Too Soon a Death: A Scottish mystery where cosy crime meets tartan noir: Borders Mysteries Book 2 (23 page)

‘That’s what I’m hoping. Anyway, my dear, I’ll get off the line and let you find out how your friend is. Do keep me in the picture, won’t you?’

After saying goodbye and putting down the house phone, Zoe picked up her mobile again. Douglas had given her his number just before she left the hospital. She struggled with what to say, eventually settling for:
Any news? Z
.

The response came back almost immediately:
No change. Am back with Mum in Melrose, waiting to go in to see K.

Do you want me to come over?

Would you bring Dad? He’s threatening to drive himself.

Of course.

Thanks. Will call and tell him. No rush.

Seeing no point in hanging around, Zoe had showered and was ready to leave before a half-hour had passed, having also texted a brief, sympathetic response to her father’s news. Despite keeping her windows up, she could smell smoke way before she took the turning down to Tolbyres Farm. She averted her eyes as she drove past Kate’s ruined home and minutes later was walking down the side of the farmhouse.

A small figure ran up and threw arms around her waist. ‘Take me to see Mummy too, Zoe. Pleeease.’

She stroked Mhairi’s hair and said in a soft voice, ‘I can’t, sweetheart. I’m sorry.’ Not knowing how much the children had been told, she held back from saying anything else.

Taking the little girl’s hand, she went into the house and through to the kitchen. The atmosphere was quite the opposite of the usual hubbub: subdued and with no clamour of voices today. Auntie Joan had taken the place of her sister, transferring homemade biscuits from a tin to a dinner-plate set down next to a huge pot of coffee. Eva sat with Hazel, watching intently as baby Hugo gorged himself on milk from a bottle. There was no sign of Frankie.

Several men, most of whose faces were familiar although Zoe couldn’t put names to them all, crowded round Kate’s father at one end of the Mackenzies’ oversized dining table. They spoke in hushed voices.

Mhairi dragged Zoe towards her grandfather. ‘Granddad, Zoe’s here. There’s plenty of room in her car for me to come to the hospital too.’

Ranald Mackenzie shook his head. ‘Auntie Charlotte’s taking you all to play with your cousins, remember?’

At the sound of his wife’s name, Richard looked over and nodded a sombre greeting to Zoe, who responded in kind. ‘She’ll be here soon,’ he told Mhairi. ‘Why don’t you go and find your brother, make sure he’s ready.’

‘Can’t. He’s gone to see his chickens.’

Dod Affleck swore under his breath, jumped up from his seat and headed for the door.

‘He was told not to,’ Ranald said.

‘But they can’t stay in all day, they’ll be too hot,’ Mhairi said indignantly.

‘Would you like a coffee, Zoe?’ Auntie Joan asked.

‘Thanks, but I’m not sure I’ve got time,’ Zoe said, glancing at Kate’s father.

‘He was agitating to leave ten minutes ago but now he’s sat down again you might have a bit of a wait.’

Zoe accepted the coffee but turned down a biscuit. As she took her first sip, Auntie Joan said, ‘I’ve put a wee bag of clothes together for Etta. Would you take them over for her? I know Eleanor will be looking after her as best she can, but she can’t be expected to clothe her as well.’

‘Of course I will. Is anyone over there with her now?’

‘Douglas came back briefly for a shower just after six, while Richard kept their mother company. Now they’ve swapped places again. Douglas—’

Auntie Joan broke off at the sound of a commotion just outside the kitchen. Everyone in the room turned towards the door as Ken stormed in, Dod following him with a pinched expression on his face.

‘Did no one think to tell me what had happened?’ Ken shouted. ‘I come to visit my children and find my son standing alone outside his home which has burnt to the ground.’

Richard rose from his chair. ‘We would have if we’d known how to get in touch with you. And thanks for your concern about my sister. She’s in intensive care and we don’t know when she’ll wake up.’

‘All the more reason you should be looking after the children. There’s enough of you to do that. Yet when you eventually realise Frankie’s missing, you send a farmhand after him. Jeez.’

The boy appeared at the doorway, his eyes red as if he’d been crying.

‘I think you’ll find Dod knows Frankie a hell of a lot better than you do,’ Richard said.

Ken looked at Eva then Mhairi. ‘Come and say hello to your daddy, girls.’

With no enthusiasm, his daughters approached and he threw his arms around them. ‘You’ll be all right now I’m here to look after you.’

Mhairi looked up at him. ‘Can we still go to play at Auntie Charlotte’s? They’ve got a new puppy.’

In the silence which followed, Ranald Mackenzie slowly rose from his seat and walked over to Zoe. ‘I think I’d like to go and see my daughter now.’

Zoe nodded, linked her arm through his and escorted him to the Jeep.

TWENTY-SIX

Zoe and Ranald Mackenzie had travelled several miles before either of them spoke.

‘How does Kate look?’ Ranald asked, his voice wavering. ‘The boys won’t tell me anything except that she’s asleep.’

‘Which of course she is.’ While wanting to minimise his distress, Zoe also thought he needed to know the truth. ‘But she has a tube in her throat to help her breathe and she’s connected to various drips and monitors. The equipment can look and sound scary, which is why it’s best the children are kept away at the moment.’

‘My family are treating me like a child. They think I’m so old and doddery that I can’t cope with all this. What I can’t cope with is the idea of my only daughter dying before I get to see her.’

Zoe had no idea how to respond.

Her passenger shifted in his seat to look at her. ‘You youngsters don’t like to even think about death, let alone discuss it. Maybe you’re different, Zoe, being a doctor and having lost your husband. But I’m eighty-one. I’ve lived longer than two of my brothers and many friends, and I’ve learnt there are far worse things than dying. Can you imagine Kate wanting to be kept alive if she can’t lead a normal life afterwards?’

Keeping her eyes on the road, Zoe said, ‘No, I can’t.’

‘She nearly died when she had meningitis and lost her hearing. Did she tell you that?’

‘No. We’ve only ever discussed her determination not to be defined by her disability, not what caused it. Though I know, of course.’

‘That’s Kate for you. She refused point blank to learn sign language, said she wanted to be able to communicate with everyone. We had to respect her wishes, although she found lip-reading very difficult at first.’

‘Which is hard to believe, seeing how good she is at it.’

‘She’s always been determined. That’s what’ll get her through this now, if anything can.’

Ranald became lost in thought again, while Zoe concentrated on driving. As they passed the turning to the crematorium, her mobile told her a text had come in, but although anxious to see who it was from, she drove on.

‘Don’t you want to stop and see who that was?’ Ranald asked.

‘No, I’m sure they can wait another ten minutes.’

‘Even Richard’s youngest has a mobile.’ His head-shaking led Zoe to assume he disapproved, but then he said, ‘I wish there’d been mobiles when Kate was a teenager. It would’ve been much easier for her to stay in touch with her friends. And us.’

He sounded so forlorn, Zoe searched for a suitable response. To her surprise, she found herself saying, ‘I met an old friend of yours recently. Andrew Balfour.’

Her passenger’s face was blank for a moment then he said, ‘The agricultural engineer? Used to live in Kelso?’

‘That’s right. He’s retired to Dumfries and Galloway now.’

‘I remember having some enjoyable sessions in the beer tent at the Kelso Show with him. Quite popular with the ladies, was Andy.’

‘Oh.’

‘Sorry. Ignore this old man’s ramblings. ‘

‘I’m surprised, that’s all, though I don’t know him well.’

‘How did you two meet?’

Zoe was searching for an answer which wasn’t an outright lie when she saw the sign for the hospital. ‘Here we are,’ she said, indicating left.

A few minutes later, they walked in silence towards the main hospital building, Zoe making a conscious effort to slow her pace so Ranald could keep up with her. She scanned the cafe as they passed through it and saw two men huddled at the far end with their backs to her: Erskine Mather and Sergeant Trent.

Kate’s father hadn’t noticed them and Zoe was undecided what to do. She wanted to catch up with the policemen but she also knew the relationship between Mather and Ranald Mackenzie was cool at best. It would be best to get Ranald up to the ICU and come back down alone, although by then they may be gone.

Her quandary was solved by the men getting up to leave and Trent looking over and spotting her. He came straight across to them, although Mather uncharacteristically hung back. He wore cleaner clothes than the last time Zoe saw him, but the red eyes staring out from his pallid face suggested he’d still got hardly any sleep.

Zoe introduced Ranald to Trent.

‘I’m part of the team trying to find out who set fire to your daughter’s house,’ Trent said. ‘I’ll not delay your visit, but perhaps I could come and speak to you at Tolbyres Farm later this afternoon?’

‘You would be very welcome and of course we’ll do everything we can to help your investigation.’ Ranald moved off, dipping his head slightly in Mather’s direction. The policeman responded with the same gesture.

‘I could do with talking to you as well, Doctor Moreland,’ Trent said.

‘Are you staying here for a while?’ Zoe asked.

‘I can, if you’d like me to.’

‘In which case I’ll see Kate’s father up to the ICU then come straight back down.’

Zoe caught up with Ranald and they took the lift to the hospital’s second floor. Douglas was standing outside the ICU, vigorously tapping a text into his phone. He embraced Zoe and briefly gripped his father’s upper arms, the closest she’d ever seen the Mackenzies come to a man hug.

‘How is she?’ Ranald asked.

‘Still no change. Mum’s choosing to see that as positive but I’m not so sure.’ Douglas looking searchingly at Zoe, as though she could settle who was right. She was saved from having to respond by Ranald asking, ‘Can’t we go in?’

Etta sat in the same position as when Zoe had last seen her, holding one of Kate’s hands between both of her own. When her husband entered the room, she rose to give him a peck on the cheek then motioned to him to take her seat. Instead of sitting, Ranald stood staring down at his daughter. As if aware of his gaze, Kate suddenly got agitated, moving her limbs and rolling her head from side to side.

‘Is she in pain?’ he asked.

The nurse standing on the other side of Kate’s bed shook his head. ‘No, she’s sedated, she can’t feel a thing. She’s just a bit restless.’

Ranald sat down; Etta smiled at Zoe and moved to stand beside her husband.

A few minutes later, Zoe slipped out of Kate’s room and headed back downstairs. She didn’t expect to be away long. After all, she knew nothing about who could have set Tolbyres Cottage on fire.

Sergeant Trent looked sweaty and tired, the can of Diet Coke and empty Galaxy wrapper on the table in front of him suggesting he’d gone in search of a pick-me-up while he waited for her to return. He offered to fetch her a drink but she shook her head. ‘Mather’s gone home?’ she asked.

‘I hope so. He went back earlier for a nap and to change his clothes but wasn’t gone long.’

‘Has he been able to see Kate?’

‘He knows one of the ICU doctors, so they let him in for half an hour before the family got here. He didn’t think her menfolk would welcome his presence.’

‘Kate’s the baby of the family. The boys and her father are very protective of her. What your boss doesn’t know is how hostile they’d be towards her ex-husband if he turned up.’

‘Is he likely to? I need to speak with him as well.’

‘Ken made an unwelcome appearance at Tolbyres Farm just as we were leaving. I doubt he’ll still be there but he won’t go far. If he genuinely wants to get to know his children again, this is the ideal opportunity.’

‘Have Mr Simons and Ms Mackenzie—’

‘Please call her Kate, Sergeant. Ms Mackenzie sounds too formal. Like . . . like she’s dead.’

‘I’m sorry. Have he and Kate remained on good terms since they parted? I believe Mr Simons lives out of the area and rarely visits.’

‘I’d be lying if I said Kate harbours any affection for him. She was happy he stayed away and now he’s moving to Northumberland and demanding time with the children, she’s turned to her solicitor for help. Not that he could possibly have tried to kill her because of this.’

Trent made no response. He must hear such assertions all the time, many of them destined to be proven misguided. She wondered why she’d even said it and tried to compensate by asking, ‘Is there anything else I can help you with, Sergeant?’

‘The DCI told me about your text from Kate saying she was going to Edinburgh to meet his wife. Mrs Mather says they parted on good terms, but apart from you, no one even knew about their arrangement, let alone can tell me what happened.’

‘No one can think she’s involved in the fire, surely?’

‘It’s only on the telly that the police choose one suspect and go all out to prove their case against them. In real life we have to pursue every line of enquiry.’

‘It must be hard for your boss, not being able to take part in the investigation.’

‘Aye, though he’s still supposed to be working alongside the Major Investigation Team trying to find out what happened to the boy who was fished out of the Tweed. I’ve been taken off that and put on the Tolbyres arson. Nasty business, arson. Setting a fire and running away’s right cowardly, in my opinion.’

‘What can I do to help?’

‘Unfortunately, Kate held all her work records on a laptop which was badly damaged in the fire. We’ve got experts looking to see what, if anything, they can retrieve from its hard drive but seeing as you’re a friend, I wondered if you can tell me anything about the people she’s currently working for.’