Old Sins by Aline Templeton

Author:Aline Templeton [Templeton, Aline]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allison and Busby
Published: 2021-12-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

‘He phoned me this morning,’ Angus Mackenzie said. ‘He wanted to explain you were to be in charge here now.’

‘Oh, I see,’ DI French said. It was ridiculous to feel relieved that Strang hadn’t felt so unconfident that he’d risked turning up in person to check how she was managing.

‘I’m sure he’s happy to leave things in your capable hands,’ he said, with a smile.

Was she that obvious? She said hastily, ‘But there was something he thought we should know?’

‘Yes. It’s this – this dreadful business, of course. Poor Danni! I’m only glad her aunt isn’t here to see it – she was devoted to the child, devoted!’ He took out a handkerchief with shaking hands and dabbed his eyes. ‘I can hardly bear to think about it. And it happened there, in her own house!’

‘Yes. You’re familiar with it, are you?’

‘Only from when Flora lived there. Danni – well, she had parties with her own young friends, but…’ Mackenzie’s voice tailed off. ‘She wasn’t interested in what I could tell her about her aunt – a shame, really. But after the car went on fire – you know about that?’

French nodded.

‘I heard the bang, and when I saw what had happened, I hurried along – I’ve a croft just along the road from here. By then Sean Reynolds had arrived and Hattie Sinclair, bless her, took Danni away – her poor feet were all cut with broken glass. I stayed to sweep it up and then another couple of neighbours arrived and between us we got cardboard to fill in the window – it was a terrible night with the storm, just terrible.

‘I’d said I’d get a glazier in to fix it, so I phoned him on Monday morning. But he said he wouldn’t be out this way for a day or two, so I suggested I could measure up for him and I went in to do that on Monday afternoon.’

Suddenly, French was very, very interested. ‘In the house? You had a key?’

‘Goodness, we never lock our doors around here! No, I just went in with my tape measure.’

But someone had locked the door – Strang had been forced to kick it open. She said carefully, ‘And the house looked – normal, so far as you could tell?’

‘Apart from the broken window, yes. I’d swept up the glass, as I said, and the sitting room was just as usual.’

‘Can you remember what time it was?’

Mackenzie hesitated. ‘I’m not good at knowing the time – it never seems to matter much, out here. But I know I forgot about doing it until quite late and then thought I better go before it got properly dark. So it would maybe be five o’clock, or a wee bit after? I was certainly back home before the six o’clock news.’

‘Did you see anyone else around then? Cars parked, say?’

‘Not a soul. It was such awful weather. The shop shuts at five and the pub doesn’t open till six, so there’d be no reason for anyone to be around.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.