When finished he clicked it off and stood up to talk to Penny.
‘A grim business, Detective Faversham. By the smell of the bottle its alcohol related, probably methanol adulteration as you said. There doesn’t seem to have been any sexual shenanigans going on among them. His clothes are relatively undisturbed, no love bites on his skin and no sign of used condoms.’
‘Will it take long to get the samples tested?’ Penny asked, lowering her mask.
‘The lab will get the whisky bottle done straight away and see precisely what it contained, and they’ll also check to see if the bottle itself can reveal anything. The bloods that Dr Ralph McLelland took we’ll also get analysed quickly. As for the body, well, it will all depend on a post-mortem by the pathologist. I’m no doctor, but I’m wondering if this young man had an underlying medical condition.’
Penny nodded. ‘I understand Dr McLelland also sent blood off from Catriona McDonald. It will be interesting to compare them.’
Ian clicked his tongue. ‘Whoever supplied them with this stuff is going to be hot under the collar. I can’t say I have any sympathy with them either. One young life snuffed out and another maybe maimed for life.’
Penny peeled back one of her gloves from the wrist and glanced at her watch. ‘And a third teenager still to be found. Are we about finished up here? Because we have the other case to see. The boss wants me to assist you there, too.’
Ian bowed with a show of old world gallantry. ‘I’ll be as swift and efficient as I can. It’s not often I get two separate jobs so close together. If the next is as your report suggests it will be a snip.’
Torquil’s phone went off early that morning. To his surprise it was Dr Ralph McLelland.
‘I think you’ll be wanting to come down to the hospital, Piper. I’ve got Angus Mackintosh in the accident room. He’s pissed as a newt and he’s lost a lot of blood.’
‘Does he know about Jamie?’
‘He does. I thought it was my duty as his family doctor, especially as I had confirmed his death. He found it difficult to take in, of course, what with the booze he’s had and the blood that he’s lost.’
‘So he’d been on a bender? Did he fall and injure himself?’
‘Like Robbie Ochterlonie? Actually no, he hadn’t. It’s a strange tale, I’ll fill you in when you come in. Anyway, I’d better go. I need to stitch him up. I’ll have finished by the time you get here, so you can talk to him then.’
‘Did he drive himself in?’
‘No, it was our local good Samaritan once again. Stan Wilkinson delivered him in his Royal Mail van.’
Torquil was relieved that Ralph had broken the bad news to Angus Mackintosh. He did not know him well, but he had encountered him professionally on a few occasions in the past, mainly as a result of being drunk and disorderly. And on two occasions of common assault, both while under the influence of alcohol. Allowance had been made because he was a widower and a single parent. Ralph had passed on the information that he was not a habitual drinker, but more of a toper who went on binges when black depression overcame him. It was not an easy situation, since he refused the offer of antidepressants or counselling.
Ralph was entering his case notes as he told Torquil the details.
‘Stan Wilkinson found him crawling up a track from one of the old crofts beyond the Wee Kingdom. He was drunk, confused and injured. He’d apparently been doing up a cottage and somehow put a nail-bolt through his thigh. It hit a blood vessel and he lost a lot of blood and passed out.’
‘Had he been drinking?’
Ralph shrugged. ‘I don’t know if he had before the accident, but he told Stan he came round, used a belt as a tourniquet and then drank near a bottle of whisky to get the courage to pull the bolt out. He couldn’t just pull it out, though, he had to cut it out, which is why I’ve had to clean the wound up, stitch it and leave a drain in. Anyway, he collapsed, woke up hours later and dragged himself out, hoping to see someone.’
‘Why did he not take his vehicle.’
‘He couldn’t remember where it was and he doubted that he could get in it, let alone drive.’
Angus himself virtually reiterated the whole story when Torquil saw him in his bed in a room on his own. His right leg was heavily bandaged and a drainage tube hung from it over the side of the bed.
‘It isn’t real,’ Angus said, his face buried in his hands. ‘My boy Jamie, he’s doing his Highers. He’s a clever lad and he’ll be off to uni soon.’
‘I’m so sorry, Mr Mackintosh. But we will need you to identify his body later this morning.’
Angus slowly raised his head and stared at Torquil. His eyes were bloodshot and tears had moistened his stubbly cheeks. He took a deep breath and nodded his head. Then: ‘And the other two? Vicky and Catriona, was it?’
Torquil put a hand on the man’s shoulder. ‘I’m afraid that Catriona has been transferred to the Western Isles Hospital in Stornoway. She’s got visual problems and is being dialysed.’
‘Dialysed? What does that mean?’
‘It’s a treatment to use a machine to work like the kidneys to clear the poison out of her system.’
‘And Vicky?’
‘She’s missing and we’re searching for her.’
‘Good God! This is an island. How can you still be looking for her?’
‘We were looking for you too, Angus.’
‘What did you say about poison?’ he asked, shaking his head as if to clear his mind.
‘We believe they’d been drinking peatreek with a high quantity of methyl alcohol in it.’
Angus’s jaw muscles tightened and he clenched his fists. ‘I’ll find out who gave them it and I’ll bloody kill them.’
His eyes blazed with fury for some moments and then the enormity of what had happened seemed to dawn on him again and he dissolved into tears. He dropped his head and his sobs racked his body.
‘I … I’ve lost them both, now. It’s not fair! it’s not fair.’
Again Torquil put a hand on his shoulder and waited until his sobbing settled. ‘Angus, as soon as the Scene Examiner has completed his investigation I’ll arrange for you to see Jamie to identify him.’
Angus nodded his head but said nothing.
Later, over the phone, Torquil gave Calum the full rundown on the three teenagers and the current state of the investigation.
‘The Stornoway Coastguard Rescue helicopter has joined the search, scouring the sea and the coastline,’ Torquil told Calum. ‘Hopefully, with so many people involved, it will not be long before we find her or some track that will help us.’
‘And dogs?’ Calum asked. ‘I contacted the Strathshiffin estate’s gamekeeper, Guthrie Frazer and he said that he and his underkeeper would turn out with their dogs.’
‘Aye, Guthrie was out yesterday, but I guess it was too wet to pick anything up. Rain dampens the smell, of course. Let’s hope for a different result today.’
‘Cora is going to interview the Spiers, since she knows them and already has a good rapport with them.’
‘We have to be as reassuring as we can, without being unrealistic, Calum. We can’t promise them anything other than we’ll do our best to find her unharmed.’
‘Aye, Cora’s intelligent and sensitive, so don’t worry.’ Then he said what Torquil was dreading to hear: ‘As for me, I’ll be having a chat with Angus Mackintosh.’
‘Not yet, Calum, please. The Senior Scene Examiner has only just taken all the samples and assessed the scene, and Ewan has arranged for Allan Moorhouse the undertaker to bring the body back to the hospital mortuary. We’ll be able to get Angus to formally identify him there, before we transfer the body to Lewis for the post-mortem.’