Angy seemed to enjoy the shocked expressions on our faces.
âIt would be his heart likely?â asked Janet.
âAye, I would think it couldnât be much else,â agreed Angy.
âSo you didnât get your dayâs fishinâ after all your rushinâ,â observed Erchy.
âIndeed we did,â Angy assured him. âAnâ a good dayâs fishinâ it was too for all we were in early.â
âYou were lucky then,â Erchy told him. âI would think youâd be kept back with the doctor anâ everybody wantinâ to ask you what happened.â
âAch we didnât wait for all that,â said Angy.
âYou surely didnât take a dead man to sea with you?â challenged Janet in an outraged voice.
âWe did not then,â Angy told her. âWhat we did was wrap him up in a piece of tarpaulin we had aboard anâ then four of us carried him up to the fish store between us.â
âYou put him in the fish store?â Anna Vic squeaked.
âAye, there was a slab there handy, you see. Anâ there was some of these labels they put on the fish boxes, so we just wrote on a couple of them anâ stuck them on the tarpaulin.â
âAnâ what did you say on the labels?â asked Erchy.
â âTo be deliveredâ,â said Angy. âI believe thatâs what they usually say.â
âOh, hear!â whispered Janet.
âYou didnât even straighten the man out?â exclaimed Morag.
âI tell you there was no time. We were near missinâ the tide as it was.â Angy was entirely unabashed.
âWhatever would the fish salesman say when he came to unwrap what he would think would be a good catch of fish anâ finds a corpse just?â asked Anna Vic. Angy only shrugged. âAnâ what would they do with him supposinâ they found him?â
âI donât know anâ I donât care.â Angy was becoming impatient. âAll I know is theyâd find him all right. We left him in a place where they couldnât miss him.â
âWhere was that?â asked Morag.
âDidnât I tell you, on the fish slab itself,â retorted Angy. âAnâ since theyâd need to have the slab clear before they started filletinâ the fish, theyâd have to do somethinâ with him. They wouldnât just leave him there.â
I found myself swallowing rather hard.
âThe poor man!â breathed Morag.
âAch, he wasnât much of a fellow,â said Angy dismissively. âHe was only a fisherman because he couldnât keep another job anâ he was nothinâ but a bloody landlubber aboard. Honest, he was so scared of the sea he couldnât pee from the time we left the harbour till the time we got back in again.â
I stood up. âItâs time I was away home to my bed,â I announced. There was a general move to go and as we stood outside assessing the night before we took our different paths Erchy said, I suspected with the intention of frightening me, âIâd like fine to know whether it was Neillyâs ghost you saw last night.â
âAch, how could it have been?â asked Tearlaich. âWhat would Neilly be wantinâ from Miss Peckwitt?â
âDid you say it was about nine oâclock when you saw him?â Erchy would not leave the subject alone.
âYes,â I said resignedly.
âThen I doubt he was wantinâ in to have a listen to the news on the wireless,â said Erchy.
âMore like to listen to the weather forecast,â put in Johnny. âHeâd be wantinâ to know what like of weather he was goinâ to get for his own funeral.â
The Shenagelly
I had been over to the mainland and had finished all my business there several hours before the bus was due to return to Bruach and since the inducements to linger on the mainland were limited to the
Michael Cobley
Tabor Evans
Richard S. Tuttle
Cynthia Sax
Greg Rucka
Philip S. Donlay
D. B. Douglas
Anthony E. Zuiker
Julie Kramer
James Carroll