Gently with Love (17 page)

‘Aye – well.’ Her father shrugged and tipped his glass. ‘I kenna what you know of Fortuny, Superintendent, but he was a fast worker with the lasses. Had he been here longer you might well have suspected one of our laddies for the job. But he was just a stranger, you ken, and Beattie has no young man to take offence.’

‘Your daughter has no admirers?’

‘Well – not just that! But you ken how it is with the young lasses. They’re for having a fling with one or another, and she has not been going steady yet.’

Beattie Mackenzie slammed down her glass. ‘I’m for watching the bar,’ she said.

‘Beattie!’ her mother exclaimed warningly.

‘Ach, let her go,’ Robert Mackenzie said.

Beattie jumped up and flounced from the room. Her face was flaming and her eyes averted. Her mother sent me an anxious look. Robert Mackenzie took another nip.

‘She is upset, no doubt,’ he said evenly. ‘She had more than a fancy for that fellow. And why should she not? He was a cut above the fisher-laddies who come teasing her in the bar.’

‘My father was a fisher-laddie,’ Ailsie Mackenzie said sharply.

‘And was not mine too?’ Robert Mackenzie replied. ‘All I am saying is that Fortuny was a smooth and fair-spoken man. You cannot say less.’

Ailsie Mackenzie looked as though she might, but instead she picked a shortcake from the tray. She munched with vigour. Her husband stared in his glass and gently agitated its contents.

‘How did Fortuny spend his time?’ I asked.

Robert Mackenzie scowled. ‘He spent his time visiting. But when he had outstayed his welcome at Jamie’s he would go for a ramble or take a boat out.’

‘But you saw plenty of him.’

‘He took his meals here.’

‘Did he bring any friends with him?’

‘He did not.’

‘Then his acquaintance would be limited to James Mackenzie’s household and yourself, your wife and your daughter.’

Robert Mackenzie hesitated. ‘Aye.’

‘Did any of you accompany him on his rambles?’

‘Is it likely?’ Ailsie Mackenzie demanded indignantly. ‘Have we not work enough with running the hotel?’

‘But your daughter?’

‘Who kens?’ Robert Mackenzie said. ‘She lends a hand when it suits her convenience. But he would not want to be seen out with her, now would he, and him pressing Miss Anne to name the day.’

‘Where was she on Wednesday afternoon?’

‘She was helping her mother serve in the bar.’

‘After the boat docked.’

‘Aye. There was plenty to do then.’

I tried to get his eye. ‘Were you serving in the bar?’

‘Ach, no. But I was out and in. For a start I was down below, in the cellar, connecting the pump to a fresh keg.’

‘Where was Fortuny?’

‘He was in the lounge. We served him coffee there after lunch.’

‘He remained there from lunch until you called him to the phone?’

‘Aye. He did not budge from the lounge.’

I paused to select a slice of buttered bannock from the tray. ‘What makes you so sure that he stayed in the lounge?’

From the corner of my eye I could see him stir. ‘Well, you ken I was in there to collect his empties.’

‘That wouldn’t take long.’

Again a movement. ‘He rang for a drink when the lads came in.’

‘But then he was alone until you called him to the phone.’

‘Aye, well. But he would not have budged.’

I ate some of the bannock. ‘I think you had a word with him.’

Robert Mackenzie sat still. I looked at Ailsie Mackenzie. Her mouth was drawn tight and her eyes were fixed on her husband.

‘Look,’ I said. ‘I’ve only just met your daughter, but I can see she’s a girl with a will of her own. Fortuny was a womanizer. He could have wrapped her round his finger, and if he did then she would probably have defied you. So what would you do? You would have it out with Fortuny. You would tell him to get the hell out of your hotel. In fact, you knew he was in the lounge until the phone call because you were having a row with him which the call interrupted.’ I glanced back at Ailsie Mackensie. ‘Isn’t that true?’

‘Ach!’ she jerked her face away from me.

Robert Mackenzie stared at the hearth and the grey tendrils of the peat smoke. ‘And if that were true?’

‘What did he reply to you?’

Robert Mackenzie didn’t answer.

‘Wasn’t it to this effect: that if you threw him out he would take your daughter along with him?’

I heard Ailsie Mackenzie gasp.

‘I don’t think he gave a damn for your daughter,’ I said. ‘He was after Anne. She meant money to him. He was probably convinced that he would get his own way. But he couldn’t keep his hands off a pretty girl, and when you threatened to throw him out she made a handy lever. So suddenly that was the situation. She wouldn’t hold back, and you couldn’t get rid of him. And then the call came from James Mackenzie, who I am sure advised you what was afoot.’

‘Ach, he’s the very devil!’ Ailsie Mackenzie exclaimed.

‘What exactly were your movements after the phone call?’

‘He came to the bar!’ Ailsie Mackenzie cried. ‘He came to tell me what was going on.’

‘Ailsie, hold your tongue,’ Robert Mackenzie growled. ‘Do you not see that he’s trying it on? He would talk you into the county jail if you let him, and you’re for giving him a helping hand.’ He finished his drink with a quick, irritable motion and set the glass on the tray with a slam. ‘So that’s the drift of it,’ he said. ‘You’ll be setting me up to take the heat off the youngster.’

‘I am simply trying to get at the facts.’

‘Would you say it is a fact that I am a liar?’

I shrugged.

‘I am looking you in the eyes and swearing that I took no part in what happened.’

‘Then where were you?’

‘Here – right here! In this very room where we sit now. And wishing that Anne’s laddie would break every bone of him, which I had been sorely tempted to do myself.’

‘You were here alone?’

‘Ach – ach!’

‘He was in here when Iain rang!’ Ailsie Mackenzie burst out. ‘And would he not be seen leaving the bar, which faces the front and the gate?’

‘He was not seen?’

‘No, he was not!’

‘Then you were in the bar, not in the parlour?’

‘I was serving the laddies, and what else – and I could see that nobody left the house!’

I nodded, and ate up my bannock. ‘So your husband was in here when Iain Mackenzie rang.’

‘Aye – I’ve told you! I took the call and fetched Robert out to talk to him.’

‘It must have been a moment of some excitement.’

Ailsie Mackenzie gazed. ‘Who is going to deny it?’

‘Did you go down to the clifftop?’

‘Ach, we all did!’

‘Your daughter too?’

‘She went with the rest.’

‘But your husband stayed here.’

Her mouth gaped. Robert Mackenzie looked grim.

‘It’s simple,’ I said. ‘Your husband mentioned earlier that he hadn’t met Sambrooke. Sambrooke was present at the clifftop. It follows that your husband didn’t go there.’ I regarded him mildly. ‘Yet surely what was happening was of considerable interest to you? If Fortuny was indeed dead it solved the problem that had just arisen.’

Robert Mackenzie stared at me bitterly. ‘You are a master man all right,’ he said. ‘You forget nothing when once it is told you, and you throw it up at an unco moment. Aye, I did not go, and you’ll ken why. And it was not that I was fresh back from murdering him. It was because the news of it went to my stomach and I was casting my dinner like a sick bairn. You are right – dooms right – it had solved a problem, and it had answered the curse that I threw after him. I should not have done it, but I did, and when the news came my stomach threw up.’

I looked at him curiously. ‘You believe in curses?’

‘Aye. And who has a better right?’

‘But you’re a reasonable man.’

‘Ach, and because of it I am compelled to believe.’

‘His grandmother was Elspeth Mackay,’ Ailsie Mackenzie broke in. ‘She was kenned through the country for second sight. She let on the Viking curse to Robbie, and he was fool enough to cast it at Fortuny.’

‘But . . . you believe it caused his death?’

‘Aye.’

‘Just the repetition of some words?’

‘It works, it works,’ Robert Mackenzie exclaimed. ‘What use is it turning a blind eye to fact? At first I was scornful as a southron, I used the curse in a manner of jest – but it kept coming true, it never did fail, and in the end I was feared but to think of the words.’

‘Could it not have been coincidence?’

‘Ach, call it what you will. But it is a coincidence that always happens. And if I had kent what would befall Fortuny I would have bitten my tongue through before I uttered it.’

‘What are the words?’

‘You’ll not get them from me. I will never speak nor think them again.’

‘I ken the words,’ Ailsie Mackenzie said, ‘and I would not give them to a saint upon earth.’

I was intrigued. I had heard that second sight was a widely held belief in the islands, and I could well credit that a complementary belief in the efficacy of cursing might go with it. Robert Mackenzie seemed a rational enough man but the most sceptical among us have our blind spots. It was credible that in this instance he had reacted as he did. He was watching me closely.

‘Then you must take some of the responsibility for Fortuny’s death.’

He relaxed slightly. ‘I am glad to do so. I have felt it on my conscience.’

‘But for you, you are saying, it would not have happened.’

‘I do not believe the young man would have died.’

‘So that in fact the murderer is not wholly culpable.’

He stared for a moment, then averted his eyes. ‘You ken how I’m placed. I’m wishing well. I am all for Miss Anne’s young man getting off. But just supposing I knew more than I do, I am a sharer in the guilt, and I could not be informing. So though I would help you in any fair question, you will not be expecting me to go beyond that.’

‘I think you are telling me you know who killed Fortuny.’

I heard his wife gasp. Robert Mackenzie shook his head. ‘I was here in this place. I do not have second sight like my grandmother.’

‘But you have spoken to that man since.’

‘You are putting words in his mouth!’ Ailsie Mackenzie cried. ‘We have told you what we know. It is in the statements. You cannot come asking questions like Inspector Sinclair.’

‘Whist, Ailsie, whist,’ Robert Mackenzie chided. ‘The man has a right to shog us a little. His friend is sitting in Dornoch jail and there is no doubt that he should not be there.’ He rose slowly and stood before me. ‘I think we have finished our crack, Superintendent. You are going away with more in your head than I expected to put there when you stepped in. But remember this. If you did ken all, you might not be rushing off to Sinclair. This is a sad affair and a strange one, but it may not be just that simple.’

I rose too. ‘I’ll bear it in mind.’

‘Aye. You may find it to be of service.’

‘And let me thank you for your hospitality.’

‘Ach, ach. You’re in Kylie here.’

He saw me out; as we passed through the hall, I thought I heard Beattie’s voice above. But Robert Mackenzie opened the door clumsily and noisily, and then there was only silence.

I
T WAS STILL
not properly dark when I took my leave from the House of Reay. The loch, glimmering below, made hard silhouettes of the staithe and the moored boats. Ahead the great mass of rock that the road divided loomed dim and heavy, lacking in detail; and beyond it, in a dusky sea, a far-off lighthouse flashed indistinctly. I felt I was sure of one thing. Except for myself, the whole of Kyleness knew who had killed Fortuny. Robert Mackenzie and his family knew it and so did James and Iain and all their connections. This was what Sinclair must have sensed and why he had held his hand in charging Earle. It may have been that the Mackenzies had indulged his suspicions even as now they were indulging mine; they knew, and they felt sufficiently secure to be able to take this line in Earle’s defence. Nobody would talk; the story was watertight; I could ask where I pleased but I would find no leaks in it. Sinclair was aware of this, and all he had asked me for was modest support for a case of not proven. My role, in fact, had been tacitly defined; I was to frank the situation with my professional repute; Earle would be freed, Sinclair would be justified, and the Mackenzies left unoffended and in possession of their secret. Fortuny, after all, was only a southron; he was not worth turning the world upside down over. Well, good enough. But my professional repute would not rest easy in these circumstances. It had a will of its own, and a curiosity, and a propensity to take offence that rivalled the Mackenzies. If it could not arrive at proof at least it demanded satisfaction, and as I walked down from the House of Reay I determined that I would penetrate the mystery before I quit Kyleness. That was the price of my professional repute and I would not accept a penny less. Yet a solution didn’t seem to be getting closer. I had been struck by a contention of Robert Mackenzie’s. Fortuny had not been in Kyleness long enough to have aroused any mortal enmity. He appeared to have met but very few people. The
Kylie Rose
and her crew had been at sea. He had aroused the anger of James Mackenzie and presented Robert Mackenzie with a problem, but could either of these have simmered to a point where murdering Fortuny entered the reckoning? I found it hard to believe. The sort of thrashing Earle gave him would have been adequate in either instance. It would have settled his hash with regard to Anne, and if he had persisted with Beattie I could easily imagine Robert Mackenzie repeating the dose. The auld way: it was sufficient; it was the natural recourse of the Mackenzies; it did not lead to stabbing a defenceless man and tossing his unconscious body to destruction. Fortuny’s killer had not been angry, he had been possessed. He had been goaded by a maturity of injury and resentment. Yet who, except Earle had these qualifications, and what other stranger would the Mackenzies protect?

With my meditation at this stage I reached the passage through the rocks. There indeed it was dark; and the darkness seemed to accentuate the detonations of the surf below. I quickened my step. I couldn’t quite subdue the feeling of horror with which the place oppressed me. Yet I knew it was folly; though a man had been slain there, these remained just rocks, and this just a road. I came down from the cliff edge into the bend, where I could barely make out the road in front of me, and I failed to see the man who was standing there until I was almost upon him. The man was Alex.