Heather and Homicide by Molly Macrae

Author:Molly Macrae
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2020-12-02T00:00:00+00:00

16

Heather woke early on Sunday, the sun not yet up. She sat on one of the hard chairs at the small table rather than the squeaky bed to pull on her socks and lace her hiking boots. She put on her jacket, checked for the map and directions in the pocket. She was dying for tea, but left without. The less clatter, the better. She left the car and took her bike. The less obvious, the better, too.

Water and mist lapped against the harbor wall as she coasted along the High Street. She passed the bonnie bookshop and dreamed of seeing her books in the window. She turned away from the water at the next street, puffing now as the street climbed its way out of Inversgail and became a road winding away through the hills. At the top of one hill, she stopped to check the map and catch her breath, and turned to look at the roofs and chimneys of the waking town.

Calum would have liked settling in Inversgail. She liked it and wouldn’t mind staying on. Relocating, even. The people were good. Most of them—not all. Cal had found that out. And she was doing her best to fix that.

“I’ve backtracked from that trip I wish you’d not taken, and from there, your flapping great map brought me here. And now I’ve poked and prodded and listened between the lines and found the evidence to build my case. Rock solid. Fitting, that, for an ace rock climber like you.”

She searched in one of her pockets for a tissue, then rode on, looking for the next turn. Looking forward to this meeting, she pedaled faster.

Fools rush in, Calum warned.

She didn’t answer, took a hand from the handlebar to blot her nose again. He never answered her anymore. Just chucked helpful comments into her thoughts now and again. And since when was the title of an Elvis Presley song helpful? This morning, she needed quiet, inside and out. Stealth. That’s why she planned to arrive first and wait. Calum had taught her that, too, to wait—for a salmon in the river, a badger’s sniffing nose at the entrance to its sett. Compared to any of that, waiting at the stone circle would be a doddle.

No need to rush a plan. Calum, repeating his favorite worry.

“I’m not, Calum. I’m not rushing and I’m not rushing into anything. You always say that. Said that. Stop saying that. Experience is a hard teacher, but give me credit for learning. I learnt from you how to wait, and to listen while waiting, and to see what’s waiting in front of me. And what’s been in front of me, all this time, is the plain fact that no matter what anyone’s told me, there was nothing straightforward about your death. I also learnt from you not to trust. And trust me, it’s not a coincidence I learnt that when you died.”

She pedaled on, climbing the next hill. The directions she’d got from the shop were taking her somewhere, and she hoped it was where she meant to go.

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