Кит Мори - Deadly Still

‘We’ll need their peatreek analysing as soon as possible,’ Torquil replied as he added their names under the peatreek box.

‘Don’t forget that Catriona McDonald and Vicky Spiers worked at the Hydro,’ said Morag.

Torquil nodded and made a new square for The Old Hydropathic Residential Home and under it added their names and those of Norma Ferguson, Doreen McGuire and Millie McKendrick. He added arrows from the two teenagers’ circles to the Hydro box.

‘It’s quite a tangled web already,’ Penny said.

‘Aye, or a skeleton framework. Now we need to add flesh to the bones. Photographs, we want all the ones you’ve all taken. Print them out and stick them up here.’

‘I forwarded the ones from Stan Wilkinson’s phone and already printed them out, Torquil,’ said Morag. ‘They’re in my drawer.’

‘Ah yes, Stan Wilkinson,’ said Torquil. ‘He took Catriona to hospital and he also found and took Angus. We’ll put him on the board, too.’ He added the postman’s name to the bottom left of the board and circled it, then added arrows to Angus Mackintosh and to Catriona McDonald. Underneath it he wrote ‘Good Samaritan’.

Ewan suddenly smacked himself on the forehead. ‘Boss, I just realised, the burglary! Stan Wilkinson’s phone was among the things that were taken from the station. And among the other bits and pieces were things that Morag’s search team had found.’

‘Including Vicky’s trainer,’ agreed Morag.

‘And my murder shoes,’ Ewan added. ‘They were brand new and unworn.’

Torquil made another list under the title ‘Burglary’ and drew an arrow between Stan Wilkinson’s name and the mobile phone and between Vicky’s trainer and the pillbox. He continued, ‘When I interviewed the staff at the Old Hydro Millie McKendrick told me she suspected that Robbie Ochterlonie may have had a secret relationship. She also thought that Norma Ferguson had a soft spot for him. Then Doreen McGuire said she thought she might be right about that.’

He added the words ‘secret lover’ to the right of Robbie’s circled name then underlined it twice for emphasis. Then he added a question mark and an arrow between Norma Ferguson and Robbie and a larger question mark beside the ‘secret lover’.

‘So, the first question is whether his secret lover is also his secret killer? The second arises if we conjecture that there is more than coincidence about the two events being linked, because the same peatreek was consumed in both cases.’

‘It all puts a different light on our search too, Torquil,’ said Morag.

‘Exactly,’ Torquil replied with a nod of his head as under Vicky’s circle he added the words ‘alive or dead?’ He looked round the room. ‘Or, which seems increasingly likely, as we have found no sign of her apart from two trainers found six miles apart from each other, is she being held somewhere against her will?’

Torquil left the others to reflect on the board while he went through to his office to make calls. He talked the cases over with Josephine Pengelly, the Procurator Fiscal in Oban, updating her on the search for Vicky Spiers and outlining his concerns about the death of Robbie Ochterlonie. She agreed that there was urgency now in finding Vicky Spiers and also discovering the source of the illicit whisky. The pillbox inquiry was now a potential culpable homicide case, because of Jamie Mackintosh’s death, but possibly also one of abduction in the case of Vicky Spiers. She also agreed that Robbie Ochterlonie’s death was highly suspicious and that it should now be considered a murder investigation.

Detective Superintendent Ross listened and agreed on Torquil’s conclusions and his proposed plans of action and asked to be kept briefed on all developments.

Both Josephine and DS Ross agreed that he needed to go public on the way the cases were opening up, so Torquil phoned Calum. Both he and Cora were busy writing articles fort the next edition of the Chronicle .

‘It’s bad news, Piper. So you think that poor Robbie was murdered?’

‘Aye, and there is a strong possibility that whoever murdered him is also responsible for poisoning the youngsters at the pillbox. That may mean that they may also have abducted Vicky and be holding her against her will.’

‘Have I your blessing to write it all up, using these terms? As you know, I am not one given to scare-mongering, but this is huge.’

‘You have carte-blanche, Calum.’

‘Then the West Uist Chronicle is at your service. We’ll not let you down, Piper. Oh, and by the way, pass on our best wishes to your fiancé.’

As Torquil put the phone down he realised that Calum had just put in his best man bid. It had inevitably gone out of his mind the last few days and he felt guilty about even thinking of anything else other than the cases in hand, both of which had taken momentous leaps in importance.

His next phone call was to Kirsty Macroon at the Scottish TV newsdesk. As before, they recorded the interview on Torquil’s iPhone, which he then emailed to her.

Following that, he talked with Fearghas Mac an Fhilidh at BBC Alba, the Gaelic language television channel based in Stornoway and after that, with Donald McGregor at the BBC Scotland newsdesk in Glasgow.

Finally, he went back through to the rest room, to find the others clustered around the table tennis table looking at batches of freshly printed photographs of the pillbox, Jamie Mackintosh’s body, Robbie Ochterlonie’s cabin and his body, and all the other photographs appertaining to each case.

‘We were just seeing what we have before we stick them up, Torquil,’ said Morag.

He nodded. ‘Good, we want everything up here. I’ve talked to Superintendent Ross and with Josephine Pengelly and they both agree and know that I’m starting a murder enquiry to run alongside the search for Vicky Spiers. I’m calling this an abduction case. Do you want to tell Lumsden or shall I?’

A half smile crossed Morag’s lips, followed by an emphatic shake of the head. ‘Much as I’d like to, I think I’m in enough trouble with him as it is. Do you mind, Torquil?’

‘No problem. It doesn’t need to be a long call as I’ve too much to do now. I’ll tell him he needs to start knocking on doors.’

Calum and Cora had wasted no time at all.

‘Short, pithy and prompt, that’s what we have to be with these bulletins, Cora. We have to keep ahead of the big TV stations, but remember that we are the main information stream for the island. These little pieces will have everyone eager for the actual paper copy tomorrow. Are you ready?’

‘It’s all loaded up, master.’

‘Then press the button, lassie.’

Moments later, across West Uist the messages, texts and emails beeped, buzzed and rang out, with the three line message in capital letters:

PIPER MCKINNON SAYS ROBBIE OCHTERLONIE WAS MURDERED

HAS VICKY BEEN ABDUCTED?

SEARCH FOR THE DEADLY STILL

As before, readers were given the link to the West Uist Chronicle blog and the details of the cases.

The killer read the West Uist piece with mounting anger. So the plods had stumbled onto something. Planting the second trainer far from the first seemed to have worked. A Super Plod had come over to the island to take over the search, but what could he possibly have found to make the quantum leap about Ochterlonie?

Bugger! Bugger! Bugger!

There was only one thing for it now.

The kid had to be terminated, like the other one.

‘We need the census records, Penny,’ said Torquil. ‘We need to know who owns or rents every house, barn, shed and chicken shack on the island. Morag, you’ll need to hold Lumsden’s hand on this, so I’ll leave you to liaise with him once we have a listing of all habitations in the area of the first search.’