Кит Мори - Deadly Still

‘So I need to know more about how Vicky settled in here.’

Norma leaned forward and clasped her hands in front of her on the desk. ‘She’s one of three part time girls who are all studying at the Academy, doing their Highers year. She and Catriona McDonald have been with us all this year.’ Tears welled up in her eyes. ‘Oh, Inspector McKinnon, this is so dreadful and what with finding Robbie dead like that.’

‘I understand, Norma. It must have been a dreadful shock.’

‘I’ll never forget it as long as I live.’

‘Did you touch anything when you went in?’

‘No, I told DC Faversham I just checked his pulse to see if he was alive. I knew he was dead. He was just like some of our residents when they pass away overnight and we find them in the morning. That’s a nice way to go I always think, but poor Robbie, that was horrible. No-one should die alone like that.’

‘Have you been in touch with Catriona or Vicky’s parents?’

‘Oh yes, it was one of the first things I did after I heard about what happened at the old pillbox. I went round to see them, actually. I thought it was the least that I could do. It … it’s what Robbie would have done.’

Unable to hold back the tears any longer she began to sob. Torquil reached over the desk and patted her hand.

‘Let it out, Norma. It’s natural that you’ll feel upset.’

‘I … I just feel so helpless. I don’t think I could have done anything to stop what happened to the girls and poor Jamie Mackintosh, but I can’t help thinking that I should have been able to help Robbie. I’m just so gullible and believed him when he told me he wanted to be a writer.’ She pulled out a paper handkerchief from the box on the desk and blew her nose. Then: ‘I think I loved him, Inspector. I think he liked me too, but neither of us have ever said anything. Maybe he’d still be alive if —’

‘Norma, there is no point in letting your mind do that to yourself. You have nothing to feel guilty about. But tell me, what did he write? I wasn’t aware that Robbie was a writer.’

She gave a brief smile. ‘I think it was wishful thinking, really. He always had a laptop with him and was forever tapping away at it in spare moments. He talked about his novel and how it was going, but none of us know anything more than that. He had a cheeky way of putting us off and said that one day we’d be able to read it, when he was on his way to being rich and famous.’

‘You said you were gullible, do you think he wasn’t telling the truth?’

‘It was Millie McKendrick, one of the older care assistants who told me. She’d known him for a lot longer than me. She used to roll her eyes when he went on about his writing, especially if he was going to spend his weekend off in his writing cabin. Then one day she told me he built the cabin not to write, but to drink his peatreek.’

‘Tell me about that, did he make his own spirits?’

Norma shook her head. ‘I don’t know, Inspector. You’d maybe be better asking Millie herself.’

Torquil nodded. ‘I will. But now about Catriona, she seems to be doing better in the hospital. Her vision is clearing, so I hear. Her mother is staying at the hospital with her. Catriona told Sergeant Golspie that Jamie Mackintosh brought the bottle of peatreek that they were drinking. Where do you think he got it?’

‘I don’t know that either, Inspector. I saw Jamie now and then, he was friends with the two girls, but he didn’t work here or have any connection with the Hydro.’

Torquil lifted his briefcase and opened it to show her the bag containing Vicky’s trainer. ‘Do you recognise this?’

‘Adidas! That’s Vicky’s right enough. She liked her trainers and she liked her shoes. She was always saying that she was saving up to buy some Alexander McQueen trainers or a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes. She liked her high heels almost as much as her trainers, you see. She and Catriona were quite similar that way and were always talking about what they would be wearing when they went to uni.’

‘What did they say about uni?’

‘Catriona is planning to go into nursing and Vicky was planning to do something with people, though maybe not caring specifically. She was talking about studying to be a dental hygienist. She had been looking at the University of Dundee or the University of the Highlands and Islands.’

He put the trainer away. ‘Norma, you’ve been very helpful. Now if you don’t mind I’d like to have a chat with Millie.’

‘Of course, she’ll be on the west wing doing the tea round, so I’ll give her a buzz and I’ll take over from her. You can stay here and use the office.’

Millie McKendrick had worked at the Old Hydropathic Residential Home for twenty-two years and was devoted to her job. She was about five foot two in height, fairly slim, but with forearms that were well developed from all her years of lifting residents. Torquil knew her as a stalwart of the church, ever ready to help out at St Ninian events. He also knew from his uncle that although she was not exactly teetotal she had strong views about alcohol.

After adroitly fielding her questions he asked her about Robbie Ochterlonie’s writing and his writing cabin.

Millie laughed. ‘Don’t tell me that Norma still has the impression that Robbie is any kind of a writer? I’m heartbroken that he’s dead, but he certainly never did any writing in that cabin. Oh, he was always on his laptop pretending to write, but he was a fantasist, was our Robbie. He liked to drink that filthy peatreek, which was stupid for him and his diabetes. Me and Doreen McGuire were always telling him to be careful with it. But oh no, he’d go to his place at Lochiel’s Copse and drink himself stupid. Not only that, but he supplied some of the residents with the stuff, the idiot. If the owners had ever found out he’d have been out on his ear.’

‘Norma Ferguson seem to have had a soft spot for him?’

‘Aye, well, Robbie was probably not the right sort for her. He was secretive, as you may have gathered. I think he was a bit duplicitous, too.’

‘What makes you say that, Millie?’

The care assistant scrunched her nose up. ‘I don’t know exactly, it’s just that he would have times when he was always making secret phone calls, shutting himself away in his office to do it. Like he was having an affair.’

‘So he was a ladies’ man?’

‘Not exactly. Oh, Norma had a candle for him, but he was no oil painting and he didn’t really put himself about, if you know what I mean. Not publicly. I’m sure Doreen and me would have known if he had a relationship on the island.’

‘Could he have been having an affair with a married woman? Or could he have been gay?’

Millie shrugged her shoulders. ‘I don’t think he was gay. I just think he might have been having a relationship he wanted to keep secret.’

‘You’ve no evidence though, have you, Millie? Is it just a suspicion?’

‘Aye, it’s a hunch. But my hunches are usually good.’

Torquil hummed and leaned forward and made a few notes in his book, then said, ‘So where did he get his peatreek, Millie? Did he have a still somewhere? Was that why he buried himself away in Lochiel’s Copse?’

‘That I don’t know and I don’t really want to know. I don’t like drink and I don’t like what it does to people. All that’s been happening lately must surely get the message through to people. It’s all just poison.’

Her mouth had been getting tighter as she spoke until it was now just a disapproving line. ‘Don’t misunderstand me, Inspector. I’m going to miss him, but I can’t help feeling he brought things on his own head. Ask Doreen McGuire, she might know more.’

Five minutes later Torquil was looking across the desk at Doreen McGuire. While Millie was on the petite end of the spectrum, Doreen was large and curvaceous. Like Millie she was a stalwart of the church and of the Mother’s Union.