CHAPTER 21

It was the last thing I expected, and more than I felt capable of handling. Especially from this gathering of friends. Instinctively, I attempted to rise, tears threatening to erupt, but Leith kept steady pressure on my shoulders.

“At least hear Vicki out,” he said, his voice as firm as his grasp. Music started up in the background, not especially intrusive, just enough to give us some privacy. Those who had been following our interchange determined that their eavesdropping was at an end. They went back to their own drinks and settled down to their own business. But the damage had been done. I’d been publicly humiliated. By friends, no less.

All I wanted was an escape route, but I wasn’t going anyplace surrounded by this determined bunch, so I nodded, as though I had a choice.

“Ye might call this an intervention,” Sean announced to me.

“Sean.” Vicki shot him a look that said she could handle things just fine on her own, that this was a delicate situation and he should step down.

He understood her because he stood up, hitched his trousers with importance, and said, “Now that my part here is finished, I best get back tae me station.”

“What station is that?” I asked, wondering what errand the inspector had assigned to Sean and if it had to do with Henrietta’s murder case.

“I’ll see you later,” Vicki said to him before he could respond. I had the impression she wasn’t going to let him.

“Good luck tae ye all,” Sean said, ignoring me.

“To explain, I need to go back to the beginning,” Vicki said once he’d gone. “Which might take a while. If you promise to listen and not try to run off, Leith can sit down at the table and give his legs a rest.”

“Fine,” I said through gritted teeth, not one bit fine.

But Leith removed his hands from my shoulders and sat down across from me. I glared at each of them in turn, expressing my extreme displeasure with them.

“It begins with Ami Pederson,” Vicki said, “and why you really came to Glenkillen in the first place.”

“To do research on the Highlands,” I told her even though she knew that perfectly well. “Ami had been to Glenkillen and liked it well enough to recommend it. She thought Glenkillen was the perfect setting.”

“Yes, that’s true, but there was more to it than that.”

“And how would you know?” I said, sounding childish, even to myself. “You weren’t part of my conversations with Ami.”

“I know this because she and I began communicating through e-mails a few months ago, in October. We were, and are, concerned about you.”

So the two of them had ganged up, for whatever reason, for my “own good,” as they probably told each other to justify the deception. The thought that my two friends had plotted behind my back made me feel defensive and manipulated. I crossed my arms and waited for whatever was to come with a closed mind. My expression must have been thunderous because Vicki looked over at Leith, her face expressing doubt.

It’s way too late, I thought, deciding our friendship was teetering on the brink.

Leith, as though reading my mind, winked at me. What was that? Some sort of reassurance?

“Don’t make light of this,” I warned him before pointedly looking away.

“You and Ami have been such good friends for so long,” Vicki continued, “that she knows all about your history, and she came up with the idea to send you here, specifically to Glenkillen, not only to research the Highlands for the series you’re writing, but with the hope that you’d reconcile with your father’s family. With the Elliotts.”

“Are you telling me that some of them are here in Glenkillen? You knew this and didn’t tell me?” My best friends had turned on me. Now I understood Vicki’s furtive behavior recently.

Vicki shook her head. “No, not in Glenkillen, but close by in a village called Applefary. A few Elliotts still live in that area, and Ami wanted you to at least meet them. In fact, so do I. You came all this way, from the US to Scotland, and I think it’s appropriate that you visit your ancestral home.”

“And what about him?” I was determined to see this through without breaking down or showing my crazy side, since I was perfectly aware that I had issues when it came to my father. Ones that I’d happily refused to acknowledge. Just the way I liked them. Buried out of sight.

If it had only been Vicki with me and in a far less public arena, I most certainly would have vented and shown my dark side. She had no business dredging up what I didn’t want dredged up. But with Leith sitting directly across from me, with those beautiful blues gazing at me, I tried to appear as normal as possible under the circumstances. Was that why he was here? So I wouldn’t feel comfortable letting it all loose?

“I did a lot of digging and haven’t been able to locate Dennis Elliott.” Vicki refused to hold my gaze, and that made me think there was more to come.

“And?” I pressed. “What else?”

“I’ve been putting a lot of effort into finding your father, without a single lead. It’s like he disappeared off the map. I haven’t been able to place him on a flight back to the States, either.”

“Because he didn’t go back, that’s why you can’t find his departure,” I said, exasperated. “If you really want to know where he is, why don’t you ask the Elliotts you located in Applewhatever?”

“Applefary. I thought that would be crossing the line.” As though she hadn’t already crossed it. “We could visit them together, though, and ask those questions.”

“What’s so surprising about his disappearance? It isn’t exactly sudden. He left us for good. Why come back to the States when he could hide out here? He abandoned my mother to deal with her MS without his support. He left me, a six-year-old kid. What part of ‘I don’t want anything to do with him’ do you not understand?

“Besides,” I said, pointing out the obvious. “These Elliotts probably don’t know where he is, either. He’s hiding someplace where no one will ever find him!”

My voice squeaked. I’m sure my face was the color of a tomato. So much for appearing normal and well adjusted in front of Leith. Vicki didn’t know what to say.

It was Leith’s turn. “It was a terrible thing he did, and nobody expects ye tae forgive him or tae forget. It’s only that yer own mum is gone and it doesn’t appear as though ye have any family left in the States tae fall back on. Everybody should have some family tae call their own, and here ye are only a few steps from some o’ yours and ye refuse tae acknowledge them. It’s like blamin’ the whole lot o’ Germans fer Hitler’s actions. There, is that a powerful enough analogy tae compare yer father tae Hitler?”

“Close,” I said, sure that I was pouting.

“If ye go back without so much as a wee peek, you’ll regret it one day.”

I was angry with all of them. Leith for being the voice of reason. Sean and the inspector for the cold manner in which they’d stripped me of my constable position. Ami and Vicki for colluding behind my back. I even resented Bridie Dougal for starting all this by knowing my grandfather and wanting to share her memories.

I took a deep breath to calm myself. One part of me still wanted to resist. The other part argued that my friends couldn’t all be wrong. Yet they hadn’t lived my life, either, hadn’t walked in my shoes.

Silence descended on our table. I listened to the background music; from the melody I could tell it was one of the standard Scottish ballads—a dramatic story of war, love, and betrayal.

“I still have ten days left,” I said, mentally counting my remaining days in Scotland. December twenty-second was approaching quickly.

“And you have no other obligations,” Vicki pointed out, brightening as she sensed my capitulation. “Instead of investigating crime, you can investigate your family. And I’ll help you, be right there with you, that is if you want me to.”

“And I’m offerin’ my services as well,” Leith said with a teasing double meaning.

“Maybe tomorrow,” I told them. Tomorrow was another day. Putting them off would give me time to sleep on it. And if necessary, concoct more reasons to get out of it.

“What’s wrong with today?” Vicki countered, guessing my intention.

“You drive a hard bargain,” I told her. “And you’re pushing your luck, I might add.”

“The day is still young,” Leith said, siding against me, which was becoming the norm.

“What do you two have in mind?” I asked, resigned.

“We’ll start with Bridie Dougal,” Vicki answered. “Since she knew your grandfather personally.”

I narrowed my eyes. “And you knew that how?”

Vicki had the grace, which arrived way late in my opinion, to finally squirm with discomfort.

“Well?” I prodded.

“Bridie phoned me and told me about her own connection to the Elliott family, and we sort of came up with a plan.”

“Did you now.” I should have known Bridie was involved. The old woman was still scheming, manipulating everybody around her. She’d most likely go to her grave with a few unfinished maneuvers up her sleeve.

“We have an invitation from her for tea and sandwiches,” Vicki announced. “In fact, we’ll be a little late.”

“Now?”

“Now.”

It appeared that Bridie wasn’t the only one who could engineer a coup. Vicki was a skilled operator also.

“I need to make a stop at the cottage,” I said, thinking about the sketch of the Elliott crest and motto and how I might as well present it at the inquisition.

“Bridie lives between the village and the farm,” Vicki reasoned. “We’d have to drive right past her house. And it’s starting to snow. What’s so important that it can’t wait until another time?”

“I suppose it can wait.”

“Do ye need more o’ my help?” Leith said to Vicki.

“I can manage.”

He turned to me. “I’m not much fer lady’s teas,” he explained with obvious relief. “I’ll come by later tae see how ye’re doin’.”

A few minutes later as we left the Kilt & Thistle together, I could feel a roomful of eyes following us out the door.