Ally pulled a face. ‘Yes, he did. Morag will be here in a minute, and she’sstillgoing to be upset that it wasn’t one of her sons that got the prize!’
‘Furthermore,’ Amir said, ‘I’ve now got a note of who arrived first and who arrived last in this race, but little clue as to what might have occurred in the middle.’ He sighed. ‘I just wish that the earl or someone had thought to make a note of the runners and their times of arrival, so we could get some idea who was likely to be passing the murder site and at what time.’ Amir consulted his watch. ‘OK, I’ll go and talk to your guests now before your irate cleaner arrives!’ He picked up his folder and briefcase and disappeared into the dining room at the exact moment said irate cleaner came in through the back door.
‘You wouldn’tbelieveit,’ she greeted them with a scowl as she fastened her pinny on. ‘If it wasn’t bad enough that Forby McKinnon won the bloody race, they’ve now found abody!’
‘I think we would believe it,’ Ally said calmly, ‘since it was us who found the body.’
Morag gasped. ‘They wouldn’t tell uswhoit was.’ She looked hopefully from Ally to Ross. Unable to wait for a reply, she asked, ‘Who was it then?’
‘It was Greg Watson,’ Ally said. ‘Brother-in-law of the late Archie Armstrong.’
‘Oh my God!’ Morag sat down heavily on a kitchen chair and wiped her brow. ‘You’ll have nobody left in them rooms at this rate!’
‘The thought did cross my mind,’ Ally admitted.
‘So, what was you doin’ up there on the moors anyway?’ Morag asked.
‘We were looking for him. He hadn’t returned from a walk, and it was dark.’
Morag frowned. ‘Why would he go for a walk in the dark?’ She looked genuinely puzzled.
‘It wasn’t dark when he set out,’ Ally explained patiently. ‘Now, Morag, the detective is talking to the family in the dining room at the moment, so I’d have a go at the bedrooms if I were you.’
Morag heaved herself off the chair. ‘I’ll tell yousomething else– that Forby McKinnon shouldn’t even have entered. He doesn’tneedthat bloody hundred pounds!’ She seemed to have forgotten that Ivan had also thoroughly beaten her sons.
‘Fair’s fair,’ muttered Ross as he buttered himself some toast.
‘No, it’snotfair!’ Morag ranted. ‘Like I said to you, that Forby doesn’t need that money! Himself and his dad make a bloody fortune down there with all that fishin’ and tourists and everythin’.’
‘They should have run faster then,’ Ross said under his breath with a wink at Ally. They both knew that Morag would now launch into countless reasons why they couldn’t. Ally knew for a fact that Bobby didn’t appear to ever have a job, and Micky’s wife had to work all hours so he had plenty of time off from plumbing to do his bodybuilding.
‘I know,’ she said soothingly to Morag, ‘but life isn’t always fair, is it? Best get these rooms done while the going’s good!’
Morag, with a backward scowl at Ross, mounted the stairs.
No, life isn’t fair,Ally thought,not fair at all.She thought of Archie and Greg both bringing their families over here but never going home again. And who on earth would want to kill them both? Now that there was the possibility of a blackmail note involved, how could she ever come close to finding this killer?
SIXTEEN
It was almost ten o’clock before Amir emerged from the dining room. He put his phone and his folder into his briefcase and snapped it shut. ‘I don’t think your remaining guests will set foot out of the malthouse now,’ he said to Ally. ‘They seem convinced that someone wants to annihilate their entire family.’
Ally nodded as she accompanied him to the door. ‘It’s certainly beginning to look that way,’ she agreed. ‘Although it doesn’t really make sense, does it? I mean, Archie was an unwanted competitor, but Greg…?’
‘I know,’ Amir said. ‘Now, if you should see or hear anything which might be relevant, would you let me know straight away? I’m up against a brick wall at the moment!’
‘I will,’ Ally replied, wondering if the board might help.
The only problem was that Ally didn’t have a clue as to what names to write on her Post-its! If it was only Archie, she had likely culprits amongst the bodybuilding/caber tossing contestants, but what about Greg? Where did Greg come into all of this? Did he upset one of the contestants in the fun run as they raced past? And why would he do that? Did Greg think that Micky McConnachie, for example, knew somethingrelevant? Had she got it completely wrong when she thought Greg might have killed Archie? And who could possibly have been blackmailing him?
Ally could feel a headache coming on.
Patti and Wendy appeared to have shut themselves in their respective rooms, while the girls watched TV in the sitting room. It was late morning when Julie tapped timidly on the kitchen door.
‘Would it be OK if we took Flora for a walk?’ she asked.
Ally was somewhat taken aback. ‘Well, that’s fine by me, but you must really ask your mother.’ She doubted that Patti would agree because this area was now a murder scene.
Julie rolled her eyes. ‘Mom’s in a world of her own,’ she said, just as Janey arrived at the door.
