The Man in the Red Overcoat by Pugh Hilary

Author:Pugh, Hilary
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Housemouse Press
Published: 2023-03-20T00:00:00+00:00

16

Claude had been out all day. He’d been asleep by the time Ian arrived back from Drumlychtoun the previous evening and had left early the following morning, leaving a note saying he needed to arrange a hire car in order to ‘catch up with some contacts’. Who those contacts were, Ian had no idea. Claude been told to stay in the area. Duncan hadn’t been specific about the exact distance he was allowed to travel. Ian thought it probably meant he shouldn’t go anywhere that was too far to get to and return from within a day. Edinburgh would be okay and so would Glasgow. Even London, if he planned it properly, which Ian thought Claude was probably incapable of. But wherever he’d been, he returned late on Monday afternoon and parked his hire car in the road at the end of Ian’s garden. At least he’d achieved the car hiring part of his day. He looked tired, Ian thought.

Molly looked up from her computer as he came in and sat down. He dropped his coat on the floor in front of him and scowled at them. ‘Good day?’ she asked.

‘No,’ said Claude grumpily. He kicked his coat further under the desk to make room for his feet. Ian was sure he wouldn’t treat his red coat in that way and wondered if he had any plans for getting it back. Now he had his hire car, he could easily drive to Perth to collect it, which would give him and Molly a couple of hours of peace and quiet to get on with some work.

Claude opened up his laptop and tapped crossly at some keys. ‘I spent the whole day buying ruinously expensive whiskey for various people I have worked with in the past,’ he said. ‘I was hoping to get some clues about the art thefts, or at least a hint of who might have had it in for poor old Julian. But there was nothing. I suppose you had a great time up in your Scottish castle.’ He sounded as if he hoped Ian’s whole weekend had been a washout.

‘I did actually,’ said Ian, trying his best not to look too smug. ‘I found a Hamish Gunn.’ He opened the photo he taken of the Gunn painting on his phone and showed it to them. ‘Brett spotted it. I had no idea it was there.’

Claude looked at it in a way that suggested he had no interest in it whatsoever.

‘It’s great that he noticed it,’ said Molly. ‘Now we know about it we can make sure it’s kept safe. I’ll add it to my list.’

‘That’s what I thought,’ said Ian. ‘They are going to try to store it at the bank for a while.’

‘How will they get it there?’ Claude asked, suddenly looking more interested.

‘Not sure they’ve worked it out yet,’ said Ian. ‘I’ll probably get some of my security lads onto it. It’s not a huge picture. They can drive it there in one of the estate vans.

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