Read Online Evil for Evil by Aline Templeton - Free Book Online Page B

lunch?’
    Again Christie seemed hesitant. ‘Kerr’s going off to Kirkcudbright later. I’m not sure – Matt’s bringing in the other two stags that aren’t so tame. I should probably hang around—’
    ‘Just a drink? Half an hour?’ Andy persisted.
    ‘Well, I could ask, I suppose. I wouldn’t like to stand you up, but if I’m needed …’ She shrugged.
    ‘OK. I’ll hope for the best.’
    She headed towards the farmhouse. Andy walked slowly back to the caravan site.
    Why hadn’t he just told her not to bother? There were plenty of eager girls around; he’d never wasted time on reluctant ones. Until now.
     
    ‘What’s all this about, anyway?’ DS MacNee looked at the dead doe, neatly shot in the head, its eyes glazing over. ‘Have you a licence for that thing?’ He pointed to the rifle.
    Kerr Brodie looked at him coldly. ‘Of course. This is part of my job – slaughtering deer.’
    MacNee eyed him in genuine horror. ‘By
shooting
them?’
    ‘It’s the kindest way. This one never knew what hit it, and the others paid no attention. You coming blundering up scared them a lot more. Try loading them in a van, taking them to the abattoir – they’re terrified.
    ‘So like I said, what are you doing here, MacNee?’ He was bristling like a dog ready to defend its territory.
    ‘Crime scene,’ MacNee said laconically, and watched with interest the other man’s sudden stillness.
    ‘Crime scene? What’re you talking about?’
    ‘Body in the cave down there.’ He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. ‘Know anything about it?’
    ‘No, of course not. Whose body?’
    ‘Ah well, that’s just a wee bit hard to say. It’s got no clothes on.’
    ‘A naked body?’
    ‘Not exactly.’ MacNee was playing with him. ‘It’s not got any flesh on either. Just bones.’
    Brodie gave him a look of disgust. ‘You’ve not improved, MacNee. But then I never thought you would.’
    ‘Our ways parted a long time ago. You picked yours, I picked mine. And it’s my job now to ask you some questions. How long have you lived here?’
    ‘Two and a half, nearly three years.’
    ‘Visited, before that?’
    ‘Never even been to the area till Major Matt set up the deer farm. Knew me from the army, offered me a job when he heard about this. Bosnia – landmine.’ He pulled up the leg of his trousers to give MacNee a view of his artificial leg.
    He made no attempt at conventional sympathy. ‘Lucky to get a job, then.’
    ‘Aye.’
    ‘Your gun skills coming in useful too.’
    Brodie’s eyes hardened. ‘I don’t know what you mean, MacNee.’
    ‘Aye, do you!’ There was real bitterness there.
    ‘It’s a long time since Glasgow. And it was your word against mine.’
    ‘Mine was the truth, Brodie.’
    The man gave a snort of impatience. ‘If there’s nothing else you want to ask in your official capacity, I’ve work to do even if you don’t.’
    There was a small tractor with a forklift, MacNee now noticed, parked nearby. As Brodie broke his gun and limped towards it, he called over his shoulder, ‘See much of your da these days, MacNee?’
    MacNee’s hands balled into fists at his side. It was an effort to turn away, but if he didn’t, Brodie would succeed again in what he’d been trying to do since they were scruffy kids living on the same stair of a Glasgow tenement – provoke MacNee into doing something he’d later regret.
    He turned his back and went to sit on a rocky outcrop looking over towards Innellan, brooding.
     
    Marjory Fleming was in an embittered mood too as she drove down the single-track road which led only to Innellan and the sea. Cat wouldn’t even kiss her goodbye and the worst thing was that Fleming knew there was no real operational need for her to be here – just a cosmetic job, because of the reports that would appear in the media if she didn’t, with a journalist there on the spot. She’d suffered at the hands of the press before and she was conceiving a violent dislike