Death of a Gentle Lady

‘Might I be having a wee word with you, Hamish?’
    ‘This lady is an inspector in the Moscow police,’ said Hamish, sure that Willie thought he had hitched up with another hooker.
    Willie’s face cleared. ‘Welcome,’ he said. ‘I thought –’
    ‘Never mind what you thought, Willie. Take the orders.’
    When they were alone again, Anna said, ‘Now, tell me how it was that you came to propose marriage to Irena.’
    Hamish explained how he had thought he was doing a good turn. And then over the rest of the meal, he outlined what he knew about Mrs Gentle and how he was sure that Irena had overheard something at the family reunion that had made her a danger to someone.
    ‘We will start first thing in the morning,’ said Anna. She looked over Hamish’s shoulder. A strikingly beautiful blonde woman was staring in the window at them with a look of dismay on her face.
    ‘I’d better take you up to the hotel and find you a room,’ said Hamish.
    ‘No need. I am used to roughing it. I will sleep at your station.’
    Anna looked again but the beautiful woman had gone.

    Priscilla hurried back along the waterfront to the police station, where she had left her car. On impulse, she took down the key from the gutter over the kitchen door, unlocked the door, and went in. She looked in the bedroom. She looked at Anna’s cases on Hamish’s bed. Anna had hung away her uniform in Hamish’s wardrobe.
    Priscilla left and shut the door behind her. For the first time she thought that she did not really know Hamish.
    She saw that bright little picture in her mind again – Hamish in his best suit talking intently to a woman as if she were the only thing that mattered in his world.

Chapter Six

    ‘Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin
with,’ the Mock Turtle replied, ‘and the
different branches of Arithmetic – Ambition,
Distraction, Uglification and Derision.’
– Lewis Carroll

    Hamish received a phone call from Jimmy early next morning, asking him to bring Anna to the castle.
    ‘Daviot was worried when she didn’t turn up at her hotel in Strathbane last night, but then she phoned and said she was staying with you. Our boss hopes you’re not carrying any détente further than it should go.’
    ‘I’ve been sleeping in the cell,’ grumbled Hamish. ‘I’ve got to get her to the Tommel Castle Hotel this morning, somehow, and then I’ll bring her over.’
    He heard a loud scream from the bedroom and a shout of ‘Get off!’
    ‘What are you up to?’ asked Jimmy.
    ‘Nothing. She’s probably found the cat in her bed.’
    This turned out to be the case. Anna had awakened with the feel of a warm body stretched out next to her own.
    When she was up and dressed and in her uniform, Hamish told her, ‘I’ve taken the liberty of booking a room at the Tommel Castle Hotel. There are three people there who might interest you – Harold Jury, an author; Patrick Fitzpatrick, an Irishman; and a Mrs Fanshawe, who borrowed one of the bikes. I’ve yet to speak to her.’
    Anna agreed. Hamish’s pets had made the novelty of a stay in a highland police station quickly wear off.

    ‘There might be some press still here,’ said Hamish as he walked into the hotel with Anna, carrying her two large suitcases, ‘but you’ll need to face them sooner or later. While you get settled in, I’ll see if I can find this Mrs Fanshawe.’
    Mrs Fanshawe was having breakfast. She was a small, round, middle-aged woman with rosy cheeks and grey hair. She certainly could not have been the woman at the phone box.
    In answer to his questions, she said she had borrowed a mountain bike. ‘I wanted to get some of the weight off,’ she said with a jolly laugh. ‘One trip out was enough for me so I said to myself, Sadie, the Good Lord obviously meant you to be fat.’
    She had not seen any mysterious woman. Anna walked into the dining room; at the sight of her uniform, several reporters and cameramen sprang to their feet, and soon she was surrounded. Hamish was about to interfere until he saw she was handling all questions coolly and efficiently.
    When she finally said ‘That’s enough!’ and joined Hamish, he said, ‘You’ve only had toast for breakfast. Would you like something here?’
    ‘No, I would like to get started.’
    They met Priscilla as they were leaving the hotel. Priscilla had seen Anna only very briefly. ‘Were you in the restaurant last night?’ she asked Hamish when the introductions were over.
    ‘Yes, we