The Loch

by Heather Atkinson

  “Tell them to get over to Hannah’s house quickly. Amelia said she did something to her mum. She…she might be dead.”

  “Jesus Christ,” he said, pulling Amelia out of the room with him and down the stairs.

  “Get off me you pervert,” she snapped at him, her fight returning. “Or I’ll tell everyone you like tying up teenagers and molesting them.”

  “Shut up you mad little bitch,” he said, forcing her to her knees, holding her bound hands with one hand as he picked up the phone in the hallway with the other and called DI Stewart. He’d called him that often he knew his number off by heart.

  “Help, help,” Amelia screamed when Stewart’s voice echoed over the line. “I’ve been captured by a pervert, Mike Miller.”

  “Shut your mouth,” Mike told her. “Yeah Stewart, it’s me. I’ve got the Colonel’s accomplice. It’s Amelia McNair.”

  “What?” he shrieked.

  “She attacked Isla with a knife and stabbed her in the arm. I managed to stop her and I’ve got her right here at the cottage. You need to send someone to Hannah’s house. She told Isla she did something to her mother.”

  “Bloody hell. On our way. I’ll send ambulances to your house and the McNair home too.”

  “Thanks,” said Mike, hanging up, ignoring Amelia’s shouts and yells. He was surprised by how calm he felt, although a cold, hard rage thumped inside him over what she’d done to Isla. It didn’t matter that Amelia was a sixteen year old girl. In his book she was as bad as the Colonel.

  The door banged open and Ross burst in.

  “Mike, what the hell are you doing?” he cried.

  “Help, he’s gone mad,” wailed Amelia. “He’s the Colonel’s accomplice. I came round just when he was attacking Isla. I tried to stop him but he’s too strong.”

  “She’s lying Ross,” said Mike. “She’s the accomplice. I’ve called Stewart, he’s on his way.”

  Ross looked from one to the other, not knowing what to believe. “Isla?” he called, stepping inside the cottage and skirting round them both. “Isla?”

  “He planted her clothes,” said Amelia. “It was easy for him living here. It was all a pretence.”

  “Oh yeah?” retorted Mike. “If you hadn’t noticed my feet aren’t size four.”

  “You had someone helping you.”

  “Oh yeah, the accomplice’s accomplice? Have you any idea how dumb that sounds?”

  “Isla, where are you?” cried Ross, charging upstairs. He came to a halt when she appeared at the top of the stairs, cradling her injured arm. “Thank God,” he breathed.

  “Mike’s telling the truth,” she told her brother. “It is Amelia.”

  Ross looked back down the stairs at Mike, who stared up at him grimly, knowing he’d believed Amelia over him.

  “You can’t do anything to me,” spat Amelia, spitting and writhing like a wildcat. “I’m only sixteen. The Colonel told me I can’t be prosecuted.”

  “He lied,” said Ross. “In Scotland anyone over the age of twelve can be prosecuted in court for a serious crime and it doesn’t get any more serious than this.”

  “No,” she breathed. “That’s not true.”

  “Aye it is. You should have looked it up on the internet. Aren’t you teenagers always on your phones?”

  She screamed and fought with even more ferocity but Mike easily held her.

  “Come and sit down,” said Ross, gently wrapping an arm around Isla’s waist and helping her down the stairs. She glowered at Amelia as she passed her by, who suddenly looked remorseful.

  “Aunty Isla, help me.”

  Isla ignored her, pausing to squeeze Mike’s arm. “Thank you for saving me again.”

  “Like I said, anytime for you honey.”

  “Yes, thank you Mike,” said Ross.

  Mike just looked back at him coldly, hurt by how easily he’d disbelieved him. Ross’s cheeks reddened as he followed his sister into the sitting room, closing the door behind them.

  “Finally, the cavalry,” said Mike when Stewart’s car screeched to a halt outside ten minutes later, followed by an ambulance.

  The inspector burst in with the ever-faithful Wheeler and more officers.

  “He attacked me,” were Amelia’s first words. “He’s a pervert who likes teenage girls.”

  “You lying little cow,” yelled Mike.

  “Cuff her,” Stewart told his officers, nodding at Amelia.

  “I haven’t done anything,” she screamed.

  “My officers found your mother unconscious in your home after having her head bashed in.”

  “God,” said Mike. “Is she okay?”

  “That remains to be seen. Where’s Isla?”

  “In the sitting room.”

  “This way,” he told the paramedics.

  They walked in to find Isla slumped on the couch, head bowed, Ross sat beside her.

  “Isla, where are you hurt?” Stewart asked her.

  “Just my arm. Amelia attacked me with a knife.”

  “So I believe. Can the paramedics check you over?”

  She nodded and held out her arm. “Hannah?” she said as one of the paramedics began to tend to her wound.

  “My officers found her,” replied Stewart. “She’s alive.”

  “Had she stabbed her too?”

  “No. She hit her over the head with a rolling pin.”

  “Will she be okay?”

  “I’m waiting for an update from the hospital.”

  “God,” breathed Isla, a tear rolling down her cheek. “She’s the Colonel’s accomplice. He told her about her mum’s affair with Alex Shaw. He made out he was the only adult who was telling her the truth and not treating her like a child. He played on her insecurities until she was willing to do anything he said.”

  “Not surprising. He is a manipulative personality.”

  “She knew that he’d taken me and her mum. She knew and she didn’t say a word.”

  “We’ll have to assess her mental state before proceeding any further,” said Stewart. “She could have a mental illness that hasn’t been spotted all these years.”

  Isla shook her head. “She knew exactly what she was doing.”

  “You need to go to hospital for a few stitches,” the paramedic told her.

  “No please,” she said, starting to cry. “I’ve only just got home.”

  “You don’t need to stay in, just a quick trip to A&E. You’ll be back before you know it. But it’s a deep wound and it won’t heal properly without stitches.”

  “You need to do this honey,” said Mike. “It won’t take long.”

  “Mike can go with you in the ambulance and I can follow in the Land Rover,” said Ross. “Then I can bring you both home as soon as it’s done.”

  “My officers need to examine the crime scene here,” said Stewart. “You’re probably best keeping out of the way for that.”

  “It’s for the best sweetheart,” said Mike when she still appeared reticent.

  She just sighed and nodded. “Let’s go then. The sooner we leave the sooner we can get back.”

  “I’ll take your statement at the hospital,” Stewart told her.

  She just nodded again, the essence of misery as she was led out to the waiting ambulance. This time she didn’t need a stretcher and she sat in the back with Mike while Ross hurried to the Land Rover.

  Stewart met up with them at the hospital. Once her arm had been stitched Isla gave him her statement in a slow, halting voice, keeping her gaze on her hands as she spoke.

  “Any word on Hannah?” she said when she’d finished.

  “They’re operating. She was brought in with bleeding on the brain.”

  “Will she survive?”

  “I really can’t say Isla, I’m sorry.”

  “Mike,” she said, turning her attention to him. “We have to see Will, he’s going to be in bits.”

  “He’s got a lot of family around him, so maybe you should leave it for now,” said Stewart gent
ly. “He’s got plenty of support, I promise and they’re all trying to come to terms with the fact that Amelia was responsible. Her grandfather is at the station with her.”

  “What will happen to her?” said Mike.

  “We’re still awaiting psychiatric assessment but in my opinion she will be prosecuted.”

  “Can we go back to the cottage yet?”

  “Yes, the scene examiners have finished. It’s over Isla, they’re both in custody. You can relax now.”

  But Isla knew it wasn’t over, not by a long way. She would be dealing with the fallout of this for a long time.

  CHAPTER 20

  After having her arm stitched up, Isla was given a course of antibiotics then discharged from the hospital. Ross drove her and Mike back to the cottage, Isla unable to believe she’d made this trip twice in one day.

  “Oh hell,” said Ross as they approached the turn off for the cottage. “More bloody reporters.”

  However they’d learned their lesson after last time and stood aside to allow the car to proceed down the driveway unhindered, although they did raise their cameras to take photographs of them through the windows. Ross drove to the front of the house so they were out of sight.

  “Do you want a coffee or something to eat?” Mike asked Isla as he helped her off with her coat in the hallway.

  “No thanks. I just want to go to bed.”

  “You need to keep your strength up.”

  “I’m fine,” she said curtly before heading upstairs. “I’ll be in the spare room,” she added before vanishing at the top of the stairs, leaving Mike and Ross standing awkwardly together.

  “Well I don’t know about you,” said Mike. “But I could use a whisky.”

  He spoke without looking Ross’s way, still annoyed that he’d believed Amelia over him.

  “Mike, listen,” said Ross, following him into the sitting room.

  “I don’t want to hear it,” said Mike, pouring himself a whisky and knocking it back.

  “We have to clear the air, for Isla’s sake at least. Just hear me out.”

  “Get on with it then.”

  “I didn’t know what to think,” he began. “I had a massive shock when I walked through the front door to find you’d tied up Amelia.”

  “I can understand that but you believed her over me.”

  “It’s been so crazy lately and Amelia’s story did sound plausible, even you have to admit that.”

  Mike slammed his glass down on the table. “It sounded plausible that I attacked Isla? What fucking planet are you on?”

  “I mean that you live here and it would have been easy for you to plant her clothes…”

  He didn’t get to finish the sentence because Mike grabbed him by the front of the shirt and slammed him back against the wall. “How fucking dare you? All that nearly drove me out of my mind, which was the Colonel’s plan all along.”

  “I’ve known Amelia since she was born and….”

  “And I’m just a stranger who came along eighteen months ago.”

  Ross nodded and looked down at the floor. “Yeah.”

  “Haven’t you learnt yet that how long you know someone means nothing?”

  “I know, I’m sorry but Amelia’s just a young girl and she was so convincing.”

  “Because she’s a psychopath.”

  “I quickly realised that.”

  “Only after suspecting me of the worst. I could never hurt a single hair on Isla’s head,” he said, welling up with emotion.

  “I know that. Can you forgive me?”

  Mike stared at him hard before nodding. “Yeah, for Isla’s sake.”

  “Thanks Mike, I appreciate that.”

  But Mike knew there would always be a distance between them from now on. They would get along for Isla but things could never be the same again.

  Stewart regarded the Colonel with his sternest look, who appeared as calm and dapper as ever, his incarceration seeming to have had little effect on him.

  “We’ve caught your accomplice.”

  “Really?” he smiled. “Do tell.”

  “Amelia tried to kill her mother. She nearly succeeded too, Hannah’s currently in hospital with bleeding on the brain. Then she attacked Isla Campbell with a knife but once again Mike came to the rescue and overpowered her. Your collection is incomplete Colonel and will forever remain so.”

  “Oh well, you can’t win them all,” he said breezily.

  “Now I know why you were so offended when I asked if you were in a personal relationship with your accomplice.”

  “Yes. A paedophile I am not thank you very much.”

  “You corrupted a child and got her to do your dirty work.”

  “I did no such thing. I merely spotted that she was a deeply unhappy girl. Once again only I managed to work that one out.”

  “How did you brainwash her to do your bidding?”

  “Brainwash?” he chuckled. “My dear boy, what makes you think I brainwashed her?”

  “Because she was willing to kill her mother and godmother for you.”

  “God bless her heart,” he said fondly. He rolled his eyes when Stewart pursed his lips. “If you must know, I just became a friend to her. At first she thought me some crusty old fossil. Anyone over the age of twenty five is old when you’re that age. When I told her about her mother’s affair I realised I’d only confirmed what she already knew. She opened up to me, I became her confidant. She certainly didn’t want any of her friends knowing what was happening at home, teenagers can be very snobbish that way. I persuaded her to leave Isla’s clothes around the cottage by convincing her it was a joke. Poor bored, depressed Amelia jumped at the chance for a bit of excitement. It was easy for her to sneak out of her room. As a teenager her parents rarely intruded into her personal space. She climbed out of her window at night and snuck through the trees behind her house to the main road where I picked her up in the car. Will and Hannah didn’t have a clue. If only you’d looked at the footage from the cameras at the McNair home you would have seen her leaving and you might have put two and two together. But you only looked at it around the time Hannah disappeared. Very shoddy work Inspector.”

  His amused chuckle made Stewart want to batter him over the head with his chair.

  “It was Amelia’s idea to wet Isla’s articles of clothing before planting them,” continued the Colonel. “So everyone would continue to think she was in the loch, the clever girl.”

  “Didn’t she object to you abducting her godmother?”

  “No. She found it entertaining. I knew the window in the spare bedroom had a faulty catch and could be opened from the outside by sliding a credit card between the panes and flipping the catch. Amelia’s an athletic girl, she enjoys her sports, so it was a simple thing for her to propel herself up to the first floor windowsill by standing on the ground floor window ledge. I trained her to use night vision goggles, so she could move about the woods easily. She took to it like a duck to water. I admit, I enjoyed having someone to train again. Reminded me of the old days,” he said wistfully.

  “We found the RF signal detector in your house that I guess you used to detect the hidden cameras.”

  “Yes. In the future you really should use cameras that work off multiple frequencies that change rapidly, to avoid detection.”

  “Thanks for the tip,” he said flatly.

  “I showed Amelia how to use it. It turns out she is really very good at covert surveillance.”

  “How wonderful. Amelia was the one who mimicked Isla’s voice?”

  “Well it certainly wasn’t me,” he said cheerfully. “I drove Amelia out there, putting a fake licence plate on my car first of course. I parked in the lay-by on the road behind the woods and I would walk with her through the trees to the cottage. I didn’t want her getting lost. When she’d done we met up again and I drove her home.”

  Stewart felt foolish that he’d felt such fear watching that phantom image on the computer screen when all along it had
been an unbalanced teenage girl. That was what happened when he let his demons get the better of him. Perhaps he should book an appointment with the counsellor he’d recommended to Mike for Isla? It was time he unburdened himself. “We never found any trace of you in those woods.”

  “Well of course not,” smiled the Colonel. “Because I didn’t allow you to find any. I am a professional you know.”

  “Did Amelia know you abducted her mother?”

  “She didn’t know I was going to do it but of course she put two and two together. She said she deserved it.”

  “Did she plant Hannah’s coat in the back garden?”

  “Naturally as I was out with the search party at Loch Long. Really, I thought you were a detective.”

  “Just get on with it.”

  “It was easy for her to sneak out of her grandparent’s bungalow and retrieve the coat from her house. I’d already given it to her, so she could plant it when it was convenient. I did specify after dark but these young girls are so impulsive. She told me she just missed her dad returning home, she watched him discover the coat from the trees at the back of the house.”

  “And the social media profile? Christopher Nye?”

  “I’ve always been rather flippant about social media but when Amelia showed me the page Mike had set up about Isla’s disappearance I couldn’t resist the opportunity to taunt him a little more. She was the one who set up the profile for me. I got the name from an old army buddy who was killed during manoeuvres.”

  “Did anything inappropriate happen between you and Amelia McNair?”

  “No it bloody well did not you rancid pervert,” he retorted. “I do not take advantage of young girls.”

  “But that’s exactly what you did Victor. You saw she was depressed and needed help but instead of getting her that help you used her in your sick game. That is abuse and it will be added onto your already very long list of charges.”

  “I didn’t abuse her,” he positively snarled. “You are not tainting me with that brush.”

  “So you’re fine with being labelled a serial killer but not with taking advantage of a teenage girl?”

  “Quite right. The two are entirely different things.” His eyes sparkled. “Do you know the press have nicknamed me The Collector? I think that’s rather wonderful. No one will forget it once they’ve heard it.”