He had known that Will held Dalziel in high esteem. Will was hopeless at keeping records and writing letters, while Dalziel excelled at it. It was more than that. He took a pride in it. “My factotum,” Will said when referring to his assistant, but Gavin had always thought of Dalziel as an employee. He knew little of the man’s origins. His position was awkward and not unlike that of a governess. Most governesses were invisible.
He drummed his fingers on the white tablecloth. Rising abruptly, he left the dining room and went in search of Dalziel.
It wasn’t Dalziel he found, however, but Janet Mayberry, on the point of leaving her room to go in search of sustenance.
“Gavin,” she exclaimed, “just the man I want to see.” She grabbed his arm, yanked him into her room, and shut the door. “What is this my maid tells me? Is it true? Did Dr. Rankin meet with a terrible accident?”
In as few words as possible, he gave her an account of how things stood. He was reaching for the doorknob when she collapsed against him.
“I feel faint,” she mewed softly. “Please, help me to the bed.”
At any other time, he would have been hard-pressed to keep a straight face. Janet didn’t know how to be subtle. She was already unbuttoning her jacket.
“I can’t breathe,” she fluttered. “It’s all been such a shock. Gavin, help me, please?”
He wasn’t given time to answer. Her arm looped around his neck, and she dragged him down for an openmouthed kiss.
“Hurry,” she moaned. “My maid will be back in another minute. Don’t worry, I locked the door.”
For one insane moment, he was tempted, but his thoughts strayed to Kate, and with a furious curse, he fought off Janet’s stranglehold and lurched to his feet.
“Gavin, what is it?” she cried out.
“She knows,” he said with a violence that made Miss Mayberry cower away.
“You’re not making sense,” she cried out.
He was in no mood to explain. Torn between outrage and embarrassment, he went in search of Kate, but Kate did not wish to be disturbed, her maid told him, and nothing he said could persuade Elsie to unlock the door to him.
Seven
The police arrived on foot late that afternoon. Constable Hamilton, the officer in charge, explained to the assembled guests that there were no detectives with them because the gillie had already told them at the station that Dr. Rankin had accidentally locked himself out of the hotel when he’d had one too many and had subsequently died of exposure. So the body was put on a stretcher without ceremony, and two gillies were commandeered to convey it to the village.
A babble of voices broke out at this point, with many of the guests asking questions and shouting across each other. Hamilton silenced them by holding up his hand. He looked as though he’d been dragged out of retirement and knew how to handle a rowdy crowd.
“You’ll be free to go,” he said, pinning malefactors with a steely eye, “after I’ve taken your statements.”
“Statements?” queried his fellow officer, a new recruit, Kate surmised, who didn’t look as though he knew how to tie the laces on his boots.
“Statements,” Hamilton repeated. “We take statements from everyone before we let them go. Make sure they sign them. Have you got that, Officer Binnie?”
Binnie looked askance at the sea of faces in the crowded dining room and gave a little nod.
“You take the hotel staff, then,” Hamilton said, “and I’ll begin here with the guests.”
Binnie gave another nod and beat a hasty retreat to the door that gave onto the kitchens.
Kate felt queasy, and it wasn’t only because of the statement she would have to make to the police. Without warning, a door that she’d hoped she had closed for all time had opened, and she was seeing visions again. It was because of these visions that she’d been labeled a freak as a child. That’s what had brought her to Dr. Rankin’s attention all those years ago. He’d taught her how to keep the visions at bay, and when that was impossible, to keep her mouth shut.
Gavin Hepburn and the Mayberry woman? Her vision might not be true, but even if it were, she had to shut her mind to it. It was the only way to stay sane.
With a will of their own, her eyes strayed to the table where Hepburn and Dalziel were seated. The Mayberry arrived at that moment, fluttering like a brilliant butterfly, and made straight for Hepburn’s table. After some rearranging, she managed to squeeze in between Hepburn and Dalziel. It was all very amusing, Kate thought, frowning. Macduff was right beside his master but staring at her with mournful eyes. Evidently the rules had been relaxed about allowing dogs inside the hotel. Or perhaps Hepburn was breaking the rules, and no one was brave enough to point it out to him.
His face was turned away, and she could see the line of his jaw. It was granite hard, just like the rest of him. His attention seemed intent on whatever Dalziel was saying. Without warning, he turned his head, and their eyes met. She felt the power of that stare all the way to her toes. It felt as though he knew about her vision and had smacked her hand for her vulgar curiosity.
Assuming her most innocent expression, she pretended an interest in what Constable Hamilton had to say.
She’d anticipated that the guests would be interviewed one by one, but it was far more informal than that. Paper and pencils were distributed, and guests were asked to give an account of their movements from dinner the night before until they came downstairs for breakfast that morning. Obviously, it was nothing but routine. Officer Hamilton wasn’t expecting anything shocking to come to light. She chewed on the end of her pencil, wondering what to put down and what to leave out.
She couldn’t help chancing another quick look at her nemesis. He was looking at her, too, his eyes narrowed and dark with menace. He couldn’t know that she had trespassed in his mind. Then what had put that look on his face? Was it because she wouldn’t let her maid open the door to him? She couldn’t have faced him then. Now that she had herself well in hand, she gave him a cool smile, then bent her head and wrote exactly what they’d agreed on earlier that morning.
Her eyes had begun to tear by the time she’d finished. She’d forgotten Hepburn and Janet Mayberry by then, and her thoughts had turned to Will Rankin and how unjust it was that such a good man had been struck down in his prime. She owed him so much, and she hadn’t told him how grateful she was for all he had done for her. She’d tried, but every time she’d begun to stammer out her thanks, he’d cut her off with a smile. He was only doing his job, he’d said. So she had repaid him by helping out at his clinic in Aberdeen and had been well and truly caught. She’d found something bigger than herself to give her time and energies to.
Murder
. It didn’t seem possible. But neither did what had happened to her when she’d been locked out of the hotel last night. Then there was the voice and her vision. No wonder she was confused.
Sally Anderson, who was sitting on her left, broke into her thoughts. “I think,” said Sally, “that your admirer has just put Janet Mayberry in her place, and about time, too, if you ask me.”
Kate looked up just in time to see a red-faced Janet rushing out of the room.
“What admirer?”
“Why Mr. Hepburn, of course. Have you two had a falling-out?”
“Why should we? I hardly know him.” Kate folded her sheet of paper and held it loosely in one hand. Hepburn had told her to say nothing of the night they’d spent together until he’d had a chance to explain things to the police. It would get out soon enough, if she knew anything about belowstairs gossip, but by then she and Hepburn would have gone their separate ways.
Sally laughed. “Strange,” she said, “he has been looking daggers at you since he walked in here.”
Kate looked up with a start. He
had
been looking daggers at her since he walked into the dining room. What was the matter with the man? He couldn’t possibly know that, in all innocence, she’d wandered into his assignation with the ever-so-ripe Mayberry—could he?
Officer Hamilton made another announcement. They were to leave their statements with him, signed, of course, then they were free to go. That didn’t mean much. There were no trains running yet, and the roads were still impassable, except for the old drovers’ road that came out at Braemar.
With her eyes carefully averted, Kate got up, crossed to the table where Hamilton sat, and added her statement to the stacks of others that were lying there. That done, she attached herself to her friends and exited the dining room with her head bent and eyes on the floor.
It didn’t do her a bit of good. He was waiting for her in the corridor, and before she could take evasive action, he had cut her out of the herd.
“This will only take a moment, ladies,” he said. His eyes crinkled at the corners. “I have a favor to ask Miss Cameron.”
A few brows went up. Others tittered, but her friends backed away, saying that they would see her later.
As soon as they were out of earshot, she lifted her chin and shot him a scorching look. “I did what you asked me to do,” she said. “I wrote what we agreed upon in my statement to the police.”
“Oh, I’m sure you did.”
“Then why all the ferocious glares?”
“You’re mistaken. I was lost in thought, that’s all.” He paused, then went on, “Look, about this afternoon . . .”
He was searching for words, and that amazed her. He always seemed so sure of himself.
He shook his head. “When I came to your room, your maid wouldn’t allow me to see you. I just wanted to make sure that you were all right.”
She answered him with all the composure she could muster. “I had a headache, a severe one. I wasn’t fit to see anyone. I’m sorry if that inconvenienced you, but we’ve said all that needs to be said, haven’t we?”
“No,” he replied. “I wanted to tell you that I’ll be away for most of the day. Dalziel and I intend to visit the police station to have a word with the medical examiner. He’s an old friend of the family, so I know that he’ll share his findings with me. I’ve asked Mrs. Cardno to look after you in my absence.”
She was startled into a laugh. “Mrs. Cardno? She’s an old lady. What can she do?”
He framed his answer as though she were a slowwitted child. “I’ve known Juliet’s mother since I was an infant. She knows what to do in an emergency. There’s no need to worry. I’m leaving Macduff with you as well. Don’t let him out of your sight. Remember what happened to Will. Remember what almost happened to you. Never forget it for one moment.”
“Now you’re frightening me.”
“Good! Just remember to keep Macduff with you at all times.”
“And what’s the favor you wanted to ask?”
“Don’t frown so much. It makes you look angry.”
It looked as though he might say more, but he shook his head again, then strode along the corridor to the exit, where Dalziel was waiting for him.
Mrs. Cardno passed around the plate of sponge cakes and regarded her companions with a satisfied smile. “It’s such a pleasure for an old woman to have young people about her,” she crooned. Her gaze touched briefly on each one. “You were just young girls in pinafores and pigtails when I first met you. And now look at you! All married or soon to be married. Where did the time go?”
The “girls” she referred to were Juliet’s school friends, Kate among them, who had good-naturedly accepted her invitation to an after-dinner hen party to cheer an old lady who was beginning to pine for the company of her only child. Kate was wondering if the hen party was Hepburn’s idea, something to take her mind off her troubles. It worked, up to a point; then her mind would stray to Dr. Rankin, and she would blink away the sting of tears.
They were in Mrs. Cardno’s private parlor, a commodious room that was usually reserved for paying guests. As the mother of the bride, Mrs. Cardno evidently took precedence. It was on her say-so that the rule about dogs in the hotel had been relaxed.
As she sipped her glass of sherry and nibbled on the delicacies laid out for them, Kate’s thoughts turned to her school days, when she and her friends were senior girls. They’d felt so grown-up then, at the end-of-term parties, when they were allowed to stay up late, sipping sherry and making small talk under the watchful eyes of their teachers and parents. Not that she’d had much to say. Even then, she’d known that she was different.
Macduff nudged her knee, and she surreptitiously passed him the remains of her minuscule sponge cake, which he swallowed without even biting into it. When he nudged her again, she scowled down at him, and he slunk behind a chair.
“Kate isn’t soon to be married,” said Lorna Dare. She popped a tiny custard tart into her mouth and swallowed it—just like Macduff, Kate thought. “You’re becoming a confirmed spinster, Kate, an old maid before your time.”
Kate had never taken to Lorna, maybe because she did everything well. No, that wasn’t it. Sally did everything well, and she liked Sally. The difference was that Lorna wanted everyone to envy her.
She was going to make light of the jibe, but Sally got there before her. “Lorna, do you have eyes in your head? Gavin Hepburn took one look at our little mouse, and he was smitten. Who is looking after his dog? Our Kate, of course, and you know how Hepburn feels about his dog.”