Hamish Macbeth - Death Of A Dreamer Part 9

"Aye, any time. I'm long retired. Sad thing about her death."

"I'll leave now," said Hamish, "and be with you in just under an hour."

The Cullens' house was a small, granite Victorian villa. Hamish rang the bell, and an old stooped man answered the door.

"Mr. Cullen?"

"That's me. Come ben."

The living room into which Mr. Cullen ushered Hamish was dark and cold and strangely barren. No pictures, photographs, or books. A square table with upright chairs stood by the window. There was an armchair next to the two-bar electric fire. The carpet was old and faded.

"Sit down," said Mr. Cullen, indicating a chair at the table. He saw Hamish looking around and said, "The wife died last year. I got rid of nearly everything. All those things did was to remind me of her, and I was tired of grieving. How can I help you?"

"You fostered Effie Garrard?"

"Yes, that's right. She was twelve at the time. We couldn't cope. We had to get rid of her after a year."

"Why was that?"

"She was a congenital liar. She walked into a police station and said my wife was beating her and I was s.e.xually abusing her. Oh, the scandal. Thank G.o.d it didn't get into the papers. The police medical examiner found she was still a virgin and hadn't a mark on her. We couldn't bear to have her in the house after that."

"Do you know where she went?"

"No, and I didn't want to know."

"What was the name of the orphanage you got her from?"

"It wasn't an orphanage. We got her through the social services."

"Did you think Effie had mental troubles?"

"To be frank, I'm surprised she killed herself. I always thought she would kill someone."

"Why?"

"At the beginning, my wife doted on Effie. She wasn't a pretty child, but seemed cute and clever. Then my wife began to get vomiting attacks. One day I thought I saw Effie put something in my wife's tea. I told her and said she wasn't to eat or drink anything that Effie had been near. She protested but did as I said, and the attacks stopped. Then there was the s.e.xual abuse business. That was enough."

"What about her real parents?"

"I remember being told the mother was dead and the father was an abusive drunk, which is why the girls had been taken away from him."

Hamish thanked him and left. He decided it would be a good idea to visit Caro, but when he arrived at the police station, it was to find Archie Macleod, the fisherman, waiting for him.

"What brings you?" asked Hamish. "Just a chat?"

"No. Now, I know it's been going around that you don't like gossip..."

"I've just learned the Currie sisters have been warning everyone off For heaven's sake, tell everyone I'm interested in every bit of gossip. I couldnae do my job otherwise. Come in and sit down and tell me what you know."

Archie went into the kitchen, patted Lugs, eyed Sonsie warily, and sat down. "I heard tell you're interested in a wee bit o' gossip now. It's like this. Henry, the gamekeeper, was up on the hill the evening Effie we suppose disappeared. He had his binoculars to his eyes, scanning for poachers. He saw Jock going into Effie's cottage. A few minutes later, he came out. You know how sound carries up on the moors. He couldn't hear the words, but Jock was shouting and he looked to be in a right rage.

"Then half an hour later, that wee blonde woman that was married to Jock turned up. Henry was curious because we all knew about Effie making up all that stuff about her engagement and pregnancy. Mrs. Fleming wasn't allowed in, but she stood on the doorstep until Effie slammed the door in her face. Henry was real interested in the show, so he kept his gla.s.ses on the cottage. He was just losing interest when he saw another wee woman drive up. At first, he thought he was seeing things because she looked a good bit like Effie. Well, that woman didn't reappear after Effie let her in, so Henry got bored and went back to work."

"Thanks, Archie. I'd better see the sister and the ex-wife again. I mean, for one thing, the sister was supposed to have arrived after Effie's death. Surely it couldn't have been her. The police contacted her in Brighton."

After Archie had left, Hamish phoned Jimmy Anderson on his mobile. "Jimmy," said Hamish, "could you do me a favour and find out if the police contacted Caro Garrard, Effie's sister, or if she got in touch with them?"

"Trying to turn a suicide into a murder?"

"Just checking everything. Where are you?"

"Walking into police headquarters. I'll call you back." After a quarter of an hour, Jimmy phoned. "Caro Garrard phoned the police at Strathbane and said she was Effie's sister. That was after the death appeared in the newspapers. She said she was in Brighton and would be travelling up."

Hamish thanked him and then walked out of the police station and along to the schoolhouse, where Matdiew Campbell, the reporter, lived with his wife, Freda.

Matthew and Freda gave him a warm welcome. "It's a duty call," said Hamish. "Did the story about Effie Garrard's death get into the nationals?"

"No," said Matthew. "Well, there was a bit in the Glasgow editions, but nothing got south. Why?"

"Can't tell you at the moment, but I think I'm on to something."

"If it's a good story, don't keep me in the dark, Hamish."

"You'll be the first to know."

Hamish drove up to Effie's cottage, his brain in a turmoil. Jock had given the impression that he and Effie had parted amicably. And the sister, Caro? She could easily have phoned from somewhere near Lochdubh after visiting Effie and pretended she was still in Brighton. But if she were guilty of anything, why would she have pressed him to find out if her sister had been murdered?

She answered the door to him. The room looked more welcoming in the glow of several oil lamps than when he had last visited it.

Hamish was momentarily diverted. "Where did you get the lamps?" he asked. "I thought they were hard to come by now."

"I got them at an auction in Inverness. They didn't cost much."

"You were lucky. When electricity came to the Highlands, the Hydro Electric Board led people to believe that electricity was going to be cheap. So they got rid of all the old oil lamps, and now collectors are looking for them. Isn't the electricity working?"

"It's supplied here by a generator. I like the light from oil lamps."

She probably had antifreeze for the generator, thought Hamish. He removed his peaked cap, sat down at the table, and ran his long fingers through his fiery red hair. "I have a problem," he said.

Caro sat down next to him. She was wearing a long Indian gown of crushed velvet decorated with litde pieces of sparkling mirror. Her perfume smelled like sandal-wood.

"What problem?"

"You were seen the evening afore Effie disappeared calling here at the cottage. Henry, the gamekeeper, was up on the hill scanning the area with a pair of binoculars looking for poachers, and he saw you arrive."

She bent her head. "I didn't like to tell you."

"Why? If you want me to find out whether your sister was killed or not, I need every bit of information I can get. Now, let's have the truth."

She gave a little sigh and then began to speak in a low voice. "I wanted to find out whether she had been murdered, but I feared that if you knew I had called on her that evening, it would look suspicious."

"Go on."

"My foster parents were good people. They died when I was twenty-eight. I had already graduated from Glasgow School of Art and moved down to Brighton."

Hamish's hazel eyes sharpened. "Did you know Jock Fleming when you were at the college?"

She shook her head. "In Brighton, I began to build up a reputation for myself as an artist. Vogue did an article on Brighton, and I was featured in the magazine. Two days later, Effie turned up. I was delighted to see her. She said she had no money and nowhere to go, and so I said she could live with me. I was dating another artist and hoped to become engaged to him. He told me Effie was bothering him, phoning him up, trying to see him. I didn't want to believe him because I was so thrilled to have found my sister. Then one day he told me he had gone to the police to get an injunction taken out against her to stop her from stalking him. I confronted Effie, who burst into tears. She showed me letters from him, pa.s.sionate love letters. I believed Effie. I refused to see the man again. The next thing I knew she was up in court for breaking the injunction. It all came out. She had forged the letters. I was going to throw her out, but she had a nervous breakdown.

"When she recovered, she was so contrite and so miserable. She said she'd always wanted to go back to Scotland, and I saw a way of getting her out of my hair. I was well-off. My foster parents had left me a great deal of money in their will. I saw a way of still caring for Effie but getting her out of Brighton. I told her if she found a cheap place in Scotland, I would buy it for her. So she found this cottage, and I paid. Then she said she could sell some of my small paintings and pottery. I agreed because I thought it would give her something to do.

"I was having an exhibition in Brighton. A visitor said he had seen similar work to mine in the Highlands but by Effie Garrard, not Caro. I pressed him for details, and that is how I found that Effie had been pa.s.sing my work ofif as her own. As soon as the exhibition was over, I drove up here."

Hamish interrupted her. "But you told me twice that you did not know Effie was pretending that your work was hers!"

"I lied. There was still something in me that wanted to protect her. I told her I was having nothing more to do with her, that she was on her own. She began to cry. But I was determined this time to get rid of her. I said I would come in the morning and pick up my stuff and then collect the rest from wherever she had tried to sell it.

"Then I opened the door to leave. There was a botde of wine on the step with a note attached to it. I yelled, 'Message for you,' and went to my car. She ran out of the house and read the note and then ran up to the car and hammered on the window. She said I could go to h.e.l.l because some local artist, Jock Fleming, was in love with her and they were going to be married. She was elated, triumphant.

"I said, "I don't know how you did it, Effie, but you probably wrote that note yourself. You're mad." And then I drove off."

"What did you do then?" asked Hamish.

"I felt sickened. I decided to motor down to Glasgow and see a few old friends and then come back up when I was feeling calmer. Then I read about her death. I immediately thought someone had murdered her. I didn't want the police to know I'd been there. I panicked. I phoned them and said I was coming up from Brighton. I used my mobile phone. And that's it. Everything I'd come to know about Effie made me think of murder. Then I learned about Jock Fleming and about how she had been lying about an engagement, a pregnancy, and how she had even gone as far as buying an engagement ring. I couldn't suspect Jock because to me it was the Brighton business all over again. I went to see Jock just to be sure and showed him a signed photograph of him she'd had on her bedside table. He said the writing was a forgery and showed me samples of his own handwriting to prove it."

She fell silent.

Hamish said, "But you must be glad she's dead."

"In a way, yes, there's relief there. But I don't want to think there's a murderer out there thinking he's got away with it. Will you have to report what I've said?"

"No, as far as the police are concerned, it's suicide, and they don't want to think about any other solution. I'll keep in touch with you. Was Effie always a bit weird?"

"No, at one time she seemed pretty normal-or as normal as we both could be with that father of ours. He would get drunk and beat us. He s.e.xually abused me and had Effie watch. Effie went numb and quiet. I couldn't bear it any longer. I was twelve years old, and Effie was eleven. I walked into the police station in Oban and told them. They had me examined and found I was telling the truth. Effie and I were taken into care by the social services. They tried to find us a home together, but we had to be split up. I never saw her again until she walked into that gallery in Brighton. I was so sorry for her, remembering the abuse we had suffered." Caro began to cry. "What a mess."

Hamish went over to the kitchen area, where he found a botde of whisky. He poured her a shot and took it back to her. "Drink that down," he said.

She took a gulp of whisky and dried her eyes with a corner of her dress. Hamish took out a clean handkerchief and handed it to her. "Use this," he said. "You'll cut your eyes on those wee bits o' gla.s.s on your frock."

Caro gave him a weak smile.

"Did Effie say anything to you about an American who had been taking her out?" asked Hamish.

"Not a word. Who is he?"

"Some chap who lives up at the hotel. He only took her out a couple of times. I'd better be on my way. I've got someone else to see."

Hamish drove down to the Sea View boarding house and asked Mrs. Dunne if Mrs. Fleming was in.

"She is that," said Mrs. Dunne, "but she's up in her room, and no gentlemen are allowed to visit ladies in their rooms. This is a respectable house."

"Chust tell her I'm here," said Hamish crossly, "and ask her to come down."

Mrs. Fleming came into the lounge, looking tired and sulky. "Whit now?" she demanded.

Hamish took out his notebook. "Sit down," he commanded. "Full name."

"Dora Fleming. Whit...?"

"Maiden name."

"Harris."

Hamish sat down opposite her. "Where are your children?"

"With ma mither."

"And what brought you to Lochdubh?"

"I thocht it was time Jock was paying a bit main"

"Right, now let's get to it. On the evening Effie Garrard disappeared, you were seen calling at her cottage."

"I never did!"

"Don't lie. You were seen. What did you talk about?"

She picked nervously at her nail varnish. "I telt her to stop bothering Jock. I told her she was right daft, making up all them stories."

"And what did she say to that?"

"She hadn't let me in. She slammed the door in my face."

The extreme Glasgow accent was leaving her voice. Did she speak in a coa.r.s.e voice because of a sort of inverted sn.o.bbery? wondered Hamish.

"And that was all that happened?"

"Swear to G.o.d."

"So why did you say nothing of this to the police?"

"I was feart they would suspect me. I thought it was murder at first, see, but when I heard it was the suicide, it was too late and the police werenae interested anyway."

"If you can think of anything eke, let me know," said Hamish.

"So she was murdered?"

"Just making enquiries."