by Lacey Dearie
‘Do you want to go out? I suppose we should. You still need a walk, no matter what’s happening around this place,’ Hugh smiled down at his best friend.
‘Nicely done,’ Leger complimented, striding to the door, ready to follow the pair of them out when they left.
Within a few minutes, Hugh had put on his jacket and clipped Bob’s leash onto his collar. When Hugh opened the door, the trio left. Hugh didn’t even comment on Leger following them, as he occasionally did so.
Leger peered over at the tree between the house and the hotel as Bob pulled Hugh in the direction of the loch. He saw the usual clowder perched on various branches of the tree. Massingham had his head down, which was entirely unexpected since Leger had run from their fight the day before and he expected Massingham to gloat. Leger couldn’t help noticing that the clowder seemed to be collectively subdued.
‘Just a second, Bob. I’m going to check what’s occurring over at the tree,’ Leger said.
‘Be quick! I can’t look so eager then suddenly take my time. Hugh will end up turning back at this rate!’
Leger sprinted to the tree and stared up at the clowder.
‘Good day to you all. I can’t help noticing you don’t seem your usual selves,’ he noted.
Piper was the only one who acknowledged his presence. She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again when Massingham hissed.
‘Has something happened?’ Leger pressed.
‘Yes!’ Piper squeaked, desperate to spill the beans.
Domino and Oreo tutted to show their contempt but said nothing. Massingham was next to speak.
‘I took a walk back to the loch this morning to get that cygnet back. It seems he has protection from his father,’ Massingham said.
‘Yes, he does,’ Leger agreed. ‘I knew that already. I discovered that when I took him back to his father yesterday.’
‘And you walked away from that swan? The one who killed a human in cold blood?’ Piper swooned. ‘That’s so awesome!’
‘Impressive indeed,’ Massingham purred. ‘How did you manage to escape him?’
‘I got off with a warning,’ Leger smirked. ‘I assume you did too?’
‘Not exactly,’ Massingham said. ‘Once the cygnet mentioned that his father had killed a human, I got a little spooked and walked away. Decided he wasn’t worth the trouble. When I came back here and told the others the story of what had happened, they told me all about how that cob is a local legend. I can’t believe a wimp like you escaped him.’
‘Whatever do you mean?’ Leger said.
‘Well we all knew he was vicious but he apparently killed a human and nobody expected that. That is not the kind of animal I want to come in contact with,’ Massingham stated. ‘I would much rather just stay here on this tree.’
Leger walked, very calmly, around the side of his house until he was out of sight of the clowder then picked up the pace, sprinting to the loch to be with Hugh and Bob again. When he arrived he found Bob scouring the place, sniffing various patches of grass, but did not see the swans.
‘Find anything, Bob?’ Leger asked.
‘I can smell them, but I can’t see them,’ he said. ‘Tell me something. I always thought swans mated for life and swan around in pairs but I can only smell two here. One is the male, presumably the father who threatened you and the other is the young cygnet. Where’s the mother?’
‘I did notice there was a lack of female presence here,’ Leger noted.
‘I wonder if maybe he’s a single dad and that’s why he’s so protective,’ Bob said.
Leger sighed. It was a possibility, but he found his empathy was lacking at that precise moment. Perhaps if he had not been threatened the day before and didn’t already have enough on his plate trying to find Carole and the person who killed Sean Gilbert, he would have been far more interested in Iain’s family situation.
‘I just had an interesting conversation with Massingham,’ Leger said.
‘Oh, really?’ Bob replied.
‘Apparently, Iain told him this morning that his father killed a human.’
‘Do you really think it’s true?’ Bob asked.
‘Of course not,’ Leger said. ‘How could he? It’s just not possible, is it?’
‘You two are very chatty today,’ Hugh said, smiling down at the two animals.
‘What about Carole? Can you smell her here?’ Leger asked.
‘I can. She was here on this bench and I could swear I can smell Gordon too,’ Bob said.
‘Excellent! That means the man she kissed was her husband. Why would she disappear with him though and not bring him to see the family?’
‘Didn’t Iain say they had a fight? Perhaps they’ve gone down to the village to stay the night and be alone to sort things out. I’ll bet there’s not even a mystery to solve here,’ Bob panted, smiling.
‘Let’s head to the village and check if she’s there,’ Leger suggested.
‘Good idea. Is there anyone in the village we can ask about the drowning matter? Didn’t you solve a murder here before? Who helped you then?’
Leger sat on the gravelly path around the loch and reminisced for a moment about the time when he first met Lily and they solved a murder together with the help of a spider named Steven and a German Shepherd named Rani. Of course, Lily had promptly eaten the spider after using the poor creature as an informant but Rani would hopefully still be alive and well and remember him. Perhaps she would have heard something on the grapevine about Sean Gilbert’s untimely death.
*****
‘I know she lives around this area somewhere,’ Leger muttered, leading Bob and Hugh up a side-street in the nearby village.
‘Why on earth do you want to come up this street, Bob?’ Hugh grumbled as he was dragged along by Bob, who was following Leger to Rani’s house.
‘It’s this one!’ Leger called out. ‘It’s as messy as it was last year and yes, there she is.’
Leger nodded towards the sad German Shepherd with huge paws, large black eyes and floppy dark ears, lying on a patch of unkempt grass. When he had visited Rani last year to get information about a local murder, he had assumed she looked depressed then because she had been the one to find the victim’s body and it had disturbed her. She looked just the same today as she did last year.
‘Rani!’ Leger called out. ‘Do you remember me?’
Rani looked up with only her eyes, her head still resting on her two fronts paws. She was too lazy to move and appeared to have recently woken from a sleep. She examined him for a moment and her nose twitched, almost as if she sort of recognised him but she couldn’t place his face.
‘This is Rani?’ Bob panted. ‘What an angel!’
Rani’s head popped up, now sufficiently interested to make a significant movement. Her eyes were wide as she regarded Bob.
‘Who? Me? I’m an angel?’ she asked, her breath heavy.
‘Oh, so this is why you wanted to come here!’ Hugh chuckled. ‘Got your eye on a lady friend, have you? I’ll bet she’s in season and the smell was driving you wild.’
‘I’m not actually,’ Rani pouted. ‘Can I help you three?’
‘Be mine!’ Bob sighed, jumping onto his hind legs and resting his paws on the fence. ‘I swear, Cupid has shot fifty arrows into me.’
Leger looked up at his canine friend and shook his head. He had never seen Bob behave in such a manner before and it was quite unnerving.
‘Is he all right?’ Rani said, sniffing through the fence. ‘He seems a little hyper.’
‘He’s fine. I’m Leger. You probably don’t remember me but I was here for a short time last year investigating a murder on the island.’
‘Oh my goodness! Of course I remember you. I still have the stick you gave me. See?’ she said and ran to one of the many bushes at the far end of her garden to fetch a piece of well-loved wood.
‘Come here, girl,’ Hugh said, reaching over to pat her and take the stick. He tossed it back to the other end of the ga
rden, hoping she would fetch but she didn’t.
‘I’m glad you found so much pleasure in the gift,’ Leger beamed. ‘I can’t believe you still have it!’
‘I don’t get a lot of gifts, so of course I kept it. What can I do for you? Are you investigating something else? I’m afraid I haven’t found any more bodies on the beach,’ she sighed, tilting her head back as Hugh ruffled her ears.
‘I would be surprised if you had. There are some other matters I wish to discuss with you. You’re the only dog I know around here and I wondered if perhaps you could set me straight on some matters that cats would shy away from,’ Leger suggested.
‘I can try,’ Rani whimpered.
‘Have you heard of the murder of Sean Gilbert?’ Leger quizzed.
‘Oh, yes! He was the man who owned the take-away restaurant in the village. Lovely man. Real dog person. Loved cats too but they never really took to him because of his affiliation with dogs,’ Rani said.
‘Interesting! So what else do you know about him?’ Leger continued, while Bob stared in at Rani with lovesickness in his eyes.
‘I know that his death is being investigated by police but they’re wasting their time. The blame doesn’t lie with humans. It was a swan who pushed him in.’
‘A swan?’ Leger and Bob repeated in unison.
‘So it was Kevin!’ Leger said.
‘Well, that’s what I’ve heard. Sean Gilbert’s friend, the one who jumped in to save him, had his dog with him that day and Blue, the dog, said Sean tried to feed the cygnet. Of course, if you get too close to a cygnet the parents will attack and in this case, the parent did. He pushed him into the water. I don’t think he meant to kill him, just scare him away. It was a tragic accident.’
‘That would explain a lot. Do you ever take walks to the loch?’ Leger asked.
‘Not really. I don’t get walked anywhere other than the beach across the road and that’s only because it’s close. I would love to go for a proper long walk,’ Rani said, her features drooping again and giving her a sad appearance.
Bob whimpered in at her while Leger tried his best to keep his emotions in check. He felt sorry for Rani, but he couldn’t let that get in the way of his job and now that he knew Sean Gilbert hadn’t been murdered by a human, his paramount concern was finding Carole.
‘So, you won’t have heard anything about the disappearance of a young woman who was staying here on the island?’ Leger probed.
‘Nope. Not a thing,’ Rani said.
‘Thank you, Rani. You’ve actually been more helpful than you realise,’ Leger said. ‘Is there anything I can do in return?’
‘Perhaps there is. Does your human have treats in his pocket? I can smell them and it’s years since I’ve had a treat. My family don’t really do things like that. I only get my main meals.’
Bob nuzzled Hugh’s pocket to remind the elderly man that he had something in there that Rani might enjoy and when Hugh fed a gravy bone to Bob, the huge Labrador held it between his teeth and dropped it through the fence for Rani.
*****
When the trio returned home later that morning, Leger had much to think about. Firstly, he knew the identity of the murderer now, although it wasn’t really a murder and he had never suspected that a swan would indeed be to blame for a human death. They were such graceful, elegant creatures. This could not go unpunished, but when Kevin had a young child to care for, how could Leger possibly turn him in? There had to be a way for Kevin to pay for his crime without putting the Iain in danger of losing his father.
The next thing on his mind was Carole’s whereabouts. He knew it was possible that she had just gone for a long walk, but the more he discovered about the situation, the more uneasy he felt. She had met her husband, Gordon, at the loch but he hadn’t bothered to call in on the family. The pair had quarrelled and then she and Gordon had both vanished. It didn’t sit well with Leger. He had a bad feeling about this and he wanted to track her down to reassure himself and everyone else in the family that Carole was safe and well.
The problem was that they had now exhausted every line of enquiry he could think of, except for Bob’s idea of speaking to the baby. He wasn’t convinced this would work, but he would try anything at this point.
He approached the little boy, who was sitting in a bouncy chair, sucking on a teething ring and eyeing up Leger. Leger sat before him and twitched his nose. He had no idea what to say.
‘Hello, young man,’ Leger said, clearing his throat. ‘How’s the teething coming along?’
Louis sighed and stared at Leger, continuing to suck on the ring.
‘I’ll bet you can’t wait to be up and about, eh?’ Leger said. ‘Oh, no. This is so lame. I have no idea how to talk to you.’
‘You’re not speaking his language,’ Bob grunted, padding into the living room after devouring half of Annabella’s sandwich. She was apparently too worried to eat her lunch, although Leger suspected she would have shared it with Bob anyway.
‘Show me how it’s done,’ Leger said.
He watched as Bob sat before the little boy and made no sound at all, at least not one that Leger could hear. Louis was captivated by whatever Bob was saying and began to wave his arms around and cackle. Bob thumped his two front paws on the floor below him and Louis wiggled his chubby little legs.
‘What’s he saying?’ Leger asked, truly intrigued.
‘Nothing, we haven’t started talking yet,’ Bob replied.
‘Well, get a move on!’ Leger grumbled, his patience wearing thin.
‘Louis! Louis! Where’s mummy?’ Bob asked.
‘Dada,’ Louis replied.
‘He says she’s with his dad. That would be Gordon,’ Bob said, as if translating.
‘I gathered that. Right. Where…did…mummy…go…with…daddy?’ Leger said, slowing his speech and meowing slightly louder than he normally would.
‘You don’t have to talk to him like an idiot, Leger! He’s a baby, not an imbecile,’ Bob snapped.
Louis replied with a few nonsensical noises that neither Bob nor Leger could decipher.
‘I wonder if…’ Leger trailed off.
‘What?’ Bob asked.
‘Well, we’ve been to the loch and we’ve been to the village, via the beach. We didn’t see Carole and Gordon on our travels. Do you think they could possibly have taken the ferry back to the mainland?’ he wondered.
‘It’s possible,’ Bob agreed. ‘If only we had a liaison over there.’
Leger grinned. ‘But Bob, we do!’
*****
When Leger noticed Annabella calling the police to report Carole as a missing person, he knew he had to act fast and find her. He didn’t want things to get any more complicated than they already were. Being a mother of young children, she might be in trouble for leaving them even if she knew they were safe with her aunt and uncle.
He raced down to the harbour to seek out some gulls. First, they scattered on seeing him, just as he would have expected them to do. However, one bold gull returned, in search of a scrap of bread she had left behind and Leger called out to her.
‘Excuse me! Could you relay a message to someone on the mainland for me, please?’ Leger requested.
The gull looked around herself, then at Leger from the side of her head. ‘Who? Me?’
‘Yes! I have a gull friend in Glasgow I need to contact,’ Leger said.
‘You’re kidding!’ she squawked, continuing to look for her bread.
‘I’m not. Perhaps you know him. His name is Joe. He’s from the city.’
‘Yep. I know Joe,’ the gull said. ‘He likes chips.’
‘That’s him!’ Leger enthused. ‘Please can you ask him to come over to the island and speak with me? It’s extremely urgent.’
‘Will do,’ the gull said, then took flight once more.
*****
Leger waited at the harbour for an hour, watching the ferries come and go, as they arrived every fifteen minutes from Largs. After that time
, he assumed that the gull was not planning to return, so he left and walked home to re-think his plan.
‘Any luck?’ Bob said as he slid through the cat flap.
‘I found a gull who knows Joe. She said she would fetch him but she didn’t return and Joe didn’t show up,’ Leger grumbled. ‘I have to re-think my plan.’
‘There is one thing you could do,’ Lily said, from her resting place on top of the cupboards. Leger had related everything that had happened to her when they returned from the walk with Hugh and she had said nothing about the investigation, other than that she was happy it had turned out not to be Carole who killed Sean Gilbert.
‘Oh, this should be good,’ Bob snarled.
‘I made a mistake, all right? I saw a possible explanation and I vocalised it. I have done nothing wrong!’ Lily defended.
‘You could have ruined an innocent woman’s reputation!’ Bob barked.
‘Bob, shhh!’ Leger instructed. ‘Yes, Lily? What did you have in mind?’
‘Why don’t you go over to the mainland on the ferry and ask around? There has to be someone who saw Carole and Gordon. It’s better than waiting around here with no other plan. You can return to the island quickly and easily and if you see Joe on your travels, well then all the better,’ she said.
‘It might be worth a shot,’ Leger conceded.
The conversation was interrupted by a fierce rattling on the pane of the kitchen window. They all looked up to see Joe ramming his beak into the glass and glaring in with his unmistakable beady eyes.
Leger stepped back out through his cat flap to greet the bird.
‘What is it? I’m busy! I’ve got chicks waiting,’ Joe screeched.
‘Congratulations!’ Leger gasped. ‘I had no idea you were a father.’
‘Get on with it,’ Joe snapped.
‘I need you to look on the mainland for Carole, Annabella’s niece. Do you know her?’ he said.
Joe appeared to think this over. ‘Young woman, dark hair, two little ones?’
‘That’s her!’ Leger said.
