And doubtless Julie and Janey would want to visit Patti again if their mother remained in custody. Perhaps she would let Ross take them next time because, in addition to the recent killings and family revelations, this was taking its toll, and Ally was beginning to feel extremely stressed.
Ally was glad to get home and offload the girls, who went straight up to their bedroom. There was no sign of Wendy. And Ross was very pleased to see her and to inform her that Ebony was now much better.
‘How did the visit go?’ he asked Ally.
Ally gave him a blow-by-blow account of their visit to the detention centre. ‘Patti seemed convinced that she’d be releasedonce we found this woman who supposedly held the door open for her, but I doubt that we’ll find her, and how else could she prove her innocence?’
‘If she’s innocent,’ Ross reminded her.
Ally thought for a moment. ‘You know what? She’s really done nothing to help herself, but somehow, I have a strange feeling that she is.’
Ally was glad of a quiet evening and an early night. She felt much better in the morning but worried about any scenes at breakfast time. However, Wendy came downstairs early and had gone, presumably down to the Craigmonie, before the girls emerged at half past nine. Wendy only asked, ‘How did the visit go yesterday?’ and nodded when Ally said, ‘OK.’
Ross was going home for twenty-four hours to oversee guests’ comings and goings and to check on the cleaning company he employed to service the accommodation. As he kissed her goodbye, he said to Ally, ‘Be sure to call me if you have any problems whatsoever and I’ll be back like a shot!’
Even Morag was amenable this morning, although she complained, as usual, about the state of Julie and Janey’s bedroom. ‘They’ve never been taught to hang up their clothes,’ she moaned, ‘or to pick their wet towels up from the bathroom floor!’ She then, also as usual, tut-tutted a little and took an enormous gulp of tea. She was particularly pleased that Patti was in prison because that was one less room to do. ‘How could she not be guilty,’ she asked Ally, ‘when she asked poor Angus to get her a gun?’
After she’d gone and Ally had tidied up downstairs, she took Flora for a walk to Loch Soular. She saw no one, and there didn’t seem to be any police presence in the area either. Fortunately, the media had never bothered to venture this far but appeared to be concentrating on the road between the malthouse, the castle and the village.
After she made a lunchtime sandwich, she rang Linda.
‘Ally, come down and have a glass of wine and tell me everything that’s going on,’ Linda said. ‘I’ve just made a carrot-and-ginger cake that needs to be tested!’
‘Put like that, how could I refuse?’ Ally asked.
She took Flora with her because Linda always gave her a home-made cheese biscuit, which the dog loved.
After Flora had devoured her biscuit and Ally had sat down, Linda produced a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon and poured out two very generous measures. ‘You look like you need this,’ she said as she sliced the carrot-and-ginger cake.
‘Believe me, I do!’ Ally agreed as she clinked glasses with her friend.
‘Tell me all,’ Linda said, ‘although I did hear that the Armstrong wife had been arrested.’
Ally updated her and said how concerned she was about Wendy. ‘I mean the poor woman’s lost her brother and her husband, been told that her husband was having an affair with Patti, and is now probably going to be responsible for the two girls.’
‘Do you think then that this Pattididkill her husband?’ Linda asked.
‘I honestly don’t know,’ Ally admitted, ‘but I feel pretty sure that she didn’t kill her brother-in-law.’
‘So there could be another killer on the loose then?’
‘I suppose it’spossible,’ Ally said. ‘The thing is that I can’t imagine who would want to kill poor old Greg, who wasn’t even a competitor! Not that I think any of the competitors had much to do with any of this.’
‘What about Angus Morrison?’ Linda asked, handing a plate with a large slice of cake on it to Ally.
‘If it wasn’t Patti, then I suppose it had to be Angus. Perhaps he offered to do it to save her life – I mean he’s nearing the end of his, and he has no children to worry about,’ Ally suggested. ‘Oh, wow, this cake is just delicious! How am I ever going to lose weight with you around?’
‘Ally, I think you have lost weight, probably due to all this. Have you weighed yourself recently?’
Ally shook her head. ‘I honestly haven’t had time.’
‘Well, you look slimmer, so get that cake down you and let me fill up your wine glass!’
Ally succumbed happily.
‘So you’ve no idea if she’s guilty or not?’ Linda asked as she topped up the glasses.
Ally sighed and shrugged. ‘Honestly, I haven’t a damn clue. But Amir, the detective inspector, told me that Patti said her husband, Archie, had been very abusive and controlling. She was afraid of him, and she planned to kill him. She even asked Angus to make the gun cabinet look as if it had been broken into, and to leave the gun in some appointed place in the woods above the field.’
