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out his phone. ‘Can’t get a signal down here,’ he said. ‘I’ll go upstairs.’
    ‘I’ll wait for the pathologist and then get the boys down here,’ said Bruce. ‘Do you know Dr Forsythe is leaving the force?’
    ‘Why?’
    ‘She wants to retire. Besides, she says that a forensic pathologist here only earns a third of what they do in England. Don’t know where we’ll find another. Probably need to get someone all the way from Aberdeen.’
    Hamish went upstairs. He felt numb. He phoned Jimmy, not wanting to hear Blair’s bullying voice. Then he walked outside the castle and stood waiting. He suddenly craved a cigarette. He had stopped smoking some time ago, but occasionally the longing would come back.
    Was there a serial killer on the loose? Had some maniac come to the Highlands?
    He discounted any Russian connection. Whoever had phoned Mrs Gentle had been someone she knew. She had happily gone out to meet whoever called her. Perhaps Irena had just got in the way. But wait a bit – Irena had been killed before Mrs Gentle was strangled and thrown over. He was sure of it.

    The gale blew the sound of approaching sirens. Jimmy arrived with Detective Constable Andy MacNab. In the following car came more detectives, a vanload of police after them.
    ‘Where’s Blair?’ asked Hamish.
    ‘In the hospital with alcohol poisoning. How that man can keep on going is beyond me. So what have we got?’
    Hamish told him briefly about finding the body. ‘The press are going to have a field day,’ said Jimmy when Hamish had finished. ‘Here comes Dr Forsythe. I’ll hae a look at the body when she’s finished. How do you feel?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ said Hamish. ‘Stunned, I guess.’
    Dr Forsythe got out of her car. ‘Where’s the body?’
    ‘Down in the cellar. I’ll take you there,’ said Hamish.
    ‘Did she have any scratches on her face?’
    ‘Too much blood,’ said Hamish. ‘Why?’
    ‘Despite being in the water, Mrs Gentle had fragments of skin under her fingernails. I’m working on the DNA.’
    ‘Do you think Irena killed her and then struck herself on the head with a hammer in a fit of remorse?’
    ‘Don’t be cheeky, Hamish. I only meant that there’s hope the person who killed her might be on the DNA database.’
    ‘Here’s the cellar,’ said Hamish. ‘You’ll find Bruce down there.’
    ‘Sober, I hope.’
    ‘For the moment.’

    Hamish went back and joined Jimmy. ‘What’s odd,’ he said, ‘is that on a table in the cellar is a bottle with two glasses. Almost as if someone had lured Irena down there, given her a drugged drink, and then bashed her head in.’
    ‘What? On the morning of her wedding? Mrs Gentle said she went out for a walk.’
    ‘Have you checked the phone records?’
    ‘Yes. That phone call to Mrs Gentle came from a call box in Lochdubh. Any strangers in Lochdubh?’
    ‘I suppose there are visitors up at the Tommel Castle Hotel.’
    ‘Her family are due to arrive today,’ said Jimmy. ‘What a mess. You’d best get down to Lochdubh and ask around. Put a sign on that phone box and some police tape around it until the forensic people see if they can get anything off the receiver. Then check who’s staying at the hotel.’
    ‘Can’t I wait for the pathologist’s report? You’re not Blair.’
    ‘Well, just till then.’

    They waited a long time while the sky grew darker and sheets of rain began to sweep across the landscape.
    At last Dr Forsythe came up from the cellar. ‘She was struck a heavy blow to the head with a blunt object. I’ll have a better idea of what sort of object when I get the body back to the lab. I can’t tell the time of death until then, either, but from the state of the corpse it does look as if she was killed on the day of her wedding.’
    ‘But the only person in the castle then was Mrs Gentle,’ exclaimed Hamish. ‘Could a wee woman like that have had the strength to get that body in the trunk?’
    ‘I’ll need to check