Deadly Still by Keith Moray

Author:Keith Moray [Moray, Keith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sapere Books
Published: 2020-01-19T16:00:00+00:00

When Torquil arrived at the station he told Ewan and Penny that he wanted to have a meeting with the team in half an hour.

‘What about the search — will Morag be coming back?’ Ewan asked.

‘No, they’ve found a trainer in mud near the old Strathshiffin Road. There’s a good chance it’s one of Vicky’s, so we’ll need to check. Morag will be moving the search area accordingly. I’m bringing the twins in and we’ll skype Morag.’

Once the Drummond twins arrived back, both dressed in their heavy waterproofs rather than police uniforms, Ewan came in with a tray of mugs of tea.

‘Things have moved on, folks,’ Torquil said, sitting behind his desk and referring to his notebook. ‘Firstly, Lorna called me to say she attended the post-mortem on Jamie Mackintosh. The pathologist has to look at slides and get the results of tests back, but he was convinced that he had only one working kidney, which meant he wasn’t able to clear the methanol and all the toxins from his body. He either vomited and inhaled his vomit, or he choked and then had a fit. Essentially, whatever the prime mechanism, he asphyxiated.’

Penny winced. ‘That’s horrible. He drowned in his own vomit.’

Torquil nodded. ‘And if the bottle from the pillbox is be shown to have contained methyl alcohol then whoever supplied it could be facing a charge of culpable homicide.’

Penny whistled and opened the file in her hands. ‘In that case it really is serious, boss. I checked with Ian Gillesbie, the Senior Scene Examiner and the first results are back. The bottle had an extremely high concentration of methanol in it.’ She ran a finger down the page. ‘They also tested the blood samples that Dr McLelland took and they’ll be testing samples that the pathologist takes straight from the body. They’ll be able to see if it matches, although it sounds as if there isn’t much doubt.’

Wallace was sitting with his arms folded. ‘So this was definitely peatreek?’

‘Looks like it,’ said Torquil.

‘How did they get hold of it?’ Douglas asked.

‘Catriona McDonald told Lorna that Jamie brought it.’

‘And where did he get it from?’ Ewan asked. ‘Does Angus have a still?’

‘That’s what we need to find out, Ewan,’ Torquil replied. ‘There must be several home stills around the island.’

He turned to Penny. ‘Illicit distilling used to be common on the islands. Folk had them on farms, on crofts or on one of the many isles around the coast. We need to find them all and have their whisky confiscated and checked for methanol.’

‘Shall I do that, boss?’ Penny asked.

‘No, Wallace and Douglas can do that. They know the island and they probably have a good idea of who could be distilling.’

Wallace harrumphed. ‘It maybe not so simple, Piper. These days all sorts of folk are distilling spirits. Rum, gin, vodka. You can get the tackle on the internet, no bother.’

Torquil nodded, recollecting only too well his conversation with Lorna about whisky for their wedding favours. ‘Aye, Lorna was talking about this.

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