Кит Мори - Deadly Still

‘And my murder shoes, I mean, my hammer boots,’ added Ewan.

Torquil held up the bagged trainer. ‘But we have photographs so we can still check it.’

He told them all where it had been found by George Corlin-MacLeod.

‘Well, I’ve made a decision,’ went on Superintendent Lumsden. ‘I’m personally taking over the search. Where is this library van you say you’ve been using as an operational base?’

‘It’s parked behind the station, sir,’ replied Morag.

‘Right, give me a map and the exact location of the second trainer. I’m going to use that point as the new base and we’ll spread out from there.’

‘I’ve put a police tape around the area in the ditch where the trainer was found on the West Coast Road,’ Torquil informed him. ‘You cannot miss it.’

Lumsden snorted derisively.

‘The map is in the library van, sir,’ said Morag. ‘I’ll show you on the way.’

‘You’re not coming, Sergeant. You can stay here and supervise this station. Sort out this burglary and find the nutter who robbed you of your petty cash tin and the constable’s hammer boots or whatever.’ He looked at Ewan and shook his head. ‘Constable McPhee, you’ll stay, too. You can look after lost kittens and things within your capability.’’

‘Sergeant Driscoll has done a good job and Constable McPhee is highly capable,’ Torquil said quickly. ‘Don’t you think you should have people who know the island?’

‘The girl is still lost, isn’t she?’ he returned bullishly. ‘It looks like she hasn’t been found because you’ve been looking in the wrong place. I just hope it isn’t a corpse that we find. You’ve already lost one teenager.’ He turned to Morag, whose eyes were moist from holding back tears. ‘Come on, Sergeant, show me that map and give me the keys of this vehicle. My officers will follow. Lastly, how have the civilians been notified?’

‘We’ve been helped by the West Uist Chronicle , sir. They have been sending out emails and blogs.’

‘The local rag and social media! That’s how you run this place, is it? Well, if that’s the best there is get onto the editor and tell him to get a message out about the new location. I’ll be directing the search from there. Have we got dogs?’

‘We will have, but they are civilian animals,’ replied Morag. ‘It was one of our islander’s dog that found the first trainer.’

‘Well, I’ll need the second trainer to see if they can pick up a scent,’ returned the superintendent.

‘I need to check it first, Superintendent,’ said Torquil, holding the bag firmly by his side. ‘Once I’m sure it’s a match I’ll get it out to you.’

Lumsden’s jaw muscles twitched and he seemed on the verge of erupting, but instead he snapped, ‘Do that.’ He gave a bullish call to the constables waiting in the front office and then nodded at Morag to lead him out to the library van. The uniformed officers marched through quickly to follow them, grimacing sympathetically at their West Uist colleagues.

‘Bloody fool!’ Torquil exclaimed, after they had gone.

‘I’d heard all about him from Detective Superintendent Ross,’ said Penny. ‘He’s a typical bully boy.’

‘I’m afraid he’s transferred his antipathy towards me onto Morag,’ said Torquil. ‘But let’s have a look at the photographs of the other trainer. Let’s make sure it is Vicky’s. If it is it gives some hope that she may still be wandering around out there.’

When Morag came back some minutes later Torquil put his arm around her shoulders. ‘Don’t let him get to you, Morag. You’ve done all that you can and we all support you.’

‘I’ve not found her, Torquil. If she’s lying dead in a ditch I’ll never forgive myself.’

‘Hush now, the best thing to do is to get down to the work. So let’s have all we know about this break-in.’

‘I’ve dusted and there are our prints all over, but nothing new. I don’t think Penny can have been near the things that were stolen.’

‘So whoever did it wore gloves and they knew what they were doing,’ said Torquil. ‘Quick entry then straight to the alarm and cut the wires to the sirens. The things that were stolen, do they make any sense?’ He looked at the list of things that Morag and Ewan had compiled before Superintendent Lumsden descended upon them. ‘It seems a pretty eclectic mix. The worrying thing is that the stuff found on the search has been taken, especially Vicky’s trainer.’

‘Aye,’ said Ewan. ‘Is Superintendent Lumsden right? Have we some nutter on the island? I can’t really think of who else would do such a thing.’

Torquil moved towards the corridor. ‘I’ll give Calum a ring about sending one of his emails out to tell folk that the search has been moved six miles away and ask him to tell folk where to go for the start of the new search. While I do that, Ewan please get the photographs and let’s make sure about the second trainer.’

Penny knocked on Torquil’s office door and came in upon his call.

At his invitation she sat down and opened her notebook. ‘I’ve spoken to Ian Gillesbie as you told me to. He’s had most of the results back and he’s going to email them to me. He also said that Dr Lamont had done the histology on the tissue samples and looked over all of the results on the body fluids, so he suggested that I speak to him directly, which I did. To be honest, he was a bit curt and started off saying that he had wanted to talk to Sergeant Golspie, since he liked to have continuity.’

Torquil shrugged. ‘I guess that you need to like method and order if you are going to be a good forensic pathologist.’

‘Well, he said he’d give me his overall assessment, but would be writing up a detailed report for the Procurator Fiscal. Further to his post-mortem findings he said that Robbie Ochterlonie died as a result of a fall while under the influence of alcohol, both ethanol and methanol. The level of methanol in his blood was really high, probably lethal. The levels in his aqueous and vitreous humours in his eyes were also high. The stomach had probably contained a whole bottle of whisky, of high methanol content. His blood sugar was in his boots, as the result of insulin, since he was a type 1 diabetic.’

‘So he’d injected himself, thinking his sugar was too high and that he could fall into a coma?’

Penny nodded. ‘Possibly injecting too much and then either fallen after having a fit, or had a fit and fallen, sustaining the facial injury and the contrecoup head injury when he hit the floor.’

Torquil whistled. ‘A grim way to go. So what about the peatreek samples from the stills. Did Ian Gillesbie have any information there?’

Penny turned the pages to a marker. ‘Yes. None of them had anything but a negligible amount of methanol. They bore no resemblance to the liquids from the two bottles. Ian didn’t think there was any chance that they came from any of those stills.’

‘So it looks like the deadly still is still out there?’

Penny nodded. ‘Yes, boss.’

‘Ok, let me see the forensic reports when Ian Gillesbie sends them over.’

Calum and Cora wasted no time in writing another digital special, which found its way into the inboxes of people’s emails all over the island.

It read:

THIRD DAY AND STILL NO VICKY

SECOND TRAINER FOUND

SEARCH MOVED

Then followed details of the trainer and its location on the West Coast Road along with the invitation to join the search under the direction of Superintendent Kenneth Lumsden.

One of the first to read the blog, the killer smiled.

Torquil refused Ewan’s offer of tea.

‘I think I need some air, Ewan. I’ll go for a ride on the Bullet and I’ll be back soon. I’m on my phone if you need me.’