Hamish Macbeth 18 (2002) - Death of a Celebrity

by M C Beaton

  “I’ll do that.”

  “No, it’s my kitchen and I’ll do it.” Hamish somehow didn’t want any woman taking over his kitchen. That would be a start to some woman taking over his life and breaking his heart.

  They had just finished eating when Hamish heard the whirr of a helicopter. “That’s them,” he said.

  They walked outside. A police helicopter was landing on the waterfront. Carson got out with Jimmy Anderson and Detective Harry MacNab and a policewoman. “Backup’s on its way,” he said. “Where does she live?”

  “Over there. The flat above the craft shop.”

  “Right. You go back to the police station, Macbeth, and leave this to us.”

  “But I’m the one who’s found out everything,” protested Hamish.

  “I’ll call round afterwards and let you know what happens,” said Carson, not meeting his eyes.

  “This is outrageous!” shouted Elspeth, who had followed Hamish out to meet the helicopter.

  Hamish pulled her away. “It’s no use,” he said. “Let’s stand here and watch.”

  Carson and the detectives and policewoman marched to the craft shop and climbed the stairs at the side that led to the flat above. The detective chief inspector rang the bell. Then he hammered on the door. No reply. He stood back and nodded to Jimmy. Both Jimmy and Harry threw their shoulders against the door, to no effect.

  “Try opening it,” said the policewoman.

  Carson turned the handle and the door swung open. They rushed inside. In the bedroom, two suitcases full of clothes lay open on the bed, but of Mary Hendry, there was no sign.

  Hamish and Elspeth were joined by Ian. “She’s gone,” said Hamish. “I know it.”

  “I know where she might be if she thought the game was up. You could hear that helicopter for miles,” said Elspeth.

  Hamish swung round. “Where?”

  “It’s a long shot. The falls.”

  “Let’s get in the Land Rover,” said Hamish. “It’s worth a try.”

  Carson came out on the steps of Mary Hendry’s flat in time to see Hamish speeding off. He felt angry because he knew he should have taken Hamish with them, he should never have listened to complaints from CID.

  Hamish, Ian, and Elspeth were soon climbing up towards the falls, their torches sending yellow beams of light across the heather. They stopped by the pool at the bottom of the falls to catch their breath.

  Hamish shone his torch up at the top of the falls. “There she is,” he cried. “Don’t do it, Mary.”

  She was standing in the water at the very edge of the falls, just where Hamish had guessed she had pushed her husband over.

  Hamish scrabbled up the side of the falls with Elspeth and Ian behind him.

  He began to edge his way towards her through the swirling water.

  “Don’t come any nearer,” shouted Mary.

  They were only about two feet apart now.

  “I knew the game was up when Joe Kennedy told me you were diving up at the falls,” she said. “There’s no way I’m spending the rest of my life in prison.”

  “Why did you do it?” asked Hamish.

  “He was a bastard, that’s why. Kept me practically in rags so that he could drink and drink and use his fists on me.”

  “But why kill Felicity?”

  “That bitch had it coming. I went up the back road for a walk to clear my head and I saw her. I knew she was coming to see me because she’d phoned me the day before. So when she called round, I told her I’d seen her. If she kept quiet about me, I’d keep quiet about her. She seemed glad to talk.”

  Elspeth crouched on the bank, listening to every word. Despite the roar of the falls, every word that Mary said reached her clearly.

  “She said she’d taken enough. She said she’d been planning it since Crystal arrived. I told her that I’d killed Frank. We were sisters in crime. But when I read she was going to do that programme, I got frightened. I had nothing on her, but she could bring the police and the insurance company down on my back. I phoned her and said I was prepared to talk about it on camera because it was weighing on my conscience. She was so vain, I think she even forgot that I had witnessed her murdering someone. So she got it, right in the chest. Frank had a shotgun he’d never bothered registering.”

  “Mary, if you can prove Frank was a nasty husband, they’ll go easy on you. Don’t be silly. I’ll get you a good lawyer.”

  “I had years of it,” said Mary bitterly. “Years! He made my life a hell.”

  “Look, come on, Mary. Don’t jump. It’s a nasty death. Here, take my hand.”

  Hamish held out his hand.

  “Did you find it?” she asked.

  “What? The cross? Yes.”

  “I knew things would go wrong for me ever since I lost that cross.”

  “Mary,” coaxed Hamish. “It’s a cold, cold night and the water’s freezing. If you’re in prison, at least you’ll be alive. Come, now. Take my hand.”

  He leaned nearer while Elspeth and Ian held their breaths.

  Suddenly a great beam of light shone up and on Mary and Hamish. A stentorian voice through a megaphone shouted, “Mary Hendry. You are under arrest.”

  “NO!” shouted Hamish.

  And Mary jumped.

  Her body hurtled down into the falls and onto the jagged rocks below. The cascading water tore at her body, which slowly dislodged itself from the rocks and sank into the swirling waters of the pool and disappeared from sight.

  Hamish slowly picked his way back to the bank and slumped beside Elspeth. “The fools,” he said. “The bloody fools.”

  Back at the police station, Hamish grimly typed his report and then placed it with the little cross on his desk. The police divers were recovering Mary Hendry’s body. He knew Carson would be with him presently. He had typed up statements from Elspeth and Ian, who were waiting in the kitchen.

  He walked through. “Thanks,” he said curtly. “You can both go home. I’ve no doubt our famous CID will be calling on you tomorrow.”

  “Don’t you want me to stay?” asked Elspeth plaintively. “As moral backup?”

  Hamish’s face softened. “No, you’ve done your bit, lassie. Go home and get a good night’s sleep.”

  Elspeth rose and shivered. “I don’t think I’ll ever forget the sight of her going over the falls. If only they had left you alone.”

  Carson walked in. Elspeth and Ian stood up to leave. “You,” said Elspeth, facing Carson, “are a stupid bastard.”

  They both walked out.

  “I have your report, sir,” said Hamish, “and the cross as evidence.”

  “You should have told us where you were going,” said Carson, sitting down.

  “I wish you’d never come,” said Hamish, sitting down as well. “I nearly had her.”

  “At least it saves the state a court case,” said Carson. “How did you guess it was her?”

  “At Mrs. McClellan’s funeral, there was an insurance investigator from America. That got me thinking about insurance, and when I found out she’d insured her husband for a lot of money, I started asking around. Mrs. Wellington said that right after Frank’s death, Mary was going mad with worry over a Celtic cross she had lost, so I got Ian to dive in the pool. Och, it’s all in the report,” said Hamish wearily. “I’ll get it for you.”

  He came back and placed the report in front of Carson. “That’s your copy. I’ve sent a copy to police headquarters.”

  “Thank you. Fine bit of detecting.”

  “So why did you keep me off the case? If you had not, I would have told you about my guess that she was at the falls and suggested you leave it to me.”

  “I was following procedure,” said Carson heavily. “CID were complaining that I was keeping them off the case. It’s your fault for wanting to stay a village constable.”

  “It’s because I’m a village constable that I solved your murders for you. I know people better than I know police procedure. With your permission,
sir, I’d like to go to bed. It’s been a long day.”

  “Certainly. We’ll meet again tomorrow. I’ll need to stay here for the night.”

  “I believe they have rooms at the Tommel Castle Hotel, sir.”

  Carson rose and looked at Hamish awkwardly, but Hamish, who had risen as well, stood there, ramrod stiff, his blank eyes staring at Carson’s left shoulder.

  Lugs, sensing his master’s anger, let out a low growl.

  “Right. I’ll be off then.” Carson walked to the door. Hamish glared at his retreating back and experienced a spurt of rage.

  Lugs leapt from his corner and bit the retreating detective chief inspector on the backside.

  Carson swung round, his eyes blazing. Hamish looked at him steadily.

  “Good night, sir,” he said.

  Carson went off.

  “Come here, Lugs,” said Hamish, stooping down and picking up his dog. “You shouldnae hae done that but I’m right glad you did. Let’s go to bed.”

  Carson was a churchgoing man and had a healthy conscience, and that conscience was bothering him. He had to admit to himself that it was not only complaints from CID that had made him keep Hamish away, but vanity on his part. He wanted the solution to the case to be all his own.

  He knew that Hamish could probably have talked Mary Hendry out of jumping over the falls. He remembered the good times he had enjoyed at the police station and felt he had lost a friend.

  Jimmy Anderson was subdued as he took statements from Elspeth and Ian the following day. Both of them let him know what they thought about heavy-handed interference in a case that Hamish had solved for them.

  The normal place for himself and Carson and the rest of the police force to meet in such circumstances would have been at the police station. But by tacit consent, they agreed to meet at the Tommel Castle Hotel, where they were conscious of sour looks from the staff, for the news of what had happened had been spread by Elspeth and Ian.

  Frank Hendry’s shotgun had been found under Mary’s bed. They had no doubt that the lab would prove it had been used to kill Felicity.

  For his part, Hamish went about his usual crofting chores, not at all surprised that none of them had called on him. He had to admit that he had brought things on himself. He should have challenged and charged Mary and then sent in his report. It was no use blaming Carson for her death when he felt he was as much to blame. Did ever a man have such dread of promotion?

  He was just washing his hands at an outside tap at the back of the police station when Elspeth appeared.

  “Feeling all right?” asked Hamish.

  “Bit shaky. To tell the truth, I’ll see that body going over the falls until the day I die.”

  “Come inside. I’ll make coffee.”

  “I thought they’d all be here.”

  “No, their guilty consciences are keeping them away. But I’m as much to blame.”

  “Why?” she asked, following him into the kitchen. Hamish took the cleat and lifted the top off the stove and threw some peat inside.

  “If I hadn’t been so anxious not to leave Lochdubh, not to get promotion, I’d have charged her myself. I could have talked her away from the edge of the falls.”

  “Maybe you could. But you’re forgetting one thing. She’d killed two people. If her husband treated her so badly, then maybe that turned her mind. But to plan cold-bloodedly to kill Felicity! I mean, when she saw Felicity, all she had to do was tell you. Felicity would have been arrested. But she’d still be alive. No one would have been any the wiser about Mary. On the other hand, I don’t think anyone should go unpunished for taking a life.”

  Hamish put a kettle on the stove. “You’re a comfort, Elspeth. That’s a rare gift you’ve got. It was you fainting in Patel’s that put me on to her.”

  “Don’t tell anyone about it, Hamish. It’s not in your report, is it?”

  “Not a word.”

  “Thanks. Heavens! Is that the time? My friend Sally will be arriving on the bus any moment. I’ll get coffee another time.”

  Hamish walked her to the kitchen door. “Thanks again.”

  She suddenly put her arms around him and held him close. She closed her eyes and raised her lips for his kiss.

  Nothing happened. She opened her eyes. Hamish was looking down at her with an expressionless face.

  She released him and backed away, her face flaming. “Got to go,” she said, ducking her head. She hurried out.

  Friend Sally listened fascinated to Elspeth’s tale. Then she said, “You seem keen on this Hamish Macbeth.”

  “I was. In fact I made a pass at him today. Got rejected.”

  “Well, it’s your fault when you’ve got a gorgeous man like George Earle panting after you.”

  “Oh, George is just George.”

  “And George is just what you need. Show that village copper you don’t care. Tell George to drive up here after work. Go on. You phone him or I will.”

  “All right,” said Elspeth reluctantly. “May as well.”

  Later that day, Carson stood awkwardly in the police station. “Blair will be back next week, so I’ll be leaving for Inverness.”

  “Right,” said Hamish, fiddling with a pot on the stove.

  “I didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye and thanking you for your hospitality.”

  “Right.”

  “Hamish, come and sit down and listen to me!”

  Hamish sat down at the kitchen table opposite him. “It was like this,” said Carson heavily. “I’ll be honest with you. Yes, I didn’t want to keep the CID out of it, but I should have taken you along. Mary Hendry’s death is on my conscience.”

  Hamish rose and took a bottle of whisky and two glasses down from the cupboard. He sat down again and screwed the top off the bottle. “I am as much to blame as you,” he said. “If I hadn’t been so anxious to avoid promotion, I would have handled it all myself. But Elspeth pointed out that we’re forgetting Mary Hendry killed two people. All she had to do was report Felicity. Felicity would have been banged up and we’d never even have looked at Mary. Have a dram.”

  “Thanks. So we’ll never really know quite how the murder of Crystal was done.”

  “I think Felicity had it well planned. I think she was waiting on the Lochdubh road, on a quiet stretch, not far outside Strathbane. I think maybe she left her own car in Lochdubh, say the evening before, and took the bus back. There’s a bus leaves at seven in the evening. I can check that, just out of curiosity. So, she waits until she sees the green BMW coming along. Maybe she phoned from a call box and asked Crystal when she was leaving. She sees Crystal coming along and flags her down. Says something like her car’s broken down and she had started to walk. Then maybe she says something like, your tyre’s flat at the front. Crystal gets out to have a look. Felicity stuns her with a tyre iron or something. Crystal may have staggered a bit before collapsing in the heather at the side of the road. Felicity heaves her into the backseat, puts on the hat and glasses, and drives like hell. First she thinks of the Glenanstey road, but remembers the back road at Lochdubh and how it’s never used. During that Gaelic programme of hers, she must have picked up a lot of local knowledge.

  “She drags Crystal out and pushes her into the front seat and then arranges the suicide and goes about her interviewing. She must have got a shock when Mary Hendry told her she had seen her. Mary must have found it a relief after all this time to be able to confide in a fellow murderer. We’ll never know exactly, but to my mind, that’s probably the way it happened.”

  Carson surveyed him. “I went through all your notes again, Hamish. Before, I could understand you wanting to live here. Nice, simple life. But there’s a nasty picture comes out, of brutal marriage, petty crime, and nasty little secrets. It’s no different from Strathbane, really.”

  “There are right nice people here,” said Hamish defensively.

  Carson gave him a sly smile. “Your girlfriend’s a fine lassie.”

  “She’s not
my girlfriend.”

  “Why not? Taken a vow of celibacy?”

  “Och, I’m off women at the moment.”

  “The trouble about being off women,” said Carson, “is that when a stunner comes along, you never even notice her.”

  “You speak from experience?”

  “I was getting over an affair away back when. I said I’d never look at another woman again. But I had to take someone to the police ball in Inverness, so I asked a neighbor’s daughter, Anna. I didn’t really notice her, until all the other fellows at the ball seemed fair taken with her. That opened my eyes. She’s now my wife and we’ve been happily married for twenty years. Imagine if I had let such a chance slip!”

  “So you’re going back to Inverness.”

  “Yes.” He drew out a card. “That’s my home address and telephone number. If you ever feel like coming down to see us, you’d get a right welcome.”

  “Thanks.”

  “So am I forgiven?”

  “Och, yes. We just have to forgive ourselves.”

  Carson drained his glass and stood up. “Take my advice and don’t let that lassie get away.”

  When he had gone, Hamish pulled forward a copy of the Highland Times. He wondered how Elspeth’s horoscopes were getting on. “Libra,” he read. “There are none so blind as cannot see. You are at a crossroads in your life. One road leads to romance and companionship, the other to solitary loneliness. Which will you take?”

  The trouble was, thought Hamish, that he had been pushing Elspeth away because he kept imagining commitment and marriage. There had been no reason to be so heavy. Nothing to stop him having a light and enjoyable romance and seeing where it led.

  He went through to the bedroom and laid out his best suit. Then he had a long hot bath and washed and dried his red hair until it shone with purple lights. He dressed carefully, patted Lugs, and went along to Patel’s where he bought a large box of chocolates.

  He then headed for Elspeth’s flat. He was nearly there when under the greenish pools of light cast by the lamps on the waterfront, he saw her walking toward him. She was on the arm of George Earle. They were laughing together. George’s face was radiant. They had not seen him.