“Slow down, Cassandra. Please. I only got half of what you said.”
Cassandra took a deep sobbing breath before repeating her tale. “Shall I call the police?” she asked.
There was a second’s pause before Angus answered. “No, I will. You might not get through on a mobile, but I can from my landline. Listen, get away from the rocks, and make sure you’re standing in the open where I can see you. I’ll be with you as soon as I can. And Cassandra…try not to panic. He might not have done anything.”
“But I saw blood!” she gasped.
“Yes, so you said, but we don’t know who or where it came from, or if it really was blood. Sweetheart, the light’s poor—you might have imagined it.”
Here we go again, she thought. “My bloody mind’s not going!” she shouted. “I know what I saw!”
“No, okay, okay. Just calm down. As I said, I’m coming, and you can always ring me again on my mobile if you’re afraid or anything else happens. Keep your phone handy. Did you see this man’s face?”
“No!” she wailed.
“Okay, just a thought. Hang in there.”
As soon as he rang off, Cassandra left the cairn and moved into open land. She suddenly realised she hadn’t tried calling Julian. As she stared down at the phone in her hands, she wondered why. The answer was easy...she somehow knew Julian wouldn’t or couldn’t answer. Cassandra dialled his number anyway, but there was no dialling tone, and she realised the phone was dead. She tried calling for Bailey and Julian, but she heard no answering cry. Fresh tears coursed down her cheeks as she paced up and down, all the while keeping a lookout in case the stranger reappeared. Cassandra just knew something awful had happened.
Why were these horrible things happening to her? She hadn’t done anything wrong, but then neither had Susan. She merely wanted to live a quiet life before she got mixed up in the death of an innocent girl. And Susan’s own death. Suicide, they said. But Susan hadn’t been taking pills for depression, had she? Did Cassandra know that? Did she know anything for certain? Images of her parents, Susan, and a shadowy recollection of her brother flashed through her mind. Why did this keep recurring, making her uneasy?
After fifteen minutes, she could see a figure moving towards her, and she flew down the hill to meet him. “Angus!” When the wind blew in her direction, she heard the telltale sound of a police car.
Angus caught Cassandra by the shoulders and hugged her to him. “Easy, darling. It’s okay now, I’ve got you. I can hear the police on their way.” He cradled her head in the nook between his shoulder and chin, and Cassandra closed her eyes in relief. Angus’s scent, so different from Julian’s, and the warmth of his firm body held tightly against hers felt unbelievably exquisite. Not only did she feel safe, but hearing his voice whisper in her ear made her feel as if she could have stood there for hours. “Now do you feel calm enough to explain everything to me or would you prefer to wait until the law reaches us? Either way, we ought to go down to the road to meet them.” He lifted her chin and smiled. “You know you can trust me, don’t you?”
Cassandra felt her heart soar as she stared into Angus’s dark blue eyes; he had just called her darling, and her trembling was nothing to do with her recent fright. She nodded and once more went through what happened. As soon as the two police constables joined them, Angus took charge and explained in a sober tone exactly who he and Cassandra were.
“Aye, we got your call. Something about a missing dog and the lady’s man friend. Perhaps you can tell me your name, Miss, and exactly what’s happened, and the name of your missing friend. I’m Constable Kerr, and this is Constable Murray, by the way.”
Cassandra looked at the burly officer muffled up in a heavyweight jacket and thick gloves. She bit her bottom lip to stop it quivering. Swallowing and in a halting voice, she asked. “Can we please go back up on the mountain and look for them?” Her eyes begged as she looked from one policeman to the other. “Julian’s a stranger round here. He might not know his way down from the mountain, and Bailey’s still only young.”
“I take it Julian is the name of your friend and Bailey is the dog? And there were just the two of you out walking?” asked Murray, whom she saw was a younger and skinnier version of Constable Kerr, clothed in the identical attire. The tips of his ears matched the red tip of his nose, and she thought he looked completely frozen as well as irritated. Cassandra didn’t have time to care; she desperately wanted them to find Julian.
“Yes, yes…Julian Pope and me! Look, can’t we get on. Please! We’re wasting time standing here talking. I’ve gone over everything once.”
The law was not to be hurried. The constables raised their eyebrows and looked at each other from beneath the dripping peaks of their caps. “All in good time, Miss Potter, first things first. Tell me…have you tried calling him? Does he have a mobile?”
“Yes, of course I did, almost as soon as Julian disappeared. There was nothing, his phone is completely dead or maybe he has it switched off. It didn’t ring while we were out walking.”
Agitated over their procrastination, Cassandra hopped from one foot to the other, until eventually the police decided they had enough background information and agreed to take a look at the area where Julian disappeared. “And my dog, I can’t forget him. He’s still only a puppy.”
“Och, the dog will probably find his way home when he’s finished rabbiting. I shouldna bother about him,” Kerr advised between puffs as the four began the uphill climb. Cassandra wondered why they hadn’t brought a Land Rover with them. They would have been able to drive at least half the distance before the terrain became too rough.
She felt Angus slip his hand around her gloved one and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “We’ll all look. Don’t worry…I’m sure we’ll find them.”
Back up on the summit, Cassandra showed the officers where she had last seen Julian.
“Going over what you told us earlier. You hadn’t had a row, you said. Not a lover’s tiff?”
Cassandra rolled her eyes. “We’re friends not lovers. Julian’s not interested in that sort of thing,” she said, knowing she would never normally have volunteered such additional personal information if Angus hadn’t been there. Because he was with them, she wanted to let Angus know she was still a free woman—if he was interested. Not wanting to catch his eye, she looked away, bemused and unsure. Julian’s disappearance was uppermost in her mind, and yet at the same time, she was so in love with Angus, she couldn’t think straight.
When the constables stared at her before exchanging looks, she knew they were thinking Julian was gay. Oh, for Christ’s sake, she thought. Surely they weren’t that bigoted? She could understand prejudice in a tiny hamlet like Inverdarroch, but these men were from the town. They must have met all sorts.
“He’s asexual, celibate,” she muttered, when really she wanted to shout at them and shake the self-righteousness and narrow-minded smirks from their faces. “No! We didn’t row. We were looking for Bailey. Julian went one way round the rocks and I the other. When I came back to this spot, he never returned to me.”
“And then what happened?” the skinny young one said, while his eyes never quite met hers as they slid over her face and down her body.
“I…I think I turned round. You know, I turned right round in a circle as if I expected him to appear from another direction, only he didn’t. It was then I heard the drumming, felt it almost, and I saw the man in black.”
The two police looked at each other again. “Drumming? Man in black? Sounds like that film.” Murray sniggered.
Cassandra glared. “Yes. He was dressed all in black, head to toe. And...he was wearing a sword.”
“A sword?” Another exchange of amused looks.
“Yes, well not exactly. He was wearing a scabbard, and he was holding the sword in his right hand.”
“I see. Anything else?” Kerr scribbled in his notebook, which he was having difficulty in keeping dry.
“Yes, I saw blood on the
sword.”
“Blood?” Kerr looked up at this and exchanged yet another glance with his co-worker.
Cassandra nodded. “Yes, at least it looked like blood to me. Bright red.”
“Miss Potter, the light isn’t very good. Could you have been mistaken in this?”
“No. It was definitely a sword, and what’s more it was a Scottish one.”
“Really? And how do you know that?”
How did she know? In a flash, she recalled where she had seen another just like it. In fact, there was a pair hanging above Angus’s fireplace. Basket-hilted claymores. Shocked, she almost gasped as she shot a look in Angus’s direction. Were such swords commonplace?
“I know it’s a claymore, a basket-hilted claymore, I believe.”
“Funny you should know your highland swords, Miss Potter. I don’t believe you’re from Scotland?”
Angus stepped forward. “I believe she has me to thank for that. I own a claymore. In fact, I own a pair.”
Kerr made a note in his book. “So let’s recap. You apparently lose your friend and dog and suddenly see an apparition dressed in black and waving a bloody sword. This isn’t Glencoe, Miss Potter.”
Cassandra felt faint as his words washed over her. Why didn’t they believe her? “But I’ve seen him before up here…but not with the sword. Look, what is this? Why don’t you believe me?”
“I think you ought to show us where you walked today before you finished up here. Which path did you first take before arriving at this point? We need some evidence to show you really did see someone. There must be footprints at least, or blood, if what you say is true.”
“But, Julian and I walked miles. We’d gone nearly as far as the Iron Age fort. We passed through the Horns of Dee and then stopped at the pools. I remember we saw a shieling before we turned back to come this way.”
“Well, we can’t walk the whole path, as it’s too far to Dee, but we can at least look for footprints and blood, like I said. We can verify you were with someone and not on your own.”
“I’m not making this up, you know,” she stormed. “I swear Julian was with me. Why would I want to waste your time by making up a story?” she implored, holding out her arms. Did they really think she was fabricating the whole thing?
Cassandra led the police back along the track she and Julian had taken. By now, the rain was coming down in sheets, and the path was awash. The two policemen shook their heads, and even she could see there was no hope of finding any footprints. She still felt confused and cursed them under her breath. Why were they being so stupid? Surely it was easy to believe her story? She felt more and more miserable as the rain began seeping through her coat, and her trousers were wet and soggy around her knees.
“Miss Potter, I’m sorry, but we can’t find anything to help us. We’ve looked back along the path and around the cairn. There are no footprints or signs of blood. We have found no evidence of violence. No depression in the heather where someone might have fallen…there’s nothing else we can do. Because you say your friend disappeared only a few hours ago, we can’t treat him as a missing person, either. We have nothing to go on except your word. Our advice to you is to go home and have a nice hot cup of tea, and hopefully your dog and friend will turn up. I hope they do for your sake, otherwise we’ll have to think again.” Constable Kerr slipped his pen and notebook into a pocket and pulled his coat collar further up his neck. He looked as if he was about to start back down the hill, when he stopped and faced her. “I don’t suppose anyone else saw your friend in Inverdarroch today besides you?”
Cassandra turned and looked at Angus and raised her eyebrows. He shook his head. “Sorry, not this time. I usually notice Julian’s car parked in the road outside Miss Potter’s house when he visits. I’m afraid I never saw it today.”
“Oh, Angus! I was sure you’d seen Julian or his car at least, it’s always—” She stopped, horrified, as she grasped what had happened. “Oh no! Maybe you couldn’t see his car from your place because I made him move it to the side of the cottage. It wouldn’t be visible because of the trees in the way.” She looked at Angus in a hopeful fashion, praying he would remember seeing the Porsche. When he shrugged and shook his head, Cassandra stared at him in bewilderment. He must have seen the Porsche before he climbed up there. He had walked past her place…she knew he had from the direction he left the village. She saw which way he had come! Surely the car was where Julian left it?
The constable sighed. “We’ll take a quick look for it when we’re down in the village. Shadow Vale is the name of the house I believe you said you lived in, Miss Potter?”
“Yes.”
“Have you lived here long?”
“A few months. I inherited the cottage from my sister.”
He nodded. “I see. And did she live here long?”
She couldn’t remember exactly how long Susan had lived there. Angus came to the rescue. “She lived here for many years, Officer. Miss Potter’s sister was an older lady, and she bought the cottage a long time ago.”
“I see.” The policeman shot an incredulous look at his colleague as, once again, he got out his notepad. He added to the notes already there before looking up at Cassandra. “Funny you not knowing that, Miss Potter. Right then, Miss. Let’s get back down, and we’ll check your friend hasn’t gone back home before you. I wouldn’t be surprised to find he’s already there, boots off and watching the footie on telly!”
As they trudged down the hill towards the road in the rain, Cassandra deliberately lagged behind and caught Angus by the arm. “They don’t believe me! They think I’ve made it all up.” Cassandra said in a furious but low voice to Angus. “They’ve all but said I’m a liar or I’ve been seeing things. What do they imagine I hope to gain by pretending I’m on a set from Braveheart?”
“Relax. Once they see Julian’s car parked by your house they’ll soon back down. Are you cold? Would you like my scarf? Now that it’s getting dark the temperature’s really plummeting.”
Cassandra shook her head. She frowned before replying. “I’m okay, thanks. Angus, your swords…the ones you have over your fireplace. Are they common, or are yours special?”
Angus took his time replying, and Cassandra wondered whether he had heard her. As she turned her head to repeat her question, he suddenly spoke.
“The claymores are original, as I think I told you when you first saw them. Yes, those are rather special, since they’ve belonged to…to me for years. Why do you ask?”
Something in his tone made her look at him sharply. His face looked pinched and bleak. Was it because she mentioned the swords? The one the watcher carried looked exactly the same to her unpractised eyes.
“Nothing, I was just curious.” Cassandra felt as if an icy finger touched her core. Angus had answered her terrified telephone call very quickly earlier that day, and he reached her within minutes. She wondered exactly where he was when she phoned him; was he already out on the heathland that afternoon, and if so, why? And just now, why had he taken so long to answer her simple question? What was he hiding something from her?
***
It was getting dark as they neared the village in the police car, but even before they reached Shadow Vale, Cassandra knew Julian wasn’t going to be there to greet them. As they passed the farmhouse and the Blackmore sisters’ cottage, she gasped and pointed.
“It’s gone! Julian’s car has gone.”
Open-mouthed she looked at each of the three men accompanying her. They followed the direction in which her finger was pointing, and the two policemen exchanged a dark look. Angus frowned and gave Cassandra an odd look.
“I swear Julian left his car by the trees.” Confused and upset by the day’s events, Cassandra felt tears welling up. “Where is it? What’s he done with it?”
“Perhaps after your argument he decided to leave and go home,” Constable Murray said.
Forcing back the tears, Cassandra rounded on him in anger. “I’ve bloody well already to
ld you we didn’t have a row. It wasn’t anything like that.”
The older officer exhaled noisily and once again got out his notebook. “There’s no need for bad language, Miss Potter. I believe we need to ask you some more questions. We have to be sure you had a visitor. If you say you did, what have you done with him? If he was here and has really disappeared, are we to think something ominous has happened? Perhaps you would like to reconsider what you explained happened this afternoon? Now, shall we move on down the road? We’ll be more comfortable inside and give the neighbours less of a spectacle to watch?”
Shaken by the officer’s words, Cassandra turned to Angus and clutched the front of his coat. “Angus,” she whispered. “They think I’ve done something wrong. I haven’t, I swear. You believe me, don’t you? Are you sure you didn’t see Julian earlier today? If not, surely you saw his Porsche.” She gazed up at him with a pleading look upon her face.
When Angus didn’t answer, except by throwing her a bleak look, Cassandra felt as if her world was collapsing around her. So far that day, she had lost her dog and one of her best and oldest friends. And last but not least, after believing she and Angus had finally acknowledged there was something between them, it looked like he now took her for a liar. Angus, the man of her dreams! She turned away, shaking her head in disbelief as tears threatened to run down her cheeks. How could he doubt her and act so cruelly. Was someone making out she was mad? Or had she imagined everything that day?
Chapter 26 The Present, Inverdarroch
The police made a good show of checking the road for signs of Julian’s car. “No point searching for tyre-impression evidence”, muttered Murray as he paced the area where Cassandra said the Porsche had been left. “There’s nothing to show a car was parked here. No mud, just plain wet tarmac.” He straightened up and addressed his superior. “Shall I knock on a few doors and ask whether anyone saw anything suspicious? There’s less than half a dozen, and it won’t take me long.”
ON DEVIL'S BRAE (A Psychological Suspense Thriller) (Dark Minds Mystery Suspense) Page 16
