’s my card. If you can think of anything, phone me up. There may be something you’ve forgotten.”

Hamish dropped Josie off at her car. “I’m going back to Lochdubh,” he said. “You may as well get home and change. Take it easy. The snow’s still light but it could get heavy any moment.”

Josie drove off, peering through the windscreen as the hypnotic flakes swirled and danced in front of her. At the manse, she changed into civilian clothes and brushed down her uniform and then went down to the kitchen to borrow an iron and an ironing board from Mrs. Wellington.

“You’ve had an exciting day,” said the minister’s wife. “Hamish is quite the hero. I saw him on the television rescuing that lion. Were you frightened?”

“All in the day’s work,” said Josie.

Jimmy called at the police station that evening. “You’ll never get back,” said Hamish. “The snow’s coming down thick and fast.”

“You may as well put me up for the night,” said Jimmy. “I’ve got to be in Braikie first thing in the morning. What a waste of time. We raided the disco. Clean as a whistle.”

“I might go over there myself tomorrow for the lunchtime session,” said Hamish. “I’m looking for someone called Jake.”

“You’ve been on the telly. Everyone will recognise you.”

“I’ll go in disguise.”

“You’ll be poaching on Blair’s territory.”