Eye for an Eye

didn’t suffer,’ said Gilchrist. ‘Her last words were for Timmy.’
    Maggie squeezed her eyes shut then, and shook her head. ‘She loved him,’ she whispered. ‘She missed him more than anything else in the world. He came between us, you know.’ Her voice trembled. ‘I think it was that more than anything that hurt.’
    Gilchrist watched tears spill from her eyes. ‘What were you going to do with Patter?’ he asked.
    Maggie frowned, as if confused. ‘Patter?’
    ‘Were you going to leave him?’
    ‘He’s an outside cat. He doesn’t need us.’
    ‘Us?’
    ‘Humans.’
    ‘Would Lex not take him?’
    She tutted. ‘One’s enough for that bitch.’
    ‘You don’t like Lex, then?’
    ‘She tried to steal Sa from me. Before Patsy.’
    Now Gilchrist understood. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. ‘So,’ he said, ‘when Sa fabricated the charge against me for harassing Lex, you jumped at the chance to get one over on her, and lied about being a witness.’
    Maggie’s nostrils flared.
    ‘Were you not concerned you’d be found out?’ he asked.
    ‘Who cared? I was leaving anyway.’
    He glanced at McVicar to make sure he had caught it all, then said, ‘Lex didn’t know you were going to Majorca?’
    ‘No one knew.’
    ‘Not even Patsy?’
    Maggie lowered her gaze.
    ‘Was Patsy going to travel with you?’
    ‘She’s meeting me out there.’
    ‘Were you going to tell Sa?’
    ‘Eventually.’ She sniffed. ‘When things settled down.’
    ‘What sort of things?’
    Maggie’s gaze flickered to the grate.
    Gilchrist glanced at McVicar. ‘I want you to be careful how you answer this, Maggie.’
    Maggie stared at him, as if not understanding. ‘Do I need a lawyer?’
    ‘That’s your prerogative.’
    ‘But I didn’t do anything.’
    Therein lies the problem, Gilchrist wanted to say. ‘Who stashed the bamboo staves under Lex Garvie’s floor?’ he asked.
    ‘Sa did. She thought no one would find them there. And she had a house key. From when she and Lex were close.’
    ‘And Lex never knew?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘How long had you known about Sa?’ he asked.
    Maggie’s gaze darted to the grate once more, and Gilchrist made a mental note to have the ashes tested for traces of bamboo shavings. ‘We met after she came up from England. We were no more than ten or eleven at the time. But it seems as if I’ve known her for ever,’ she whispered.
    ‘You should have come forward,’ he said.
    Maggie seemed to stare through him, as if his eyes were portals through which she could read the memories of her past. ‘Sa had no one to talk to. She was lonely. She used to tell me things she told nobody else.’ She giggled then, and the pitch of her voice rose. ‘Just the two of us, you know. Me and Sa. It’s always been me and Sa. We were close. Really close. We used to keep pets. When we were little girls. Rabbits and guinea pigs and mice. White mice. Lots of mice. I liked the mice. And cats. We used to feed the mice to the cats.’ She giggled again, a high-pitched sound, like a little girl, then sadness glazed her eyes. ‘They never lived long, the cats. Or the rabbits. They always ended up dead. I used to blame Alex. Or the other boys. But it wasn’t them. Sa told me. That was our secret,’ she whispered. ‘Me and Sa. It was our secret.’

CHAPTER 35
     
    ‘Can I drive you home, Andy?’
    ‘No thanks, sir. I’ll walk.’
    ‘To Crail?’
    Gilchrist shook his head. ‘To see a friend.’
    ‘Local?’
    ‘Fairly close.’
    ‘Well, in that case, if you don’t mind, I’d like to walk with you.’
    For some meteorological reason, the snow had failed to reach the town. The streets glittered with frost as if the cobblestones were riddled with gems. McVicar insisted on covering Gilchrist’s shoulders with a tartan woollen blanket he kept folded in the boot. When Gilchrist pulled it around him, he caught the faintest smell of perfume.
    ‘Never know when you’re going to need it.’
    ‘Thank you, sir.’
    Normally, McVicar strode with military-like authority, but he paid deference to Gilchrist’s wounds and eased along beside him.
    ‘This friend of yours, Andy. Anyone I know?’
    ‘Beth Anderson.’
    McVicar seemed to lose his stride for a brief second, then said, ‘Wasn’t she the lady who was—’
    ‘Afraid so.’
    ‘Of course, Andy. Of course. Now I understand.’ He paused. ‘Don’t know if anyone told you, but they arrested a young man earlier this evening. Turns out he