Hand of the Wolf: A Scottish Crime Thriller (DCI McNeill Crime Thriller Book 3) by Jacqueline New

Author:Jacqueline New [New, Jacqueline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-04-29T00:00:00+00:00

First priority was to secure the hole in the fence. As a matter of public safety as much as part of a murder investigation. Mac dropped Neill Smilley at his car and instructed him to report to Inverness Police Station to give a full statement under caution. If he did a runner, Mac would make sure several books were thrown at him. Mac continued back to the wildlife park and interrupted a conference call that Annika Eklund was hosting. She looked up from her computer screen as he rapped briefly on the door of her office and then immediately entered. She wore a headset with a mike and looked at him as though he had just shot one of her precious wolves. Mac smiled his most roguish grin, which died a death against Annika’s glacial cool. She clicked something on the screen.

“Detective Chief Inspector, I’m on a very important call…”

“I’ve found how the wolf enclosure was penetrated,” Mac said. “There’s a hole in the fence. I need your help to pinpoint it on a map.”

Her mouth was open, and she closed it with a snap before clicking something else and standing, casting the headset aside.

“You’re serious,” she said.

“Of course I am. I need your wolves out of the way so I can take a team of officers and forensics in.”

Friendly hadn’t worked with Annika, and the situation had now become urgent. So Mac had kept his tone strictly unemotional and professional. Annika looked at him for a long moment, then nodded sharply.

“OK, let’s get on with it. Good work Detective Chief Inspector. I didn’t think it would be the police who would find the break in the fence. It had to be there, of course.”

She went to a cabinet and pulled open doors revealing shelves filled with rolled paper. Selecting one, she spread it on top of a metal filing cabinet. Mac saw the familiar outline of the enclosure.

“There’s the A9 and this must be the road that runs to Dunachton House. The fence had been breached where it climbs a hill, quite steep. We were on the slope of another hill overlooking it. With a stream at the bottom of a deep gorge in between,” Mac was quite pleased with his description of the woodland landscape. Given that most of it all looked identical to him.

Annika was staring at the map with blue, unblinking eyes. “Around here I think. This is where that house is. You can see the road terminating there. This stretch of fence climbs steeply and there’s a burn marked too. How far along is the hole?”

Mac had Smilley’s camera in his pocket. He opened up the screen and located the close up. Scrolling to the next picture showed the same spot but without the close up. Annika pursed her lips.

“Yes, I think I know roughly where that is.”

“A witness saw a man going into that old church you pointed out. From the description he was dressed for the outdoors. Camo gear and a pack. Could it have been any of your people?”

Annika pursed her lips, eyes glazing for a minute.

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