‘And I’ll tell you why,’ Morag continued. ‘It was the earl himself – God bless his soul! – who remembered seein’ Micky just leavin’ the tent at the very moment we all heard that shot.’
‘That must be such a relief,’ Ally said. But all she could think of at the moment was that the family were about to appear in the dining room, and had they been told of this yet? And how would they be likely to react? Would Amir put in an appearance to inform them in person?
As she heard her guests going into the dining room, Ally took a deep breath, pasted a smile on her face and went in to greet them, as she always did.
‘Good morning, Ally,’ they chorused as usual.
‘I hope you’ve all slept well,’ Ally said, beginning to relax.
‘Oh yes,’ said Wendy, looking around at the others for confirmation. They all nodded in agreement.
‘Except I heard a funny noise in our bathroom again when I woke in the night,’ Julie said.
Ally’s spirits plummeted. She knew she shouldn’t reallybelieve in her wretched ghost, but it had to be said that he’d been right so far.
‘I expect you were just dreaming, darling,’ Patti said soothingly.
‘No, I wasn’t,’ protested Julie. ‘It sounded like some kind of wailing.’
‘Probably air in the pipes,’ Wendy said.
Oh, how true that is!thought Ally.
Nevertheless, she could see they were all quite upbeat, and no one seemed aware of Micky’s release.
As Ally went back to cooking and Morag headed upstairs to do the rooms, Amir arrived.
‘Don’t let me interfere with breakfasts,’ he said to Ally as she ushered him into the kitchen. ‘I need to have a word with your guests, but not until they’ve finished eating.’ He pulled out a chair and sat at the far end of the kitchen table, removing files and phones from his briefcase.
He gave a slight smile and, for the umpteenth time, Ally thought what a good-looking man he was. She plated up breakfasts and carried them next door.
‘What’s that police car doing out there?’ Greg asked with a frown.
‘Oh, I expect they want to update you on whatever’s happened,’ Ally said casually, making a rapid escape before he could ask anything else.
Back in the kitchen, Amir had poured himself a cup of tea from Ally’s pot. ‘I hope you don’t mind?’ he asked, pointing politely at his cup.
‘Of course I don’t mind! Would you like something to eat?’ Ally asked.
Amir shook his head. ‘No, thank you.’ He took a sip of tea. ‘We’ve had a suspect in for questioning,’ he said, ‘but we’ve had to let him go, due to the fact he now has an alibi. A witness has come forward.’
‘Micky McConnachie?’ Ally said.
Amir looked surprised. ‘You knew?’
‘Have you forgotten that his mother is my cleaning lady? And that it was on the local news?’
‘Of course!’ Amir shook his head. ‘I should have remembered.’
‘Furthermore, Hamish – the earl – called in yesterday afternoon. When I told him about Micky’s arrest, he told me he’d seen Micky at the time of the shooting, and he left here immediately,’ Ally said.
‘So you knew before I did,’ Amir said with a smile. Then he looked serious again. ‘You know the earl much better than I do, and I know I’ve asked you this before, but would you say he was trustworthy?’
‘I certainly would,’ Ally replied firmly.
‘Because the earl, as you know, is also a suspect, so I can’t altogether rule out some sort of collusion between the two of them. The two of them were standing just outside the tent, and we’ve had no witnesses come forward yet to confirm this.’
‘Meaning that you think the two of them could have been in this together?’ Ally asked, realising that she hadn’t thought of that possibility. But the whole idea was quite preposterous!
