Death of a Gentle Lady

dirty. He sniffed at them and then sniffed the air. There was a faint smell of vomit. He looked down at the stone floor. It was clean. He turned and looked back at the stairs; they looked clean as well. He walked around the wine racks. Several large trunks were piled against the wall. He turned and climbed up the stairs, searching the rooms until he found the chief forensic officer, Bruce Murray.
    ‘Look, Bruce,’ said Hamish. ‘I’ve been down in the cellar. I swear it’s been cleaned recently, and there’s a faint smell of vomit. Now, there are some old trunks there, and I don’t want to get into trouble for compromising a crime scene. Would you mind taking your team down there and opening up those trunks?’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘There might be a body in one of them.’
    ‘You’ve been looking at too many horror movies.’
    ‘Okay. If I find anything and get a rocket, I’ll say you refused to search.’
    ‘Oh, all right ! But I’ll do it myself.’
    He followed Hamish down to the cellar. The first trunk was empty, the second held fusty old clothes, a third, children’s toys and books, and the fourth old accounts and letters. The fifth at the bottom, a huge old steamer trunk, was pulled out, Bruce grumbling all the time. Hamish undid the old leather straps and threw back the lid.
    ‘Will ye look at that,’ marvelled Bruce. ‘You’re psychic.’
    ‘That’ was the dead body of Irena, doubled up and crushed into the trunk.
    Her blonde hair was matted with blood. Hamish took out his phone. ‘Can’t get a signal down here,’ he said. ‘I’ll go upstairs.’
    ‘I’ll wait for the pathologist and then get the boys down here,’ said Bruce. ‘Do you know Dr Forsythe is leaving the force?’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘She wants to retire. Besides, she says that a forensic pathologist here only earns a third of what they do in England. Don’t know where we’ll find another. Probably need to get someone all the way from Aberdeen.’
    Hamish went upstairs. He felt numb. He phoned Jimmy, not wanting to hear Blair’s bullying voice. Then he walked outside the castle and stood waiting. He suddenly craved a cigarette. He had stopped smoking some time ago, but occasionally the longing would come back.
    Was there a serial killer on the loose? Had some maniac come to the Highlands?
    He discounted any Russian connection. Whoever had phoned Mrs Gentle had been someone she knew. She had happily gone out to meet whoever called her. Perhaps Irena had just got in the way. But wait a bit – Irena had been killed before Mrs Gentle was strangled and thrown over. He was sure of it.

    The gale blew the sound of approaching sirens. Jimmy arrived with Detective Constable Andy MacNab. In the following car came more detectives, a vanload of police after them.
    ‘Where’s Blair?’ asked Hamish.
    ‘In the hospital with alcohol poisoning. How that man can keep on going is beyond me. So what have we got?’
    Hamish told him briefly about finding the body. ‘The press are going to have a field day,’ said Jimmy when Hamish had finished. ‘Here comes Dr Forsythe. I’ll hae a look at the body when she’s finished. How do you feel?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ said Hamish. ‘Stunned, I guess.’
    Dr Forsythe got out of her car. ‘Where’s the body?’
    ‘Down in the cellar. I’ll take you there,’ said Hamish.
    ‘Did she have any scratches on her face?’
    ‘Too much blood,’ said Hamish. ‘Why?’
    ‘Despite being in the water, Mrs Gentle had fragments of skin under her fingernails. I’m working on the DNA.’
    ‘Do you think Irena killed her and then struck herself on the head with a hammer in a fit of remorse?’
    ‘Don’t be cheeky, Hamish. I only meant that there’s hope the person who killed her might be on the DNA database.’
    ‘Here’s the cellar,’ said Hamish. ‘You’ll find Bruce down there.’
    ‘Sober, I hope.’
    ‘For the moment.’

    Hamish went back and joined Jimmy. ‘What’s odd,’ he said, ‘is that on a table in the cellar is a bottle with two glasses. Almost as if someone had lured Irena down there, given her a drugged drink, and then bashed her head in.’
    ‘What? On the morning of her wedding? Mrs Gentle said she went out for a walk.’
    ‘Have you checked the phone records?’
    ‘Yes. That phone call to Mrs Gentle came from a call box in Lochdubh. Any strangers in Lochdubh?’
    ‘I suppose there are visitors up at the Tommel Castle Hotel.’
    ‘Her family are due to arrive