No Stranger to Death: A Scottish mystery where cosy crime meets tartan noir: Borders Mysteries Book 1 (12 page)

‘Dad lent me his Discovery to take Mum to church. She goes for a sherry with some old ladies afterwards, so I thought I’d look in on you, see how you’re coping with your first taste of a Borders winter.’

‘We do get snow in England sometimes. Though not usually this early, I admit.’

‘Have you heard about Jimmy Baird?’

‘Your mother’s network of spies is slipping. I was there when they found him.’

‘No!’ Kate stopped midway through unbuttoning her coat. ‘Not again.’

Zoe gave a humourless grin. ‘People will start to think I’m some sort of attention seeker.’ Once they were sat down at the kitchen table she ran through what had taken place in the water meadow, Kate watching her intently.

‘Poor little Talisker,’ Kate said. ‘Jimmy loved that dog. Which reminds me.’ She pulled an envelope out of her handbag, followed by a small package wrapped in blue tissue paper. ‘Here’s Mhairi’s thank you note for her birthday present. She loves it. And here’s Mac’s gift in return. We’ve saved you both some cake for next time you visit.’

The package contained three bone-shaped dog chews. Zoe gave one to Mac and put away the others with his food.

‘Do you think Jimmy was murdered too?’ Kate asked as soon as Zoe sat down again.

‘I don’t want to second-guess the post mortem. He could easily have slipped and fallen off that rickety bridge.’

‘Will they be able to tell if he fell or was pushed?’

‘It depends on the wounds he sustained, if there was water in his lungs, that sort of thing.’ Zoe poured the last of the coffee into Kate’s mug. ‘Whatever happened, it’s very sad. But there’s one bright spot on the horizon.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Your friend Mather has turned his attention to Gregor Baird. I saw the police taking him away, which presumably means they’ve ruled out Tom.’

‘I hope you’re right,’ Kate said. ‘But that was before they knew Jimmy was dead. Now they might reconsider and think Tom killed him as well.’

‘You’re not normally so pessimistic.’

‘The whole family’s very upset. Mum especially – I could hardly get a word out of her on the way to church. So I’ve come to a decision.’

‘Oh dear,’ Zoe said. ‘I’m not going to like this, am I?’

‘We must find out ourselves who the murderer is.’

‘Tell me you’re not serious.’

‘Of course I am. It’s no joking matter.’

‘You’ve been watching too much television and reading too many crime novels. What makes you think we can do any better than the police?’

Kate poured herself more coffee, then added another spoonful of sugar. ‘There’s no physical evidence, is there? If there had been, they’d have charged someone by now. So it all boils down to personalities – Chrissie’s and the killer’s. And the police don’t know people round here like we do.’

‘Like you do, you mean,’ Zoe said. ‘I’m still a very recent incomer.’

‘But you’re a good judge of character. That’s what’s needed right now.’

‘I’ve probably never even met the killer.’

‘You met Chrissie.’

‘Once.’

‘And you know the sort of person she was.’

‘Only because of what you’ve told me. You may have disliked her, Kate, but you can’t be suggesting it was her own fault someone murdered her.’

‘No, of course not. But think about it. What made someone want to kill her? Murder isn’t the same as a car crash. You can die as a result of a road accident just by being in the wrong place at the –’

Kate put a hand up to her mouth. ‘Oh Zoe, I’m sorry. I was forgetting what happened to your mum.’

‘You don’t have to apologise. It was a long time ago, and you’re right, being the victim of an accident can simply be rotten luck. Being a murder victim tends to be less random.’

‘Exactly.’ Kate nodded earnestly. ‘If we assume Chrissie Baird was killed by someone she knew rather than some passing psychopath, which seems improbable, this being the Borders, that must mean it was something she did which led to her being murdered.’

‘Such as?’

‘Think about when you met her. What impression did she make on you?’

‘I didn’t like her, although I can’t pinpoint why. She asked me lots of questions about myself, which is usually flattering, but with her there was something a bit off. Perhaps she was more direct than I’m comfortable with.’

For some reason, Kate found this funny. ‘You don’t say?’

Ignoring the jibe, Zoe went on. ‘She made a big thing about me buying the coach house, wanting to know if I planned to run a business from it or have lots of friends and relatives to stay. At the time I thought she was worried I might start holding rowdy parties every weekend.’

‘That was Chrissie all over.’ Kate drained her mug and set it down on the table. ‘She’d try to dig up things she could then bitch about. She hardly knew Ken, but that didn’t stop her from pumping my friends to find out why he’d left us and where he’d gone.’

‘I remember she was quite ingratiating as well,’ Zoe said. ‘She spoke like she knew all about life in a doctor’s surgery. When I asked where she’d worked, it turned out she was only going on what a friend had told her.’

‘See, I was right. Even after a brief conversation you had Chrissie Baird sussed. Maybe she snooped around once too often and discovered something so bad she had to be killed to prevent her revealing it.’

‘It’s a huge leap from recognising she was nosey to deciding that was why someone murdered her.’

‘I’ve struggled to believe someone actually killed her and put her in Westerlea’s bonfire, but we both know it happened. Once you can get your head around that, anything else seems possible.’

‘Don’t you think you should be sharing this with Mather?’ Zoe said. ‘I’m sure he’d find it useful.’

Kate frowned. ‘I can detect sarcasm, you know, even if I can’t hear it.’

‘I wasn’t being sarcastic, honestly. But whatever insight you have, we can’t act on it.’

‘We can talk to people, find out what they know.’

‘And so can the police, Kate. What they don’t know about Westerlea’s inhabitants they have the means to find out.’

‘People will talk to you much more freely. You’re a doctor.’

‘And because I’m a doctor, it’s unlikely I could pass any of it on.’

‘Even if they’re not your patients?’

Zoe paused to think about this. ‘You’ve got me there,’ she admitted. ‘Most of the confidentiality issues I’ve been faced with were pretty clear cut – underage girls wanting to go on the pill without their parents’ knowledge, that sort of thing. But it would be wrong to use my position to invite confidences I have no intention of keeping.’

‘So you’re saying you won’t help me prove Tom didn’t kill Chrissie?’ Kate reached for her gloves and stood up.

Zoe put a hand on her friend’s arm. ‘Please don’t think I’m being unsympathetic. I recognise how awful this must be for your whole family.’

‘At least come to The Rocket with me tonight.’

‘I can’t go anywhere. As you so accurately predicted, my car is useless in this sort of weather.’

‘If that’s the only thing stopping you, I’ll pick you up. Must go. I have to collect Mum and relieve Dad of child-minding duties.’

‘You’re incorrigible. You’ve no intention of taking my advice and leaving well alone, have you?’

Kate marched out into the hall saying, ‘Okay, see you around six thirty.’

Chapter 14

A rapid thaw had set in, so Kate and Zoe drove into Westerlea that evening along roads wet with dirty slush. The car park was empty except for a blue Volvo.

Zoe nudged Kate. ‘Do you know who that Volvo belongs to?’

Kate stared at the car. ‘No, but I wouldn’t mind having it. It’s a few years younger than mine.’

‘It’s the car which drove past me when I saw Jimmy Baird out walking yesterday. I remember the number plate.’

‘Do you think whoever was driving may have seen something?’

‘Probably not. It was travelling very fast and Jimmy hadn’t reached the water meadow when it passed him. I expect the police have already been in touch with the owner and found that out. Brrr. Let’s get inside.’

Tonight the view into the pub’s kitchen was obscured by plastic blinds, although one of its windows was open. The metallic sound of saucepans being washed and stacked was accompanied by a low murmur of conversation.

Out of the blue, reminding Zoe of an enjoyable evening she once spent at a Greek restaurant in Nottingham, came the noise of plates smashing. Then silence. Then raised voices.

‘Look what you made me do!’

‘You can’t blame me for your clumsiness.’

Zoe grabbed at Kate’s jacket to gain her attention, pointed at the window and put a finger to her mouth.

Hazel’s voice was shrill. ‘If we’d gone to the police, I wouldn’t be in this state. Look how my hands are shaking.’

‘If we’d done that, we’d be in a lot more trouble. No one would’ve believed us.’

‘Yes they would!’

‘No, love, they wouldn’t. Leave it, can’t you? It’ll be over soon enough, if we keep our heads down. I’m going to open up.’

The sound of washing-up resumed.

Ray looked startled to see them waiting at the door when he unlocked it, but his professional hospitality kicked in and he was soon pouring their drinks and asking Zoe what she thought of the bad weather. She still had not told Kate about her skirmish with the graveyard gatepost, so this seemed the ideal opportunity to mention it, playing the whole episode down.

‘I told you to get yourself a proper vehicle,’ Kate said.

Hoping that if she didn’t argue, Kate would drop the subject, Zoe simply nodded.

Kate turned to Ray. ‘Talking of cars, Ray, whose is the Volvo in your car park?’

‘What, the blue one?’ Ray asked, pulling open a packet of cheese and onion crisps. ‘Like the look of it, do you? Sorry, but you’re out of luck. It’s ours, and we’ve only recently bought it.’

‘In that case,’ Kate said, ‘you’ll probably be hearing from the police soon. If you haven’t already.’

Ray stared into the crisp packet, his face more florid than usual. ‘Why would they want to speak to me?’

Wishing Kate had been more subtle in her approach, Zoe said, ‘I think I saw your car yesterday morning, driving past me and Jimmy Baird, just before he went into the water meadow. When the police asked me if I’d seen anyone else around, I told them about it. The letters on its number plate are my mother’s initials, which is how I . . .’

Zoe’s embarrassed smile became rigid as the silence in the room lengthened. Eventually, Ray said, ‘You must have made a mistake. It wasn’t our car. Hazel went to Kelso yesterday, which is in the opposite direction. Excuse me.’

The big man turned abruptly and went out of the bar, leaving his crisps untouched on the counter. Kate and Zoe made bewildered faces at each other, but before they could speak the door opened and several regulars filed in. After saying hello they started calling for Ray to come through and serve them. A note of impatience had crept into their voices by the time he reappeared, his face even redder than when he went out.

Elsewhere in the building, a door slammed.

Half an hour later, The Rocket was nearly full, the crush only lessening after Ray put up a board announcing the management’s regrets that no food would be served that evening. Kate tried to engage a couple of elderly men in conversation, but apart from conjecture concerning Gregor Baird – who had apparently been released by the police without charge, his current whereabouts unknown – the chances of having a murderer in their midst was no longer a hot topic. It appeared that everyone was putting Jimmy’s sudden demise down to bad luck and the folly of going out alone when in poor health.

Kate and Zoe sat down at a small table.

‘Now will you tell me what you overheard when we were passing by the kitchen?’ Kate asked.

‘It’ll have to wait until we’re somewhere more private,’ Zoe said, looking around. ‘Someone might hear.’

‘No one need hear, silly. You don’t have to talk out loud to me.’

Zoe self-consciously mouthed an account of Hazel and Ray’s argument. Kate watched intently then asked, in an uncharacteristically soft voice, ‘What was it all about?’

‘Your guess is as good as mine. They’re obviously scared about something they can’t tell the police about.’ Zoe was reaching for her purse to go up to the bar and buy another round of drinks when the front door opened and Neil rushed in. He surveyed the room; it didn’t take him long to spot her.

‘Zoe, thank Christ you’re here.’ Neil pushed past some drinkers who were trying to persuade their friend to take out his squeeze box and start a sing-along. ‘I’ve been searching everywhere for you.’

‘There’s no need to shout,’ Zoe said. She could tell the whole room was watching. ‘What’s happened?’

‘I wondered why you didn’t call last night like you said you would. Then my mate Gavin said he’d seen you out yesterday during that snow, slammed up against the entrance to the graveyard. I phoned you and there was no answer, so I went round to the cottage and you weren’t there.’

‘Which could be why I didn’t answer the phone.’

‘Then I thought Kate might be able to tell me where you were, so I went there.’

‘And found her house deserted too, I expect.’

‘Yes. So I came here.’

‘Well now you’ve found me and as you can see, I’m safe and sound.’

‘I’m glad about that.’ Neil pulled his wallet from his pocket. ‘What can I get you girls to drink?’

‘Actually we were about to leave, weren’t we Kate?’

Kate looked confused for a moment, then gulped down the rest of her Diet Coke.

‘I can’t tempt you to a quick one?’ Neil asked, a broad smile creating deep wrinkles beneath his eyes.

Standing up, Zoe lifted her handbag on to her shoulder then leaned towards Neil to be sure only he could hear what she had to say. ‘You rush in, speaking like you own me. And now you want us to sit down and have a drink? I don’t think so. Give your mate Gavin a call if you get lonely.’

Once outside, Zoe strode towards the car park. Kate grabbed her friend’s arm when she caught up with her. ‘Hold on. What’s wrong?’

Zoe swung round. ‘He’s behaving as though I should tell him where I’m going every time I set foot outside the house. I’m not having that.’