Sunday Midmorning
Auld Kirk
Angus Mackenzie spotted the detective before she spotted him. She was scrutinizing each face as it left the church, clearly looking for someone. He glanced at Ginny’s note again, then started across the grass.
“Was it me ye were lookin’ fer?” he asked.
She turned round. “Good morning, Mr. Mackenzie. I am hoping Charles Monroe is here.”
“Charlie?” Himself gave a start. “What’s amiss wi’ Charlie? He’s no been threatening tae shoot hisself agin’?”
“Not that we know of. We would like to have a word with him, though.” The detective’s eyes continued to examine the faces of the people as they streamed onto the lawn. Angus waited beside her, his brow furrowed.
The working relationship between the clan and the local police was distant, but cordial. There was no reason for the police to suspect collusion, but there was always a chance someone had let something slip. The fact that they had sent a homicide detective, rather than a regular police officer, was ominous.
When the last worshipper had left the building, the detective stepped inside and looked around, then turned to Himself.
“Did Mr. Monroe come to church this morning?” she asked.
Himself shook his head. “I didnae see him.”
“Miss Forbes said you were taking it in turns to keep an eye on him. Is that correct?”
“Aye.”
“Whose turn would it be today?”
Himself blinked. There had been no need to assign anyone after Reggie collected Charlie from the lake on Friday night. He wrinkled his brow. “Let me see.” The entire council had been present when Charlie had chosen exile, and most of the clan. Who among them could be trusted to help fabricate a careful half-truth?
“Jean Pollack ha’ yesterday, I’m thinkin’, and Geordie Hamilton t’day. If ye’ve a wee minute I’ll ca’ them fer ye.”
“Yes, please.” Detective Tran waited while Angus pulled out his phone and peered at it. Text messages could be tracked. Voice was safer. He just hoped Geordie was paying attention.
“Can you put it on speaker phone, please?”
He nodded. No flies on this woman. “Geordie? Yer on speaker and I’ve a wee question fer ye from a detective whose lookin’ fer Charlie Monroe. Hae ye seen him t’day?”
“Nae. Not a swatch.”
“Was it you ‘twas tae check on him this day? Did ye go o’er tae his hoose?”
There was a tiny pause. “Auch, was it my turn, then? I’ll go noo.”
Himself looked over at the detective, who nodded.
“Hae ye a key, Geordie?”
“Aye. Is there something ye be wantin’, other than Charlie?”
“Nae, jus’ th’ man hisself.”
“Ask him to wait for me,” she said.
“Geordie, the detective wants ye tae wait fer her.”
“I’ll be oot front.”
“Thank ye!” Himself hung up the phone. “Tha’ reminds me. Charlie an’ Reggie were goin’ fishin’ Friday nicht. But they had tae cancel because Reggie couldna go.”
Detective Tran took out a notepad. “Do you know where?”
Himself nodded. “Loch Lavon.”
“We’ll check that out. Is there anything else you can tell me?”
Himself shook his head.
“All right. Thank you for your help.”
Angus watched the detective get into her car and drive off. He made his way to his own car, got in, and drove over to the Homestead, checking frequently to see if he was being followed. Once inside the shelter, no one could eavesdrop on them. The walls were too thick and the caverns too deep. With the communications net in privacy mode they would be able to talk freely.
* * *
Sunday Afternoon
Caverns beneath the Loch Lonach Homestead
The three of them sat in one of the meeting rooms, steaming cups of coffee in front of them, the remainder of the table covered in notes.
Himself looked over at Charlie. “Jim and Ginny canna leave ‘til Tuesday morn, but we can get ye awa afore that and maybe should.”
Reggie looked dubious. “The plan is for them to drive to the entrance and pick him up there.”
“I’m thinkin’ th’ police may ha’ decided tae follow Miss Ginny. They spoke tae her this morn at th’ hospital.”
“Damn.” Reggie was silent for a full minute. “Okay. Here’s the thing. If the police are actually tracking us, any of us, that implies they think we know where Charlie is, that we’re hiding him, and that we can lead them to him, which means that we have to make sure they can follow any one of us and we lead them exactly nowhere. It also means we have to find a way to get Charlie out of here and to a rendezvous of some sort that won’t attract their attention and isn’t overlooked by any of the electronic devices they have access to, which includes all the traffic and security cameras. What’s more, whatever we come up with will have to be communicated to Jim and Ginny and if any of us go talk to them or phone them or use the e-mail or text systems it can be tracked. The police will have warrants ready as soon as they have enough to convince a judge there’s reason to suspect a conspiracy to obstruct justice.” He drummed his fingers on the table.
“Getting Charlie out just means making sure there’s no surveillance going on at the moment and that could include satellite and helicopters, though I can’t believe anyone thinks he’s worth the kind of money we’re talking about since he’s not a terror threat, just a murderer. There’s no reason to think the feds are interested in him, is there?” Reggie looked from Himself to Charlie, then back. They both shook their heads.
“Okay. So what we have to do is take Charlie out in something that looks like it could not possibly have a human being hidden inside it, especially not one his size. I’ve got just the thing, too. It’s a modified motorcycle. The saddlebags have a very nice hideyhole and, if opened, are full of clothing and sundry other useful camouflage. You won’t be comfortable and there’s a limit to how long you can stay in there, but it’s enough to get you past a cordon. We just have to figure out how far we have to go and in which direction and then we have to identify where to decant you that’s safe to wait and then we have to figure out how to get Jim and Ginny to the right place without alerting the police to the pickup spot. Do you have their route?”
“Aye.” Himself pulled a map from the pile of papers and handed it over. Reggie studied it.
“We need something that’s far enough out of town that it makes a convincing place to stop, but not so far that Charlie can’t be unpretzelized.” He traced the route on the map, then studied the images of the area.
“Here. See this? The super center has a covered area, garden department, probably, and it’s on the back side of the building and it abuts this residential area and the residents obviously don’t like the super center because they’ve planted shrubs all along this edge; close enough so they screen the houses from the store. We can park Charlie in the store and he can get into the car while it’s under the awning.”
Reggie chewed on his lip. “We need to make sure Charlie can’t be seen entering the car or suddenly appearing inside of it. No chance of someone noticing two heads going behind the building and three coming out.”
“I’ve already thought o’ that. Jim wasnae happy aboot using th’ van, but he’ll make do.”
“Okay. How about this? They need to purchase something biggish at the superstore and they will need to have help loading it into the van so they go around to the loading dock and open the doors and the men hoist it inside and during the distraction Charlie slips into the van with his head down and no one the wiser.”
“Can ye get Charlie into the store wi’oot th’ cameras noticing him?”
“We can disguise him as one of the workers—cap, vest, work gloves, that sort of thing.”
Himself nodded. “Th’ Gunns live o’er that way. They can tak’ him tae the supercenter and let him slip oot o’ their car intae th’ shadows.”
“I’ll set it up.” Reggie nodded vigorously. “I like it. Now we just need to let Jim know what he needs to do. Will he come to you before he leaves town? Do you have any kind of meeting planned? How about you have him over to dinner? How about you have both of them over and feed them, or you could go to Ginny’s house. No, better they should come to you so you can control the access. I’ve got some nice little toys that will let you know if anyone is listening in. You don’t want to disable them, you understand, just be aware they are there so you don’t say anything you don’t want overheard. Make sure you meet in an inside room with no windows, and no computers. They can turn those webcams on remotely, you know.”
“I didnae know that.”
“True. You can have a cordial farewell dinner conversation and be passing notes at the same time. I’ll write the whole thing up right now so you can take it with you. Once we get Charlie in the car, he’ll need to stay out of sight until we can be reasonably sure the police are no longer following them, which may be over the state line. I’ll get back to you on that.”
The Laird rode up in the elevator, thinking about the creativity and complexity of the new plan. Things could go wrong with something like that. He had to hope that Jim could pull it off, and Monroe, too, otherwise there was no telling what sort of trouble they might get into. He sighed and headed home.
* * *