Death of a Village (27 page)

Jenny stopped suddenly and stared.

‘What’s the matter?’ asked Hamish.

He looked and saw Jessie and Nessie Currie, the local twin spinsters, the minister’s wife, and Mrs Dunne, standing together at the gate of the boarding house. Mrs Dunne was holding up a
piece of Jenny’s underwear, a black silk thong. ‘Now, what in the name o’ the wee man would you say that was?’ she was asking.

Hamish reached out a long arm and snatched it from Mrs Dunne. ‘That is the makings of a catapult for Miss Ogilvie’s nephew. You should not be going through her things.’

‘I didn’t,’ protested Mrs Dunne. She turned to Jenny, who was standing there wishing an earthquake would strike Lochdubh and bury them all. ‘It was lying in the corner of
your room. I found it when I was cleaning. I didn’t know what it was and I thought it might have been left by the previous tenant.’

Hamish handed the thong to Jenny. She stuffed it in her handbag, marched past them, and went up to her room. She sank down on the edge of her bed and buried her head in her hands. This holiday
had all been a terrible mistake.

Hamish went back to the police station, mildly amused. From the washing lines of Lochdubh, he knew that the usual female underwear consisted of large cotton knickers with
elastic at the knee.

When he walked into the police station, the phone in the office was ringing. He rushed to answer it.

It was Elspeth. ‘You’d best get over to Braikie,’ she said. ‘Miss Beattie, who worked in the post office, has been found hanged. And there’s one of those poison-pen
letters lying on the floor under her body.’