Charles Todd - Legacy of the Dead

“She never said anything about it if he had.”

Detaching curls from buttons and fingers from the fob, he set the child on her feet and rose. “You’ve been a great help,” he told Mrs. Davison. “Thank you once more.”

She must have read something in his voice. She rose but didn’t cross the room to the door. Instead she asked, “Is it important, this brooch?”

“It might be,” he confessed. “I’m on my way to find that out.”

“Then I hope it will be good news!”

On the step he paused and said, “Do you think that Maude Cook was expecting a child when she left Brae?”

“Maude Cook?” Mrs. Davison shook her head. “No, I’m sure she wasn’t. There would have been signs.”

“Not if she left in her fifth month.”

“Well, that’s true, I suppose. But when she left Brae, it was to travel to London to be with her husband. He had been invalided home-what would he have said to find her pregnant by another man!”

She stopped. “I had wondered if she had a lover… No, I can’t believe it of her. She wouldn’t have been able to conceal her condition from Mrs. Kerr. And Mrs. Kerr would have told half of Brae. No. Possible, but not likely,” she ended firmly. “Give Fiona my love, will you? And tell her we are praying for her.”

“She will be grateful,” Rutledge said, and went down the walk to his car.

Hamish scolded, “You’ve broken your promise again!”

“No. I asked if Mrs. Cook could have had a child. I’ve put no one in danger!”

“It isna’ right to gie a promise and take it back when it suits!”

“It isn’t right for Fiona MacDonald to hang,” Rutledge retorted grimly.

“Aye, but she doesna’ deserve to put her faith in lies.”

Rutledge reached Glencoe before Inspector MacDougal got there, and spent the time climbing back to the rocks on the heights.

How had a woman dragged the dead weight of a body up this slope?

How would he have done it?

People found extraordinary strength in times of grave danger. It would have taken enormous effort. And time. At night then, when darkness gave the killer a good nine hours in which to accomplish the task.

And if he’d laid the body on a blanket and pulled What if the frayed edges of an old blanket had been cut off and hidden under the bench in the Craigness garden? To make a sturdier corner Overhead Rutledge heard an eagle scream and, shading his eyes, looked up. He could just see it, circling for altitude, riding the warming air. In the far distance a car was moving in his direction. Rutledge turned and began to walk back down the mountainside.

The sound of pipes came from somewhere, a lonely shepherd passing the time. Too far for Rutledge to pick out the tune. A pibroch, he thought. Very fitting here, where the mountains gave it body and redoubled the drones. He paused to listen.

Something cracked-a shot-echoing and re-echoing against the rock faces on either side of the road.

Instinctively, Rutledge ducked, long years of war making it a swift reflex action. The stones just behind him spurted, then slid in a trickling spill toward his feet. He swore.

There was no cover here-absolutely none-he was a clear target, easy to pick off Where was the man with the rifle!

Crouching, he scanned the opposite slopes and saw no one.

It hadn’t been his imagination! He knew the sound of a rifle; it was clear and definitive Then, at the top of the ridge across from him, he caught a slight shift of light and shadow and again threw himself to one side.

But this time there was no shot. MacDougal’s car was just below, the motor’s noise rising to where Rutledge was crouching. Close enough now to hear a rifle Rutledge shaded his eyes, looking intently for movement.

But the sniper had vanished, ducking over the opposite ridge, invisible now.

It would be impossible to catch up with him- Furiously angry, Rutledge wheeled to look for the spent bullet. He combed the area where he was certain he had seen the small slide of rock chips. It must have struck a stone and ricocheted.

He searched carefully-but he never found it.

Inspector Macdougal, getting out of his car as Rutledge reached the road again, said, “You’re a great man for the climbing!”

“Good exercise,” he answered, thinking of Mrs. Holden.

“Better you than me! What is it you’re looking for up there, that you need me to act as guide?”

“I’ve seen all I need to see on the mountain. Now I’d like to find that young girl, Betty Lawlor.”

“The one who discovered the brooch. Any particular reason you’d like to speak to her?” MacDougal looked at him speculatively.

Never infringe on another man’s turf. It was a cardinal rule Rutledge followed. “Yes. I’d like to hear how she came to have the price of a new pair of shoes.”

“As I remember, she said she’d earned them.”

“Yes, no doubt she had. I should have asked her how.”

“What does that have to do with finding the brooch?”

“It might have been the price of convincing her to turn it in. I find it hard to believe, thinking back on it, that a child as poor as that would come to you to ask if she could keep the brooch.”

“I wondered about it, of course. But the family is honest enough. The father’s a drunken sod, but the mother is proud as peacocks. And she’s taught her children to be honest as far as I can tell. Besides, how in hell’s name would anyone know that Betty Lawlor had found a brooch out here in the middle of nowhere? It’s far-fetched, Rutledge!” But he shrugged and pointed down the road. “The croft is just before the end of the glen. Shall we take both cars or leave one here?”

Rutledge had no wish to find water in his petrol again. Or a bullet through a tire. “We might as well take both.”

“Safe enough here,” MacDougal said. “But it’s your choice.”

He pulled out ahead of Rutledge to lead the way.

Hamish warned, “Watch your back!”

Rutledge said, “No. He won’t risk firing again. Not with MacDougal ahead of us. How did anyone know I was here? I told Oliver-”

Anyone could have overheard Oliver’s call to MacDougal. Anyone could have asked Oliver, “I saw Rutledge leaving town, where has he gone?”

“And who did Oliver tell?” Hamish said.

“Or I could have been followed to Brae and then here.”

“But if he knew and came ahead while you were in Brae, he would have the time to climb.”

“I know.” Rutledge let it go. There was nothing he could do now.

Sheep were being driven down the road, filling it with white, curly humps that bobbed ahead and then behind, crowding against the two motorcars. He could hear MacDougal shouting to the man to move them on, and the high whistles to the dogs. Moving to lower pastures before the autumn storms came.

Pulling out of them, MacDougal drove on, then turned off the road where an ancient stone croft squatted in the shelter of the hill.

It has only two rooms, Rutledge thought, and no water that I can see. Betty Lawlor was poor indeed.

Hamish said, “There’ll be a rill close by. Enough for their needs.”

A ragged child of about seven popped his head out the door and then went back inside, calling to someone, before coming to stand on the threshold. His eyes were wide as he took in the two motorcars parked in front of him.

MacDougal had gotten out and was crossing the hard-packed dirt of the yard when a man came to meet him. He was of middle height but heavy across the shoulders, and the filthy undershirt he wore was torn across the back. His trousers were held up with string, not braces. The bleary eyes and fleshy nose told the rest of the story.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Lawlor. I’ve come to have a word with Betty, if you please.”