“I was sure I’d seen him somewhere,” I said. “I didn’t regard him as a real stranger. And you know he looked kind of harmless. And his bicycle was all bent and everything.”
“Very good of you, I’m sure.” I didn’t like his tone. There was something underneath the politeness there.
“Did you get the message I left about his last words?”
“I did. Unusual.”
“I thought so, too, both at the time, and when I remembered them again. Do you have any idea what that might mean?”
“None at all,” he said. There was a long pause. “I’ll come to the point. We found traces of the victim’s blood in your rental car.”
“Oh! Well, he did grab me, and there was blood everywhere, on my clothes, on my arm. But you knew that.” I was obviously still not firing on all cylinders, because I didn’t immediately fathom where he was going with this. I had not been in that car since just before I’d found Percy.
“On the door side of the passenger seat,” he said, as if I’d said nothing. “You didn’t climb across from the passenger side, did you?”
I was tempted to say I was always trying to get in the passenger side, that and turning on the windshield wipers when I wanted to signal a turn, because I was unaccustomed to right-hand drive. “No. It must be from his bicycle accident, when I gave him a ride. He did have some bad scratches from a barbed wire fence.”
“Hmm,” he said, or something like that. I suppose it did sound a little lame. “Anyone you can think of that would confirm this bicycle accident?”
“His mother? He might have mentioned it to her. The bicycle repair shop? I mean he couldn’t repair it himself. I even wondered if it was a write-off.”
“The blood,” he said. “The cuts and scratches. Did anyone see him in that state?”
“We went to Maeshowe,” I said. “He went into the men’s room at the Historic Scotland center there, so maybe someone would recall that.”
“Hmm,” he said again. “He had a bad fall, cut himself on barbed wire, was bleeding, but you decided to go sightseeing with this complete stranger.”
“We struck up a conversation. It turned out he’d been to Toronto recently, so we talked about that.” There I’d said it. “He pointed out Maeshowe to me and was appalled I didn’t know what it was, and insisted we go to see it. I guess he thought I should know something about his home. Then I said I’d like to see the Ring of Brodgar and the Standing Stones of Stenness and he very kindly agreed to accompany me, then we went to Skara Brae. He was very knowledgeable, and I assumed this was his way of saying thank you for the lift. I dropped him off in Kirkwall. But why are you asking me this? He wasn’t stabbed in my car. He was stabbed in the bunker.”
“Just part of our investigation,” he said.
I thought about that for a moment. “The glasses,” I said. “You didn’t find the glasses, and that means he was killed somewhere else and transported to that bunker. Am I right? There’d be other things, too, where the blood was and everything.”
He looked a bit startled, but then he almost smiled. “I see a close personal relationship with a policeman has rubbed off on you. You may even know what I’m going to say next.”
“Something about not leaving Orkney anytime soon.”
“Right again. You wouldn’t be thinking of it, would you?
“I guess not,” I said.
“Good. That will be all for now.”
“You can’t possibly think there’d only be a couple of drops of blood in my car if I’d driven him around with all those stab wounds, do you? You think I propped him up in the passenger seat, hauled him up that hill and then down the steps of the bunker and on to that slab?” This was making me cranky.
“I don’t think anything,” he replied. “We’re in the early stages of our investigation. But we believe someone, presumably the person who stabbed him, threw Mr. Budge down the stairs, along with his bicycle, and that Mr. Budge dragged himself across the bunker and up onto the slab.”
“Please, no!” I said, with a catch in my voice. I could hardly tolerate such a terrible thought, and I think it must have showed. I got this horrible idea Percy had crawled up on that slab to get his last look at the setting sun. Ridiculous, but I couldn’t shake it.
“We’ll find whoever did this,” Cusiter said, his expression softening slightly. Then he shook my hand and left.
Despite the welcome, my accommodations at the Alexander residence were definitely a step up, although perhaps not as relaxing as Mrs. Brown’s place. Robert immediately asked me if I played golf. I reluctantly said no, because his homegrown driving range and putting green would be a spectacular place to play. I was given my own little suite, complete with fancy bathroom and a little sitting area off the bedroom with a small sofa, a desk, and a couple of interesting-looking chairs. Still, the fabulous antique furniture, which I promised myself I’d have a closer look at later, took second place to the views: from the bedroom across beautiful countryside to the sea, and from the sitting room, a perfect, unobstructed view of the house across the way. Maya showed me to my room.
“I want you to consider this your home,” she said. “Anything you want, please help yourself. If you can’t find it, just ask. I’ll give you a key so you can come and go as you please. We have a reservation for dinner at a very nice place, and we want you to be our guest. If you feel like coming with us, that’s great. If you’d prefer, I’ll make something up for you here. I know you’ve had a terrible time, and you might just like to rest. I hope that discussion with the policeman wasn’t too upsetting. You looked a little pale when he left.”
“Unpleasant subject,” I said, which was true, especially the part about a dying Percy dragging himself up on to the slab. On top of that, I seemed to have gone from unfortunate tourist to potential killer in the space of a day or two. I wondered if Maya would be as keen on me as a houseguest, going so far as to give me a key, if she’d known that. “I’d like to come with you to dinner.” I didn’t want her to think I was an invalid, because I had things to do, people to see, and I didn’t want her fussing over me the whole time. “I really would like the company. It keeps my mind off what happened. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your exceedingly generous invitation.”
“It was a selfish invitation, if truth be told. I’m very glad of your company, too. Robert is away from the house much of the day when we’re here, and Drever always has chores that take him away for hours. I’m not that comfortable by myself now, what with that murder happening so close by. I’ll be a lot happier when they catch the awful person who did it. I love it here. I just hope this doesn’t spoil the place for me.” I didn’t tell her that Percy might have been murdered somewhere else entirely, because what difference would that make to her? The body had been found just a few minutes drive away. I didn’t think this was a random killing though, a killer just roaming the neighborhood looking for someone to stab. I thought Maya pretty safe and said so.
“I suppose it wasn’t a robbery, or anything,” she said. “A man on his bike can’t be a great target, so I guess I don’t have to worry about a home invasion or anything. It must have been something else, a jilted lover or something. What do you think?”
“I’m sure you’re right,” I said.
“I wish I knew more people here. I’m lonely, really. Robert is, I don’t know, a jealous man. I don’t mean other men. He would have no cause for that. He seems to be content with just the two of us, you know. We don’t have friends as a couple. There are lots of people around, like that evening we did the fund-raiser in Glasgow, but they’re not friends. I haven’t had a close girlfriend since Bev, Robert’s first wife, died. Robert has his business associates, of course, and so he always has people to talk to, but I don’t. So often I’m alone with only Drever. Please don’t tell Robert, but I don’t like Drever much. I sometimes think he considers part of his job to be watching me on Robert’s behalf. Oh my. I’m really running off at the mouth, here, aren’t I? And you’ve had such a dreadful time. I know I’m very fortunate. Anything my little heart desires is mine. Please forgive me. It must all sound terribly selfish.”