STICKS AND STONES (A DCI Harry McNeil Scottish Crime Thriller Book 1) by John Carson

Author:John Carson [Carson, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-08-30T22:00:00+00:00

Fourteen

‘Look at you, acting all innocent,’ Alex said as the patrol officer dropped them off back at the hotel.

‘The Highland air has obviously gone to your head.’

‘Young Miss Angie has her sights on old Uncle Harry.’

‘Were you dropped on your head when you were a baby or something?’

‘Oh, come on, Harry. She gave you her number. And she showed you her unshaved leg.’

‘No, she gave me the hospital’s number and said I should call if I needed any more information. Weren’t you listening? You were in the room.’

‘Secret messages. There was an edge to her voice that would sound like purring if she were a cat.’

‘I’m not listening to you anymore.’

They walked into the reception area to find chaos ruling.

‘Jesus,’ Jimmy Dunbar said, coming over to them, ‘Gallagher’s running about alternating between wanting to murder his daughter’s killer with his bare hands, hiring a team of hit men and, burning the hotel down with, and I quote, all of you useless bastards in it.’

‘He’s upset, then?’

‘Rightly so, but he’s off the fucking scale, Harry.’

‘I can understand why. Somebody made us believe that Marie was murdered, but it was his other daughter. I think it would drive me mad, too.’

‘Let’s get into the library where we can gather our thoughts.’ Dunbar clapped a hand on Harry’s shoulder and they moved away.

There were some of the junior detectives from Inverness in the library, along with Robbie Evans.

‘We’re going through CCTV right now, or at least we have some of the Highland Coo brigade doing it,’ Evans said. ‘We want to see if Marie can be spotted anywhere. And how in God’s name is that her sister Sharon?’

Harry poured himself a quick coffee. ‘I’m thinking, Marie was taken, or killed. Then he was watching the search party with Sharon in it. Then he took the steward and the women, killed the steward, and took Sharon away with him. He dressed her in Marie’s dress, then killed her. He wanted us to think Marie was dead.’

‘Why?’ Alex said.

‘To put us off the trail, as it were,’ Dunbar answered.

‘We don’t know the why yet,’ Harry answered. ‘Why wouldn’t he kill Marie? Unless Sharon was the real target.’

‘You!’ a voice shouted from the doorway. Broderick Gallagher. He was standing looking at Harry.

‘Mr Gallagher, I’m sorry for your loss.’

‘Fuck you. What the hell is going on?’

Harry walked over to him. ‘It seems that somebody took Marie, then took Sharon and dressed her in Marie’s clothes to put us off the scent.’

‘Not to mention blowing her head off! You forgot that little nugget!’ He was starting to shout and getting more hysterical by the minute.

‘I’m going to have somebody take you aside so you can relax a bit.’

‘I don’t want to—’

‘Mr Gallagher!’ a voice shouted from behind them. ‘Kenny David from the Morning Star. Can you confirm it was your other daughter Sharon who was murdered?’

Gallagher turned to him as the room went quiet. ‘You snivelling little fuck. Who the fuck let you in here?’

‘Is it true then?’ David said, smiling.

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