Кит Мори - Deadly Still

‘Pity. And what about Robbie Ochterlonie? That was a sad case.’ He motioned as if he was about to drink from an invisible glass. ‘Too much whisky, I hear?’

Penny had been warned about Calum by Lorna and understood that he was fishing for information. ‘I’m afraid that we are not in a position to comment yet, Calum. It is an unexpected death and has been referred to the Procurator Fiscal, so we are awaiting the result of the post-mortem examination.’

‘Ah, that’s what I thought. Is Torquil in yet?’

Ewan assured him that he wasn’t.

‘Well, tell him if he wants any more help from the Chronicle to give me a bell.’ He nodded to them. ‘Good to meet you, Penny. I look forward to working with you and getting to know you better.’

Once the newspaperman had gone Ewan gave a short laugh. ‘That’s typical of Calum Steele. He came in just to check you out, you know. If you hadn’t been in the office he’d have had some ploy to get introduced to you. He can be a nuisance, but he’s basically a good lad.’

‘Well, now he knows about me, why don’t we take this opportunity while its quiet to do the same. The boss gave me some tasks to do and I’ve got a five minutes to spare, so how about if I make that tea and you can explain to me about his highland hammer and those murder shoes of yours.’

When Torquil arrived at the station he told Ewan and Penny that he wanted to have a meeting with the team in half an hour.

‘What about the search — will Morag be coming back?’ Ewan asked.

‘No, they’ve found a trainer in mud near the old Strathshiffin Road. There’s a good chance it’s one of Vicky’s, so we’ll need to check. Morag will be moving the search area accordingly. I’m bringing the twins in and we’ll skype Morag.’

Once the Drummond twins arrived back, both dressed in their heavy waterproofs rather than police uniforms, Ewan came in with a tray of mugs of tea.

‘Things have moved on, folks,’ Torquil said, sitting behind his desk and referring to his notebook. ‘Firstly, Lorna called me to say she attended the post-mortem on Jamie Mackintosh. The pathologist has to look at slides and get the results of tests back, but he was convinced that he had only one working kidney, which meant he wasn’t able to clear the methanol and all the toxins from his body. He either vomited and inhaled his vomit, or he choked and then had a fit. Essentially, whatever the prime mechanism, he asphyxiated.’

Penny winced. ‘That’s horrible. He drowned in his own vomit.’

Torquil nodded. ‘And if the bottle from the pillbox is be shown to have contained methyl alcohol then whoever supplied it could be facing a charge of culpable homicide.’

Penny whistled and opened the file in her hands. ‘In that case it really is serious, boss. I checked with Ian Gillesbie, the Senior Scene Examiner and the first results are back. The bottle had an extremely high concentration of methanol in it.’ She ran a finger down the page. ‘They also tested the blood samples that Dr McLelland took and they’ll be testing samples that the pathologist takes straight from the body. They’ll be able to see if it matches, although it sounds as if there isn’t much doubt.’

Wallace was sitting with his arms folded. ‘So this was definitely peatreek?’

‘Looks like it,’ said Torquil.

‘How did they get hold of it?’ Douglas asked.

‘Catriona McDonald told Lorna that Jamie brought it.’

‘And where did he get it from?’ Ewan asked. ‘Does Angus have a still?’

‘That’s what we need to find out, Ewan,’ Torquil replied. ‘There must be several home stills around the island.’

He turned to Penny. ‘Illicit distilling used to be common on the islands. Folk had them on farms, on crofts or on one of the many isles around the coast. We need to find them all and have their whisky confiscated and checked for methanol.’

‘Shall I do that, boss?’ Penny asked.

‘No, Wallace and Douglas can do that. They know the island and they probably have a good idea of who could be distilling.’

Wallace harrumphed. ‘It maybe not so simple, Piper. These days all sorts of folk are distilling spirits. Rum, gin, vodka. You can get the tackle on the internet, no bother.’

Torquil nodded, recollecting only too well his conversation with Lorna about whisky for their wedding favours. ‘Aye, Lorna was talking about this. Artisan gin, she called it. She even knows where to get it on the island. I’ll need to find out from her.’ He turned again to Penny. ‘What I need you to do is find out everything about whisky making, especially illicit whisky and how they make peatreek. Also, delve into the medical details. We need to know all about methanol, its properties, toxic amounts, the works.’

Douglas had been sipping his tea and held the mug up reflectively. ‘This is a really strong cup of tea.’

Ewan beamed. ‘Aye, just the way everyone likes it.’

Douglas tapped the mug with a fingernail. ‘That’s as maybe, but I was thinking that the strength is something that can vary, just as the strength of peatreek must vary. There won’t be any quality control over it.’

Wallace nodded. ‘Aye, but that’s just the strength of the alcohol. There shouldn’t be any methyl alcohol in it at all.’

‘That’s exactly right,’ said Torquil. ‘That’s the point about distilling. The first alcohol to come out of the distillation process is the methanol, because it has a lower boiling point. They call that the foreshot and they throw it away. Penny, I want you to visit the newest proper distillery, its owned by Hamish McNab. That’s a good place to familiarise yourself with the process after you’ve done a bit of research. Speak to Hamish McNab and also have a word with Keith Finlay, his head distiller. Hamish poached him from the Glen Corlin distillery a few years ago. He’s a decent chap and he’ll explain the whole process. We need to know what they do with their foreshot. I’ll be doing the same at the Glen Corlin distillery.’

‘I’m just a bit worried, Piper,’ Wallace stated. ‘There may be a good chance that whoever supplied this peatreek has disposed of their still and of their peatreek.’

‘That’s why we need to move fast and also why we need to keep quiet about this. That means being careful about what we tell the media.’

Ewan snapped his fingers. ‘Calum Steel was in earlier. He came to check out DI Faversham, I think, but he was doing his usual fishing. He asked for you to call him when you have more information, boss.’

Penny nodded. ‘He was also asking about the other death. I told him we were waiting on the post-mortem.’

‘I’ll deal with Calum,’ Torquil replied. He sat forward and touched the mouse on his desk to open his computer. ‘Right, now about Vicky Spiers. Let’s skype Morag.’

The others clustered round behind Torquil as Morag’s image appeared on the screen. They could see the shelves of books behind her as she sat at the small desk inside the library van.

‘We’ve moved the base to the Strathshiffin Road layby,’ she informed them. ‘Douglas has the trainer all bagged up.’

‘It’s on the desk in front of me, Morag,’ said Torquil. ‘It’s an Adidas trainer and looks fairly new. We’ll be checking if it’s Vicky’s with the Spiers straight after this. Any fresh developments?’

‘Nothing new. But the teams are scouring the area inch by inch. I’ve lost a lot, though. I have only a third of the folk that I had yesterday.’

‘Well, we can’t make people volunteer. We just have to be grateful for those who give their time.’ He quickly gave her a recap on the result of the post-mortem. ‘So it’s a possible culpable homicide case now. We’re going to begin searching for illicit stills on the island and also check the two distilleries for how they deal with their foreshot. Do you have any idea of anyone who’s making their own whisky or other spirits?’