ON DEVIL'S BRAE (A Psychological Suspense Thriller) (Dark Minds Mystery Suspense) (21 page)

“I know it’s a claymore, a basket-hilted claymore, I believe.”

“Funny you should know your highland swords, Miss Potter. I don’t believe you’re from Scotland?”

Angus stepped forward. “I believe she has me to thank for that. I own a claymore. In fact, I own a pair.”

Kerr made a note in his book. “So let’s recap. You apparently lose your friend and dog and suddenly see an apparition dressed in black and waving a bloody sword. This isn’t Glencoe, Miss Potter.”

Cassandra felt faint as his words washed over her. Why didn’t they believe her? “But I’ve seen him before up here…but not with the sword. Look, what is this? Why don’t you believe me?”

“I think you ought to show us where you walked today before you finished up here. Which path did you first take before arriving at this point? We need some evidence to show you really did see someone. There must be footprints at least, or blood, if what you say is true.”

“But, Julian and I walked miles. We’d gone nearly as far as the Iron Age fort. We passed through the Horns of Dee and then stopped at the pools. I remember we saw a shieling before we turned back to come this way.”

“Well, we can’t walk the whole path, as it’s too far to Dee, but we can at least look for footprints and blood, like I said. We can verify you were with someone and not on your own.”

“I’m not making this up, you know,” she stormed. “I swear Julian was with me. Why would I want to waste your time by making up a story?” she implored, holding out her arms.  Did they really think she was fabricating the whole thing?

Cassandra led the police back along the track she and Julian had taken. By now, the rain was coming down in sheets, and the path was awash. The two policemen shook their heads, and even she could see there was no hope of finding any footprints. She still felt confused and cursed them under her breath. Why were they being so stupid? Surely it was easy to believe her story? She felt more and more miserable as the rain began seeping through her coat, and her trousers were wet and soggy around her knees.

“Miss Potter, I’m sorry, but we can’t find anything to help us. We’ve looked back along the path and around the cairn. There are no footprints or signs of blood. We have found no evidence of violence. No depression in the heather where someone might have fallen…there’s nothing else we can do. Because you say your friend disappeared only a few hours ago, we can’t treat him as a missing person, either. We have nothing to go on except your word. Our advice to you is to go home and have a nice hot cup of tea, and hopefully your dog and friend will turn up. I hope they do for your sake, otherwise we’ll have to think again.” Constable Kerr slipped his pen and notebook into a pocket and pulled his coat collar further up his neck. He looked as if he was about to start back down the hill, when he stopped and faced her. “I don’t suppose anyone else saw your friend in Inverdarroch today besides you?”

Cassandra turned and looked at Angus and raised her eyebrows. He shook his head. “Sorry, not this time. I usually notice Julian’s car parked in the road outside Miss Potter’s house when he visits. I’m afraid I never saw it today.”

“Oh, Angus! I was sure you’d seen Julian or his car at least, it’s always—” She stopped, horrified, as she grasped what had happened. “Oh no! Maybe you couldn’t see his car from your place because I made him move it to the side of the cottage. It wouldn’t be visible because of the trees in the way.” She looked at Angus in a hopeful fashion, praying he would remember seeing the Porsche. When he shrugged and shook his head, Cassandra stared at him in bewilderment. He
must
have seen the Porsche before he climbed up there. He had walked past her place…she knew he had from the direction he left the village. She saw which way he had come! Surely the car was where Julian left it?

The constable sighed. “We’ll take a quick look for it when we’re down in the village. Shadow Vale is the name of the house I believe you said you lived in, Miss Potter?”

“Yes.”

“Have you lived here long?”

“A few months. I inherited the cottage from my sister.”

He nodded. “I see. And did she live here long?”

She couldn’t remember exactly how long Susan had lived there. Angus came to the rescue. “She lived here for many years, Officer. Miss Potter’s sister was an older lady, and she bought the cottage a long time ago.”

“I see.” The policeman shot an incredulous look at his colleague as, once again, he got out his notepad. He added to the notes already there before looking up at Cassandra. “Funny you not knowing that, Miss Potter. Right then, Miss. Let’s get back down, and we’ll check your friend hasn’t gone back home before you. I wouldn’t be surprised to find he’s already there, boots off and watching the footie on telly!”

As they trudged down the hill towards the road in the rain, Cassandra deliberately lagged behind and caught Angus by the arm. “They don’t believe me! They think I’ve made it all up.” Cassandra said in a furious but low voice to Angus. “They’ve all but said I’m a liar or I’ve been seeing things. What do they imagine I hope to gain by pretending I’m on a set from
Braveheart
?”

“Relax. Once they see Julian’s car parked by your house they’ll soon back down. Are you cold? Would you like my scarf? Now that it’s getting dark the temperature’s really plummeting.”

Cassandra shook her head. She frowned before replying. “I’m okay, thanks. Angus, your swords…the ones you have over your fireplace. Are they common, or are yours special?”

Angus took his time replying, and Cassandra wondered whether he had heard her. As she turned her head to repeat her question, he suddenly spoke.

“The claymores are original, as I think I told you when you first saw them. Yes, those are rather special, since they’ve belonged to…to me for years. Why do you ask?”

Something in his tone made her look at him sharply. His face looked pinched and bleak. Was it because she mentioned the swords? The one the watcher carried looked exactly the same to her unpractised eyes.

“Nothing, I was just curious.” Cassandra felt as if an icy finger touched her core. Angus had answered her terrified telephone call very quickly earlier that day, and he reached her within minutes. She wondered exactly where he was when she phoned him; was he already out on the heathland that afternoon, and if so, why? And just now, why had he taken so long to answer her simple question? What was he hiding something from her?

***

It was getting dark as they neared the village in the police car, but even before they reached Shadow Vale, Cassandra knew Julian wasn’t going to be there to greet them. As they passed the farmhouse and the Blackmore sisters’ cottage, she gasped and pointed.

“It’s gone! Julian’s car has gone.”

Open-mouthed she looked at each of the three men accompanying her. They followed the direction in which her finger was pointing, and the two policemen exchanged a dark look. Angus frowned and gave Cassandra an odd look.

“I swear Julian left his car by the trees.” Confused and upset by the day’s events, Cassandra felt tears welling up. “Where is it? What’s he done with it?”

“Perhaps after your argument he decided to leave and go home,” Constable Murray said.

Forcing back the tears, Cassandra rounded on him in anger. “I’ve bloody well already told you we didn’t have a row. It wasn’t anything like that.”

The older officer exhaled noisily and once again got out his notebook. “There’s no need for bad language, Miss Potter. I believe we need to ask you some more questions. We have to be sure you had a visitor. If you say you did, what have you
done
with him? If he was here and has really disappeared, are we to think something ominous has happened? Perhaps you would like to reconsider what you explained happened this afternoon? Now, shall we move on down the road? We’ll be more comfortable inside and give the neighbours less of a spectacle to watch?”

Shaken by the officer’s words, Cassandra turned to Angus and clutched the front of his coat. “Angus,” she whispered. “They think I’ve done something wrong. I haven’t, I swear. You believe me, don’t you? Are you sure you didn’t see Julian earlier today? If not, surely you saw his Porsche.” She gazed up at him with a pleading look upon her face.

When Angus didn’t answer, except by throwing her a bleak look, Cassandra felt as if her world was collapsing around her. So far that day, she had lost her dog and one of her best and oldest friends. And last but not least, after believing she and Angus had finally acknowledged there was something between them, it looked like he now took her for a liar. Angus, the man of her dreams! She turned away, shaking her head in disbelief as tears threatened to run down her cheeks. How could he doubt her and act so cruelly. Was someone making out she was mad? Or had she imagined everything that day?

Chapter 26 The Present, Inverdarroch

The police made a good show of checking the road for signs of Julian’s car. “No point searching for tyre-impression evidence”, muttered Murray as he paced the area where Cassandra said the Porsche had been left. “There’s nothing to show a car was parked here. No mud, just plain wet tarmac.” He straightened up and addressed his superior. “Shall I knock on a few doors and ask whether anyone saw anything suspicious? There’s less than half a dozen, and it won’t take me long.”

Cassandra guessed by the tone in his voice he thought it was a waste of time, but ought to show willing.

“Yes, I was about to suggest you did. We’ll go into Miss Potter’s place and check everything is okay there.”

Angus looked uncomfortable standing on the roadside. His hands were thrust deep into his pockets, and his collar was turned up against the freezing-cold rain. “Would you like me to come with you and Miss Potter, Officer, or should I go home and leave you to your enquiries? I can come back here later, Cassandra, if you’d like me to.” He turned and addressed Cassandra with an apologetic tone in his voice. “There’s something I have to finish off today. It’ll most likely only take me an hour or so.”

The older policeman paused as he considered Angus’s words. “No need, laddie. We know where you are, and my colleague will call round to take a quick statement from you when he’s finished. Okay with you, Murray?”

Cassandra turned to Angus and gave him a weak smile. “Yes, please, I’d like that.” She felt torn in two as she watched him walk away. She didn’t really believe he would call back as he said he would. He hadn’t answered her earlier question about Julian’s Porsche, and his silence felt like a death knell. She thought she was going to go crazy if something positive didn’t happen fast. When she and the policeman walked towards Shadow Vale, she wondered what else was ready to shatter her vile day.

Constable Kerr or
acting police sergeant,
as he informed Cassandra later, looked into every room and outbuilding of the cottage and found no trace of Julian. He also made Cassandra tramp over her land at the back of the cottage in case Julian was there, although she didn’t think it likely.

“But I don’t understand,” Cassandra said as she trailed into the cottage behind Kerr. She kicked off her soaking-wet boots and hung her coat over the back of a chair to dry. “I could have sworn Julian brought his bag of clothes in when he arrived. He usually brings a soft bag for personal stuff, and this time he brought a Fortnum and Mason hamper of food too. Look, the hamper’s here in the kitchen. It must prove he was here.” She turned round in triumph, pointing towards the tin of caviar and sealed packets of smoked salmon lying on top of the box.

“Aye, maybe, but where are his personal things? And did ye no have a drink or a bite to eat before ye left?”

“Yes, coffee.” She paused as she remembered. “Only I washed the cups up and put them back in the cupboard. But the hamper…surely?”

“Well now. It disne prove nothing. Food hampers can be sent by post. We can always check with the carriers if necessary.”

Cassandra hugged her arms around her body and looked around her house in bewilderment. “Julian must have left. I can’t think of any other explanation. But why would he? We were enjoying a walk one minute, then Bailey disappeared, and the next minute—well, a few minutes later—Julian vanished.”

Acting Police Sergeant Kerr made a few noncommittal noises while he took down a few more notes. He asked Cassandra to write out and sign a statement, adding Julian’s telephone numbers and address for the record. Just as he stood up to leave, there was a sharp knock on the door.

“I’ve spoken to someone in each of the other houses here, and
no one
remembers seeing Mr Pope or his car, Sarge,” Constable Murray said as he poked his head inside and gave the cottage a quick once-over. “I’ve also got a statement from Mr Angus McGregor.”

***

After the police left, Cassandra drew the curtains across the windows and bolted the front and back doors. As they were leaving, she got the distinct impression they thought she was barmy and had made the whole thing up. Which was only slightly better than being accused of something underhand, she thought. At one stage she was afraid they were going to blame her for Julian’s disappearance. But that would almost have been
better,
she mused. At least then they would have accepted Julian had been there that day!

Cassandra was mystified by Julian’s vanishing act. And what the hell had become of his holdall of clothes? She was certain Julian had fetched it from the car. She spied Bailey’s ball lying on the rug in front of the fireplace. Whatever had happened to her adorable puppy? She saw the fire was almost out and added a couple of hefty logs and a few chunks of coal to the embers. Then, exhausted, mystified and depressed, Cassandra flopped down into a chair and thought back over the day’s events culminating with Angus and his odd reactions. In the course of an afternoon he changed from being attentive and almost loving to distant and sceptical. She was positive that she
hadn’t
imagined the whole event and that there
had
been a mysterious stranger: ‘the watcher’, holding a sword—which brought her back to Angus. Cassandra wondered whether the police were curious enough to take a look at Angus’s swords. But so what? It wouldn’t prove anything.