by M C Beaton
“Och, yes,” said Hamish with a confidence he did not feel.
“I think that’s all we can do now,” said Olivia briskly. “Lachie’s is quite close. We’ll leave here at ten to nine.”
After the bodyguards had left, Olivia dialled police headquarters on her mobile to ask if they had raided the Owens place yet and if anything had been found. She listened carefully and then rang off. “They’re going through the Owens home and the church at the moment. We’ll need to wait a bit.”
Hamish took out one of his paperbacks and started to read. Olivia paced up and down.
“I don’t know how you can be so calm!” she burst out.
“The way I see it,” said Hamish, putting his book down, “is that if we can’t do anything right now, we may as well find ways to pass the time.”
“I suppose,” she said restlessly.
“I tell you what,” said Hamish. “We take that monster of a car out for a drive. It’s a grand day. May as well show you the scenery.”
Soon they were driving away from Strathbane. “I’ve never had a car like this afore,” said Hamish. “Look at all these gadgets.”
“Where are we going?”
“I thought I might show you Lochdubh.”
“You’ll be recognised.”
“I’ve an idea.” Hamish swung the car around. He drove back a little way into town and stopped outside a shop. He went in and emerged with a down-the-river hat, which after he had got in the car, he put on. Then he took the wraparound sunglasses out of his pocket and put them on as well. “No one in Lochdubh will recognise me like this,” he said.
He drove off again. “When we get to Lochdubh I’d like to take you for a walk about the place but that would be too risky.”
“The scenery’s incredible,” said Olivia. “So wild, so savage.”
“Sometimes in winter it can be very bleak,” said Hamish, “but the landscape is never the same. The changing light alters the perspective so that the mountains never look the same.”
“So much purple heather,” murmured Olivia.
“You’ll have the heather on the mountains at Loch Lomond.”
“But not like this! Miles and miles of purple flowers. And that yellow gorse. So much colour.”
The big car cruised towards Lochdubh. “I must admit,” said Hamish, “there are a lot of moments when I wish I had minded my own business. I wish right now I were going home, back to the police station.”
Olivia looked at him curiously. “You really love it here, don’t you?”
“Yes, I’m happy most of the time,” said Hamish, “except when I land myself in things like this.”
♦
Detective Chief Inspector Blair called in early at police headquarters. Superintendent Peter Daviot espied him and summoned him to his office. “I thought you weren’t due back until Monday,” said Daviot.
“Oh, you know me,” said Blair with a cheesy smile. “Can’t keep me away from the office.”
“We have a big secret operation going on here,” said Daviot, and told him about Hamish Macbeth posing as a drug baron.
Blair listened intently. From Daviot’s enthusiasm for what he privately thought was a daft scheme, he knew that any rubbishing of Hamish Macbeth would not go down well.
“And what would you like me to do, sir?” he asked when Daviot had finished.
“There’s nothing you can do at the moment,” said Daviot. “May as well enjoy the few days off you have left.”
Blair went thoughtfully out of police headquarters. He walked to the nearest pub, head down like a charging bull. Once inside, he ordered a double whisky, downed it in one and ordered another. He was in a flaming temper. That Hamish Macbeth should be getting all this glory was almost beyond bearing.
After another double whisky, he began to dream about a scenario in which the drug dealers were tipped off that Hamish was an undercover cop. The silly Highland loon would end up floating face-downward in the docks. After yet another whisky, he began to wonder if he should, tip someone off. That way he would be rid of Hamish Macbeth—permanently.
♦
“And this is Lochdubh,” said Hamish proudly, stopping the car on the top of the hill.
“They should have signs in the Highlands with phonetic spelling under the place-names,” said Olivia. “I mean do most people know it’s pronounced Lochdoo? And what does it mean?”
“Black loch,” said Hamish. “Well, what do you think of the place?”
The village of Lochdubh was situated in a gentle curve along the loch below two towering mountains. The lines of eighteenth-century whitewashed cottages with their flower-filled gardens and flapping washing on the lines basked in the sun. A light breeze rippled the surface of the loch. Across the loch lay an expanse of forestry and through the open car window Olivia could smell pine.
“It looks very pretty,” she commented. “What’s that big building down by the harbour? A private house?”
“It used to be a hotel,” said Hamish. “It’s still up for sale.”
“I’m surprised there are no takers. It’s a lovely site.”
“I hope someone buys it soon,” said Hamish. “It would be a pity if a grand building like that should fall into a ruin.”
He drove on, over the humpbacked bridge which spanned the River Anstey.
“Could you envisage living in a place like this?” he asked.
Olivia laughed. “In my dreams. In reality, I would probably die of boredom. Don’t you ever get bored?”
“Not in Lochdubh,” said Hamish.
“So what do you do?”
“I have a bit of a croft—there, you can just see it behind the police station. I’ll circle round by the harbour and then we’ll get out of here just in case I am recognised.”
Olivia was to remember that afternoon as the calm before the storm as they drove slowly along country roads, stopping for lunch at a small pub, then driving on again until Hamish said reluctantly, “Time to go back. The light is failing.”
“Why aren’t you married?” asked Olivia.
“The right girl, the wrong time, the wrong place, that sort of thing. What about you?”
“I’m married to my job.”
“No yearning for romance, a home, children?”
“No,” she said curtly.
They drove the rest of the way towards Strathbane in silence. The companionship that had grown up between them on the drive had evaporated.
When they got back to the hotel room, Hamish asked, “Should we have dinner before we go?”
“I feel too strung up to eat anything. Why don’t we just order a sandwich from room service?”
“Anything in particular?”
“Ham and salad.”
Hamish picked up the phone and ordered the sandwiches and a pot of coffee. Olivia had switched on the television and was watching the news.
Then her mobile phone rang, making them both jump. She listened intently. Then Olivia said, “That’s a much more sensible idea. I never liked Macbeth’s plan in the first place. Too risky. I think they’ll go for this.” She listened some more and then rang off.
“The new plan is this,” she said briskly. “We could be in trouble if they think you’re some new drug dealer muscling in on their territory. Before I tell you what it is, they did not find any drugs at the Owens place. Now, here is what you are supposed to be. You have a shipment of heroin, prime stuff, all the way from the East and through Amsterdam. Originally out of the Highlands, you nonetheless operate mostly from Istanbul. You mostly sell to France, Spain and Belgium, but now you want to expand and sell some here. But where do you land it? That’s what you want to get out of them. Glasgow still has that load of drugs they seized. We can use that as bait. Once they take the bait and say they’ll buy, then they’ll tell us where and when, and we’ll have them. Offer them four kilos of heroin to start with.”
“And how much is that?” asked Hamish. “I mean, it can be as much as a hundred pound
s per gram on the streets, but a dealer is going to pay less for the raw stuff.”
“You’ll be selling it at twenty thousand a kilo.”
“This means entrapment?” said Hamish. “I don’t like it. I’d rather have caught them with their own stuff and get some of that off the market.”
“You’ll do as you’re told,” said Olivia sharply.
An actor must feel like this just before going onstage, thought Hamish as he and Olivia with Kevin and Barry close behind walked into Lachie’s disco at nine that evening.
The place was full of gyrating couples. The music pounded and beat upon the smoky air and strobe lights stabbed down from the ceiling.
They made their way to the long bar which ran along the far side of the room.
Hamish wondered, before making his order, whether a drug baron would order something showy with an umbrella stuck in it, but Olivia asked for a whisky so he ordered two.
Olivia was wearing a slinky flame-coloured dress with thin shoulder straps and carrying a black cashmere shawl over one arm. Her dress was more like a petticoat than a dress, thought Hamish. It was even edged with flame-coloured lace at the short hemline.
Her hair was worn loose on her shoulders. Her scarlet lips, which had been painted to look fuller and more pouting, gave her a vulgar, sultry look. “What a place,” she shouted to Hamish above the din, and then gave a loud, empty raucous laugh. May as well get into the part as well, thought Hamish. He put an arm about Olivia’s shoulders and, bending down, kissed her on the mouth. Olivia gazed up at him adoringly and said in a low voice, “Don’t do that again.”
“Just acting,” said Hamish. His eyes scanned the room. He could see no sign of either Bob or Angus. His heart began to sink. He had caused this highly expensive operation on the word of a couple of layabouts who probably did not know anyone in the drug trade.
Ten minutes passed. “If they were serious,” said Kevin, “they’d have been here on time.”
“I knew there was something stupid about this whole thing,” said Olivia, not bothering to lower her voice.
Hamish scanned the room. The music thudded, the strobe lights flashed, couples gyrated round each other as if performing some ritual tribal dance.
And then he glimpsed Bob. He appeared to be searching.
It was then that Hamish realised that despite his red hair, Bob probably wouldn’t recognise him in his Armani suit, camel coat draped about his shoulders and wraparound sunglasses.
Hamish said to Barry and Kevin, “There’s a fat, little fellow looking for me. I’ll try to point him out to you and then I think you should both fetch him over.”
His eyes raked over the dancers. “There!” he said. “Just to the left. The one with the snake tattooed around his arm.”
Kevin and Barry moved forward. Hamish saw them speaking to Bob. As Bob was led forward, he did not look nearly so pugnacious. He gave Hamish a sort of smirk. “Didnae recognise you,” he said.
“Am I wasting my time?” asked Hamish.
“No, no,” grovelled Bob, although his eyes devoured Olivias cleavage. “I’ll be right back.”
He disappeared into the swirl of dancers. “Things are moving,” hissed Olivia.
After a few minutes, a tall, thin lugubrious man like an undertaker materialised in front of them. He was even wearing a black suit and black tie.
“Come with me,” he said.
They followed him to a door next to the far end of the bar. He opened the door and ushered them into an office. “Just call me Lachie,” said the man behind the desk, getting to his feet. He was middle-aged, going thin on top, fat creased babyish face, little rosebud mouth, expensively cut dark suit but worn over a shirt embroidered with silver bells. No tie.
Behind him stood two goons, a sort of mirror image of Kevin and Barry.
A small dapper man with a lot of gold jewellery lounged in an armchair in a shadowy corner of the room.
Hamish suddenly sensed Olivias acute nervousness and wondered why. Olivia, unknown to Hamish, had recognised the man in the corner of the room as Jimmy White from Glasgow. She was beginning to fear Hamish would not be able to pull off this scam.
“Sit down,” said Lachie expansively. “Drink?”
“No,” said Hamish, swinging his coat off his shoulders and handing it to Kevin. “You’ve kept me waiting and I want to get down to business.”
“That idiot Bob spent too long looking for you,” said Lachie. “You could have chosen a brighter contact. Who put you onto Bob?”
Hamish sat down and leaned back in his chair. “Mind your own business,” he said insolently.
“So what’s your business?” demanded Lachie. “Interested in buying?”
“No, I only said that for the sake of the idiot Bob. I’m selling.”
“Oh, aye. Selling what?”
“Shipment of heroin.”
“How much?”
“Four kilos for starters.”
“Four…where have you got this stuff?”
The little man in the corner spoke for the first time. “I think you should all get out o’ here and let me have a word wi…?”
“George. Hamish George.”
“We stay,” said Kevin.
Lachie looked at Jimmy. The two goons behind him crowded in closer to the desk.
“Why not?” said Hamish easily. “Look after my beautiful wife.”
Kevin and Barry instinctively looked to Olivia for guidance. She stood up, draping her cashmere stole over her arm. “Oh, come along. I need a drink,” she pouted. She leaned over Hamish and kissed him full on the mouth, and then said, “It’s Jimmy White,” in a breath of a voice.
They all went out and Jimmy White moved round and sat behind the desk.
Apart from his gold identity bracelet, gold watch and thick gold chain around his neck, Jimmy White could pass for an ordinary Scottish businessman, thought Hamish, if it were not for the stone-hard look of his small black eyes.
“I’m Jimmy White,” he said. “This is all a bit sudden, as the actress said to the bishop. Nobody’s ever heard of you and you stroll in here with this damn offer.”
“I work out of Istanbul,” said Hamish. He suddenly remembered a name he had heard when one of his investigations had taken him to London and he had overheard some detectives in Scotland Yard gossiping. “Heard of Cherokee Jim?”
“Aye. But he’s cocaine.”
“And I’m heroin. This is beginning to sound a bit like ‘me Tarzan, you Jane.’ Are you interested or not?”
“Maybe. Why come up here?”
“Because I was born here. I need someplace safe to land the stuff. I haven’t been back here since I was a boy so I don’t know the places that will escape the investigations of Customs and Excise.”
“How did you get started?”
Hamish stared at him for a long moment. “I don’t see why the fuck I should waste time answering stupid questions about my background.” Hamish, who hardly ever swore, hoped he wasn’t blushing. “You either want the stuff or you don’t.”
“Oh, I want it. Those bastards in Glasgow seized a haul. Look, mac, how can I trust you?”
“You can’t. You have to take my word for it, tell me where to land it, come with me, bring as much muscle as you like.” Hamish stifled a yawn.
“You’re a cool bugger. When Lachie told me that idiot Bob had been blabbing to someone he knew nothing about, I could have killed him. But I’ll tell you one thing you’re not. You’re not an undercover cop. When I heard from Lachie, I was sure you were.”
“And what would you have done? Killed me?”
“You know we don’t go around killing coppers unless they’re bent,” sneered Jimmy. “The minute I clapped eyes on you and that wife of yours, I knew I was looking at one of my own kind. You know what’s kept me on top? Brains.”
“Well, we can sit here all night talking about your brilliance,” said Hamish, “or we can get down to business. Do we have a deal?”
“Yes, but you’ll need to wait a week. How much are you asking?”
“Twenty thousand a kilo.”
“Right. Where are you staying?”
“The Grand. Why a week?”
“I’ll need to discuss this with my associates. You know how it is.”
“Okay. But don’t make it any longer.”
“It’s funny, mind,” said Jimmy, “that I haven’t heard of you.”
“I usually keep in the background. Only fools get themselves too well known.”
“Right. What about some dinner?”
“Had it, thanks,” said Hamish, who had no wish to prolong the agony of his act a moment longer than necessary.
“When I get back, then. Your wife’s a real smasher. Funny, I’ve got a feeling I’ve seen her somewhere before. Was she on the films?”
“She doesn’t do that anymore and she knows I’d cut her face if she did,” said Hamish harshly.
“Oh, those sort of films.”
“Aye, but we will not be talking about that.”
“Sure, sure.”
Hamish stood up and slung his coat around his shoulders. He put on his dark glasses.
“See you,” he said laconically, and strolled out, resisting a strong impulse to run.
A flicker of relief darted through Olivia’s eyes when she saw him.
Hamish put an arm around her shoulders. “Come on, babe, let’s get out of here.”
♦
Back in the hotel room, Hamish told them about how he had got on. He finished by saying, “He thought he had seen you somewhere before, Olivia. Is that possible?”
“When I was made chief inspector,” said Olivia, “my photo was in the Glasgow papers.”
“You should have told me that,” said Hamish impatiently. “Anyway, I managed to convince him that he had seen you in a blue movie.”
Kevin gave a great laugh. “The first time I heard of anyone looking at their faces.”
“Show a bit of respect,” snapped Olivia. “What do we do for a week?”
“We wait,” said Hamish. “Lounge about. Spend the state’s money.”
“Won’t do. They’ll be watching us and they’ll probably search the hotel room. Wait a minute. I’ve a phone call to make.”
She picked up the mobile and went into the bedroom.
