Torquil held up his hand. ‘OK, that’s enough now. Let me get this all down.’
He began making one line notes of all the suggestions so far under the name of Dr Dent, then to the left he wrote FLOTSAM & JETSAM and enclosed it in a square. Underneath it he wrote the names Fergie and Chrissie and circled each.
‘He was rude, as Ewan says. And he came in here to complain about Bruce McNab and his fishing and hunting clients.’
To the right of Dr Dent’s name he wrote FISHING PARTY, put it in a square, and then underneath drew four lines. Under the first he wrote Bruce McNab, circled it, under the second added Sandy King and circled it as well.
‘Who were the others, Morag?’
Morag checked her notes of the meeting she had. ‘Mr Dan Farquarson and Hugh Thompson. They called Thompson Wee Hughie, which is a bit of a misnomer, since he’s built like a proverbial.’
Torquil added the names and circled them, adding Morag’s details underneath. He looked over at her and noticed the blush that had crept into her cheeks. ‘Are you all right, Morag? You look flushed.’
‘Ah, that’s love, boss,’ said Douglas. ‘Tell him, Morag.’
‘Tell me what?’ Torquil asked.
‘I – er – I have been asked out for a drink by Sandy King. Is that a problem, do you think?’
Torquil stared at her for a moment then shrugged. ‘I don’t see any problem, except he is on this board.’
‘But he’s not a suspect, is he, Torquil?’ Wallace queried.
‘We haven’t got as far as making anyone a suspect, Wallace. But we just need to bear this in mind.’ He clicked his tongue. ‘Who knows? It might even be useful.’
He turned his attention to the board again. ‘It isn’t a lot to go on, is it? We’ll need to check things out with the University of the Highlands.’ And so saying he added U of H to the notes underneath the name of Dr Dent.
‘Which reminds me,’ he said after a moment, ‘the Reverend Kenneth Canfield is on the island at the moment. He’s one of Lachlan’s golfing chums. He is the chaplain at the university.’ He added his name and circled it. ‘I’ll have a word with Lachlan and see if he knows anything of interest.’
‘Did Dr Dent have any relatives?’ Morag asked.
‘Not that I know of. Ralph McLelland contacted his GP and as far as they know he was a man on his own. No parents, no siblings, no cousins.’
‘So where do we go from here, boss?’ Wallace asked.
‘We gather as much information as we can. So let’s divvy things up. First we need to find out all that we can about Dent. I think that will mean a bit of phoning about. Morag that’s your forte, isn’t it?’
Morag pouted. ‘How did I guess you were going to say that?’
‘You know me, I think,’ Torquil replied. ‘Just as Wallace and Douglas know what I’m going to ask them to do.’ He looked expectantly at them.
‘It will be the heavy job,’ Wallace replied.
‘Or the dirtiest job,’ Douglas added. ‘But go on, boss, tell us. We’re up for anything.’
‘It’s not dirty and shouldn’t be hard either,’ Torquil returned. ‘I need you lads to go and check out Dent’s cottage. We just need to know that the place is secure.’
‘We can do that,’ Wallace said. ‘But what about Sherlock Holmes over there?’ he said, grinning at Ewan. ‘Isn’t he going to be given something to test his mettle?’
‘I’ll test your mettle, you long drip of—’
‘Ewan! Don’t rise to the bait,’ Torquil said calmly. ‘You’ve got an important series of jobs to do.’
‘Name it Torquil. I am keen to get whoever did this thing.’
‘It isn’t the Dr Dent case, Ewan. As I said, I want you to go and make a start with these burglaries. Then once we’ve got things up and running and we know a bit more about Dr Dent then you can come on board with the murder investigation.’
Ewan’s expression showed his disappointment, but he straightened. ‘Of course, sir. Whatever you say.’
‘And what are you going to do, Torquil?’ Morag asked.
Torquil reached down and scratched Crusoe’s head. ‘I am going to make a start on this cat and dog business. I am going to see Annie McConville first, then I am going to see if I can catch up on Uncle Lachlan to see if I can get hold of the Reverend Kenneth Canfield.’
He glanced at his watch. ‘Let’s aim to meet back here at lunch, and then we’ll see where we go next.’
Ewan made his way along Harbour Street on Nippy. The street was busy with both the market-stalls on the sea-wall side and the multi-coloured shops doing a brisk trade.
He was feeling a little peeved at being kept out of the murder investigation, especially since the Drummond twins had been given a job that he felt he, as the regular constable, should have been given.
‘Och! And they are just special constables,’ he muttered under his breath. ‘Sometimes I think Torquil goes a bit easy on them because of that.’
But in a way he was pleased to have been given the other task. After all, he knew that despite his size he had a squeamish side and the memory of finding Dr Dent’s body face down in the bog-pool had kept coming back to him.
‘That cheeky streak of nonsense called me Sherlock Holmes! They think they are so much smarter than me. Well, I’ll show them. I’m going to solve some of these burglaries and then I’ll make them laugh on the other side of their faces.’
He opened up the throttle and peddled hard to give the moped more power to get up the hill.
‘We’ll start with old Mrs Rogerson at Aberstyle Farm. She sounded upset at the theft of her grandfather’s tobacco tin collection.’
He took the road that skirted Kyleshiffin moor and breathed deeply, enjoying the salty, peaty air. Then he swerved when he saw the dark haze rising from bushes at the side of the road.
‘Blasted midges!’ he cursed.
He did not notice the glint of sun on the lenses of a pair of binoculars that were trained on him.
Annie McConville always amazed Torquil. Although she was in her late seventies she seemed to thrive on hard work and was always on the go. Her animal sanctuary was famous throughout the islands and she was regarded as something of a local celebrity.
She was scuttling about with a wheelbarrow of straw, busily cleaning out the cat cages in the outhouses while Torquil followed her. Crusoe was tagging along behind him on his lead, while Zimba her German shepherd and Sheila her West Highland terrier lay on the floor wagging their tails.
‘So how many strays have you actually had recently, Annie?’
Annie turned and straightened. ‘Too many by far. Six dogs and three cats. I can’t understand it. We’ve never really had a problem on the island before.’ She scowled. ‘No matter what that scunner Rab McNeish may say.’
‘Oh, what does Rab say?’
‘You know very well, Inspector McKinnon. The man is not right in the head. He has a thing about germs. He has been spreading malicious rumours about me and my dogs. He thinks that whenever a dog fouls any patch of ground it is me and one of my animals that is at fault.’
Torquil nodded. ‘I was aware that he had mentioned some such thing.’
Annie waved a brush under his nose and Torquil stepped back adroitly.
‘Well, he will not do it again. I told him myself this morning at the station.’
‘You were at the station this morning?’
‘Goodness me! Do those folk that you work with not tell you anything? I was in telling Ewan McPhee an important piece of information. I am surprised that he hasn’t told you.’