‘She didnot!’ A furious Patti rounded on Ally. ‘You’re lying!’
‘I am not lying!’ Ally shouted back. ‘They asked my permission, and I told them it was OK as far as I was concerned, but they had to ask you. I saw Julie going upstairs!’
Patti narrowed her eyes and took a deep breath. ‘She didnotask for my permission. And I certainly would not have agreed. Not with someone clearly out to murder my family!’
At that very moment, Janey appeared with the dog.
‘Where the hell have you been?’ Patti yelled. ‘And where is your sister?’
Janey looked around guiltily. ‘She’ll be back in a moment, Mom.’
‘Why is she not with you?’ Patti asked.
‘Well, she wanted to stay on for a while,’ Janey said, looking at the floor.
‘She wanted to stay on for a while!’ Patti exclaimed in fury. ‘And where, exactly, did she want to stay on for a while?’
‘The castle,’ Janey muttered.
‘Thecastle!’ Patti glared at her. ‘What the hell were you doing at the castle?’
‘We fancied a change from Loch Soular,’ Janey said. ‘We thought it would be nice to see Uncle Angus.’
‘You’ve never shown the slightest interest in Uncle Angus,’ Patti said through her teeth. ‘I don’t suppose for one minute that it was anything to do with that over-sexed young ghillie, was it?’
‘We just bumped into him…’ Janey began.
‘I’m going right up therenow!’ She turned to Ally, who’d just shut Flora in the kitchen. ‘I’d like you to drive me up there, please.’ She hesitated. ‘If you wouldn’t mind?’
Ally nodded. ‘OK,’ she said.
Patti got herself ready very noisily, while instructing Wendy, at the top of her voice, to take Janey into the sitting room and neither of them were to move one inch until she got back with the errant Julie.
She was still breathing heavily when Ally directed her to the car, leaving by the back door, just in case any of the press might still be hanging around.
‘I’m sorry to drag you into all of this,’ Patti muttered as they drove upwards, ‘but speed is of the essence. Just wait until I find that daughter of mine!’
Ally tried hard to think of something reassuring to say. ‘She’s seventeen, Patti, and so it’s hardly unusual for her to be interested in the opposite sex – particularly as she’s been more or less incarcerated in the malthouse since you all arrived here.’ She wondered if she should add something about the problems she’d had with Carol years ago.
Patti snorted. ‘I don’t know anything about this guy, and I hold Uncle Angus entirely responsible because he must know what goes on with his staff.’
Ally sighed loudly. ‘Angus is an old man, and he can’t beeverywhere. Not only that, there’s an absolute warren of outbuildings up there, and he can’t be checking them all every five minutes. Besides, this boy might be a good-looker, but he seems decent enough, and I’m sure he wouldn’t take advantage of Julie.’
‘But she could be leadinghimon,’ Patti said.
When they approached the building which contained Angus’s office, Ally parked the car, and Patti marched inside and out again. ‘No one in there!’ she hollered.
That isn’t altogether surprising,Ally thought,as you’d hardly have a little love-in in the main office,although such liaisons did exist, of course, in all manner of public spots.
‘We need to find Angus,’ Ally said, ‘so let’s try the kennels.’
‘It’s notAngusthat’s worrying me,’ Patti snapped.
Ally bristled for a moment. ‘Angus will know the likeliest places that Tom might use to woo his girlfriends,’ she replied tersely.
‘Sorry, I wasn’t getting at you,’ Patti said with a hint of contrition. ‘I’m just worried.’
They’d glanced into several other buildings and sheds before they finally located Angus. He was having a cup of teawith Gordon Soutar, on a bench outside of Gordon’s front door.
