Ally shrugged. ‘I hate to say it, but I wonder if it could be Angus? And could he really be capable of supplying Patti with a gun, knowing what she intended to do with it? And if that’s the case, would he be equally capable of clobbering someone over the head?’
Locharran came into its own that afternoon. There was a succession of gifts from kind villagers – flowers, sweets, newly baked scones, some teen magazines – all brought up and laid on the doorstep, some with messages saying “Thinking of you girls” or similar.
The family returned from The Bothy looking marginally more cheerful than when they’d left, and Ally decided it was probably best to leave them alone for now. Joel had departed, but Wendy was still around somewhere. Once she knew where they’d taken Patti, Ally decided she’d accompany the girls to visit their mother. She only hoped it would be somewhere nearer than Glasgow: Fort William or Inverness, say.
In the meantime, Ross had taken both dogs for a short walk, and Ally thought she should take the board offthe wall again because she’d had Greg at one o’clock at one time, and it was unlikely to have been him who’d killed Archie.
Was it Patti?
Patti had always been a suspect, positioned at the top, and she must now place Angus up there for sure too. Patti was still at twelve, and Angus at eleven now. But what about Tom? Was he in on this too? Ally didn’t know what to make of him but moved him from ten o’clock to one o’clock. And it was possible that Greg might have killed his brother-in-law. He couldn’t be excluded, even posthumously. But then who’d killed Greg? She moved Greg down to two o’clock. She knew she should make a new ‘clock’ for Greg’s murder, but, at that moment, she couldn’t think of any possible suspects. Perhaps it made more sense that it was one of the runners who’d come across Greg as they’d raced along. But what possible motive could any of them have? All Ally could think of was that perhaps one of them had witnessed Greg shooting at Archie. And what did the note she’d found near Greg’s body mean? Was the noteforGreg orfromhim?
Ally sighed and placed the painting back on the wall.
Amir arrived, alone, in the evening, looking exhausted.
‘We’ve charged Mrs Armstrong and taken her to Inverness for the moment,’ he told Ally and Ross, ‘but she’ll most likely be moved down to Glasgow prior to the trial.’ He paused. ‘Whenever that is. How are the daughters coping?’
‘Well, they’re devastated obviously,’ Ally replied, ‘but at least they have their aunt and their cousin here, who took them out to lunch today.’
‘Ah yes, the cousin!’ Amir rolled his eyes. ‘Enough said. Now, we can provide a counsellor, you know, in cases like this, someone who can help them through what must be a hellish time.’
‘That might be helpful,’ Ally agreed. ‘I’ll ask Wendy because she’s been very supportive. In the meantime, I thought I might offer to take the girls to see their mother, although I expect Wendy and Joel will want to do that. I trust she’s allowed visitors?’
Amir nodded. ‘In this case, of course. It looks like I’m going to be stationed here for some time the way things are going. I’ve got to find out if Watson’s death is in any way connected to Armstrong’s.’
‘Has Patti now admitted to killing her husband?’ Ally asked.
‘No. She keeps protesting her innocence, but I think she’ll open up some more. I shall find out,’ Amir said confidently.
Ally believed him. He obviously had a way of extracting information with what seemed like gentle probing.
‘I just wanted to put you in the picture, and thought I’d also have a chat with the two young ladies and their aunt, to offer them counselling if necessary. As the father of two girls, my heart really bleeds for them.’
‘They’re all in the sitting room I think,’ Ally said, leading the way through and leaving him to it. This whole episode had taken its toll on her too, and she was feeling absolutely exhausted, drained and emotional. Was it too early to go to bed at eight o’clock? She knew Ross would be watching a big football match later in the evening.
Yes, early supper, then bed.
Morag had, of course, a lot to say in the morning. ‘So his missus has been arrested for tryin’ to kill her old man! She wouldnae the first! And now maybe they’ll stop pesterin’ our boys. But I canna believe that Angus would have given her a leg-up, so to speak! You know what I mean?’
‘He hasn’t admitted to it,’ Ally reminded her. ‘All headmitted to is that Patti Armstrong asked him to get her a gun, which is why she has been arrested.’
‘Aye, well, she is his niece,’ Morag said, ‘so maybe she fed him some sob story or somethin’. Poor Angus!’
As she was speaking, the three remaining guests came down together to breakfast, looking exhausted. Julie and Janey couldn’t even face their usual scrambled eggs.
‘Just cereal and coffee, please,’ Julie said.
‘We’ve been offered counselling,’ Wendy said, ‘but we’ve turned it down.’
‘Because weknowthat Mom did not do this,’ Julie said firmly, ‘and we’re waiting for her to be released.’
‘So we don’t need any counselling,’ Janey added.
Ally hoped they were right, but it was becoming harder and harder to see how Patti couldnotbe involved.
TWENTY-THREE
Their cousin, Joel, however was still hell-bent on finding out who had killed his father. Although Ally could hardly criticise him for that, it was the way he went about it that got everyone’s backs up.
