“Aye, for a bit. But the villains always chose the one there wasn’t a cop in.”
Hamish pulled out a chair and sat down. “Now, there’s a thing. Could it be possible that some cheil here was giving them information?”
“Aw, come on, Hamish. It’s hardly the Great Train Robbery we’re talking about.”
“Who’s the newest policeman on the force?”
“Policewoman. Wee Alice Donaldson.”
“Where is she right now?”
“Off duty today. Och, Hamish. You just can’t think…”
“Of anything else,” said Hamish. “Let me have her address.”
Jimmy applied himself to the computer and then said, “Here it isv Write it down. Eight Bannoch Brae. That’s down near the docks. Not a tower block. There’s a row of wee houses just before you get to the tower blocks on the Inverness Road.”
“And what’s she like?”
“Neat, quiet. Come on, laddie. You’ve had too much sun.”
“It iss worth a try,” said Hamish angrily, the sudden sibilance of his accent showing he was uneasy. “I haff nothing else to go on.”
“Suit yourself. Did you get laid?”
But Hamish was already walking away.
When Hamish left headquarters, the wind had risen. Rain slashed into his face as he hurried to the Land Rover.
He found Bannoch Brae and parked outside number 8. “Won’t be long,” he said to his animals. “Sit there and shut up and I’ll buy ye a fish supper on the road home.”
There was a weedy garden in front of a small stone house. Hamish went up to the front door and rang the bell.
The door opened and a girl stood looking up at him. She was not very tall. Two wings of black hair hung on either side of a thin face.
“Alice Donaldson?” asked Hamish.
“Yes, that’s me. It’s my day off. Am I wanted back on duty?”
“No, I chust wanted to be having a wee word with you.”
“Come in.”
She stood aside to let him past and then closed the door and ushered him into a small front room.
The room seemed rather bleak. It was simply furnished with a three-piece suite and a paraffin heater in front of the empty fireplace.
“Sit down,” said Alice. “Tea?”
“No, thank you. I’m chust back from Spain and I haff been asked to investigate the burglaries of the post offices,” said Hamish, nervously wondering why his imagination had leapt to the conclusion that some member of the force had been tipping off the gang.
“Oh, yes? How can I help? I haven’t had anything to do with any of the cases.”
Hamish could not see much of her face because of those wings of hair. Didn’t they irritate her?
She was wearing a man’s shirt tied at the waist and a pair of worn jeans. His hazel eyes suddenly sharpened.
“What are you staring at?” she demanded.
“That looks like a cigarette burn on your neck,” said Hamish.
Her hand fluttered up to the burn. “It’s nothing. I’m clumsy.”
Hamish looked around the room. He could not see any ashtray; neither could he smell smoke. If she smoked, he thought, then the fabric upholstery would have retained some of the smell.
He was sitting at one end of the sofa and Alice was in an armchair next to him.
Hamish leaned forward suddenly and swept a wing of her hair back from her face. There was a black-and-yellow bruise on her cheek. She jerked her head back, and the other wing of hair flew back. The other side of her face was bruised as well.
“Who did this to ye, lassie?” asked Hamish gently.
“No one!” Her voice was shrill. “I’m clumsy. This is my day off. You’ve no right…”
“They beat you up for information, didn’t they?” said Hamish. “Do you know them, or did they just pick on you?”
She began to cry. Great sobs racked her body. Hamish waited patiently. He felt that if he comforted her, she might take it as a sign of weakness.
He took a handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to her. It had been given to him by one of his admirers at the Spanish hotel who had even embroidered his initials in one corner.
At last she wiped her eyes and looked at him bleakly. “I’m finished with the force.”
“Let’s hear it,” said Hamish.
In a flat tired voice she told him what had happened. She had been out clubbing in Strathbane and had got picked up by a man, George MacDuff. They had gone out for a bit and then one evening he had come round with two friends, Hugh Sutherland and Andy Burnside. George had said the police were staking out post offices and they wanted her to tell them which ones. She refused. George got nasty. They tied her to a chair and stripped off her blouse and began to burn her with cigarettes. She said she was terrified and told them she would find out for them.
“You had their names and descriptions,” said Hamish. “Why didn’t you just report them?”
“George knows where my mother lives in Bonar Bridge. He said if I told anyone, they would kill her.”
“Lassie, the police could have put your mother under protection.”
“With Blair in charge?”
“Oh, well, maybe you have a point. What’s the next job?”
“They came round today. I said I wouldn’t tell them anything more and they beat me. I still wouldn’t tell them but they hurt me so much, I told them that the post offices were no longer under surveillance. George said something like ‘Leave her.’ Then as they went out, I heard one of the others say, ‘Braikie tomorrow’ll be our last anyway.’ I’d better get my coat. You’ll be taking me in.”
“Let me think.” Hamish ran his long fingers through his flaming red hair. “Who’s your doctor?”
“Dr. Sing.”
“Sympathetic?”
“He seemed like a nice man. I only saw him the once when I had a sprained ankle.”
“Get me his number.”
Supplied with the phone number, Hamish phoned Dr. Sing and asked him to call, adding that it was a police matter.
“What are you going to do?” asked Alice.
“Try to get you out of this.”
When Dr. Sing arrived, Hamish said, “Miss Donaldson has been beaten up during some undercover work. We fear this might be because of some informant at headquarters. Until we investigate further, we want you to sign her off for two weeks suffering from injuries incurred after a bad fall down the stairs. You would be helping an investigation considerably if you could do this.”
Dr. Sing was a young doctor, recently qualified and anxious to please. He wrote out the certificate and would have examined Alice but Hamish said a police doctor had already had a look. “But the certificate has to be issued by her own doctor,” said Hamish.
When the doctor had left, Hamish said, “Get over to your mother in Bonar Bridge and get her off to a wee hotel somewhere until this blows over. Now, if these men are caught and your name comes up, don’t say I had anything to do with it or we’ll both be out of the force.”
“I don’t know how to thank you,” said Alice.
“Just move fast and get out of here,” said Hamish. “Have you got a car?” She nodded. “Pack quickly and off you go!”
♦
Hamish stopped on the road back to Lochdubh and bought three fish suppers to feed his pets and himself, wondering all the time how to catch the men who proposed robbing the Braikie Post Office. They were getting bolder, he thought. The others had mainly been sub post offices in general stores, but Braikie was a pedigree one and quite new. No one could understand how Braikie, a remote highland town, should get a new post office when the government was proposing to close so many down.
Twice Hamish had been promoted to sergeant and twice he had been demoted. During the two periods he had held the rank of sergeant, he had policemen working under him. One was Willie Lamont, who had married the daughter of an Italian restaurant owner and left to work in the restaurant. The other, Clarry Graham, was now employed as a chef at the Tommel Castle Hotel. He decided to get them to help him. If he got a squad from Strathbane, they would insist on knowing how he got the information about the proposed robbery. Or Blair might take over and make a mess of it.