‘Likewhat?’ Ally was agog.
‘I’m too ashamed to tell you!’ The girl was becoming almost incoherent again. ‘Just said it was something to do with my dad. And that he’d overheard her talking with Uncle Angus.’
Ally could scarcely believe what she was hearing. ‘Julie,’ she said gently, ‘you don’t need to tell me, but you need to tell this to the police! It could be important!’
‘He said, “I shouldn’t have told you that,” and said I wasn’t to tell anyone,’ Julie muttered.
Ally shook her head in despair. ‘You must tell the police! Would you like me to call Detective Inspector Kandahar right now?’
Julie shrugged. ‘I don’t want to get Tom, or Mom, into trouble,’ she muttered.
‘You don’t want to get Tom intotrouble?’ Ally exclaimed. ‘Are you serious, Julie? This guy might well have withheld information from the police.’
‘I guess so,’ Julie admitted sadly. ‘But it was a lie. I know it was a lie!’
‘I’m phoning right now,’ Ally said, picking up her phone. ‘And please don’t tell your mother what you’ve just told me!’
‘I can’t…’ Julie stood up, looking very dejected as she made her way towards the door.
‘Promisethat you make no mention of this to anyone until you talk to the detective?’ Ally called out. ‘Promise?’
Julie shrugged. ‘OK, OK, if you think it’s important.’
‘I think it’sveryimportant,’ Ally said.
SEVENTEEN
‘I’m back in Glasgow,’ Amir said, ‘but I can be there in the morning, around ten o’clock. How’s that?’
‘That’s fine,’ Ally replied. ‘I don’t think any of them are going anywhere.’
‘And you can’t tell me what you’ve discovered?’
‘Julie won’t tell me,’ Ally said. ‘But I think it could be important.’
‘I’ll be with you in the morning,’ he said.
Ally poured a glass of wine. Then she worried whether she’d overreacted. After all, Tom might well have just overheard Angus referring to Patti’s misspent youth, which had nothing at all to do with this case. She wished Ross was here.
Ross had gone home to cut the grass and reply to emails, and he returned at around six o’clock. He’d run out of petrol for the mower, the guests in the barn had spied a rat scuttling past the kitchen door and he’d had a cancelled booking. Ross was not a particularly happy man.
‘How was your day?’ he asked gloomily as Ally poured him a glass of wine.
‘You would not believe,’ she said.
‘Try me,’ he said.
So she told him about the events of the afternoon.
‘Dear Lord!’ he exclaimed. ‘Whatever next? Where are they all?’
‘They’re all in the sitting room now, except Patti. She’s still up in her room.’
‘Your friend Amir needs to be doing some interrogating tomorrow. Do you think she’ll keep her promise not to tell her mother?’
‘I hope so. I mean, Tom might just have overheard something quite trivial, and I’m going to feel like an idiot.’
‘Yes, but it was a front-page story, and the police were questioning everyone, so why didn’t he come forward if he’d overheard something relevant?’ Ross scratched his head.
