Arbroath Smokie Slaying: Albert Smith's Culinary Capers Recipe 7 by Steve Higgs

Author:Steve Higgs [higgs, steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-01-28T16:00:00+00:00

Close Call

In the car, silence prevailed for all of about four seconds. Once Evie had the car in motion, she begged to know, ‘What the heck was all that about, Albert?’

Albert watched out of the window to his right, his left hand wrapped around Rex again who’d chosen to lie across the seats with his head on Albert’s thigh. Albert sucked on his teeth a little as he considered what all he and the others had just been witness to.

‘I didn’t expect that to happen,’ he admitted just before Evie repeated her question. He could tell she was annoyed, but it wasn’t necessarily directed at him. The situation had made her deeply uncomfortable and that was manifesting now as her rising ire. ‘I asked him the same question I’ve been asking everyone: the one about Hamish getting into trouble when he was younger. Maybe I should have started with those who were police officers at the time. Maybe they all know something no one wants to talk about.’

‘Like what?’ Evie wanted to know.

Albert just shrugged. He was still looking through the window at the landscape beyond, endless sea reaching to the horizon where it clashed with the sky, both things dark and grey and threatening.

‘When I asked Mr Townsend about Chief Constable Doherty’s involvement, it changed the conversation. I told him something he didn’t want to know, and you saw how he reacted.’

Argyll turned around in the front passenger seat to look back at Albert. ‘What did you tell him?’

Again, Albert shrugged. ‘That’s what we need to figure out. Something happened to change the relationship your father had with Patrick Crivens and I think that might be the key to why he was killed.’

‘The killer staged it to look like a suicide,’ stated Evie.

Albert brought his eyes around to meet hers, tearing his gaze away from the cold grey sea. ‘And I think the police and the medical examiner were not only willing to believe that verdict but wanted everyone else to believe it too.’

‘Why?’ demanded Argyll. ‘No, hold on. I’ve a better question. Are you saying that Chief Constable Doherty has something to do with my father’s death?’ The desire to find someone to exact revenge upon was evident in Argyll’s voice.

Albert pursed his lips, taking a moment to argue with himself.

On his human’s lap, Rex looked up. He could hear what the humans were saying and understood most of it. He barked, ‘Yes. That’s the one who smelled of gunshot residue yesterday. You need to be looking into him. Or you should have let me play chase and bite when I had the chance.’

The sudden noise of his dog right under his nose made Albert jump. He wasn’t alone in that though, Argyll almost wet himself and Evie jolted so hard she put the car into a skid.

A small scream of terror escaped her clenched teeth as she wrestled the steering wheel. It was cold enough outside that there were patches of ice on the road despite the gritting lorries doing their duty.

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