Legacy of the Dead - Charles Todd [120]
“You should have thought of that before you beat her,” MacDougal answered roughly. “Mrs. Lawlor, did your daughter tell you where she earned the money for her shoes?”
She shook her head. “But she’s out wi’ the sheep noon and night. Who’s to say?”
“Whore, that’s what she was. Slut. Selling herself, I’ll be bound.”
“No, she hadn’t sold herself, Lawlor. She provided the police with some information they badly needed.” Rutledge added, “Mrs. Lawlor, do you know if your daughter has had a piece of jewelry in her possession for some months now? It was a brooch with a cairngorm center.”
She laughed. “And how’d she keep something like that where he didna’ find it? In her boudoir? I never saw her with anything more than the bit of dyed yarn she’d twisted into a bracelet for her sister and herself. If you think my Betty had anything like a cairngorm brooch, you’re mad.”
MacDougal and Rutledge exchanged glances. Rutledge said to her, “My mistake. I must have misunderstood.”
MacDougal walked with Rutledge back to his car. The small boy had come outside now and was fingering the bonnet, then running his hand over the smooth leather of the seat. MacDougal was saying, “She had the brooch. Whether her mother saw it or not. It doesn’t make a difference to your case.”
“The brooch was seen in Glasgow several weeks ago. In the shop of an engraver. Can you believe that Betty Lawlor was the one who took it there?”
“Great God, no one told me that! When did Oliver find out?”
“He doesn’t know. I’d rather tell him myself. I just learned the news from my sergeant in London.” He smiled at the boy and lifted him into the driver’s seat, where the child instantly made motor noises and gripped the wheel like a racer. “But it means that most of Betty’s story is a lie. She didn’t have that brooch for a year or more—nor did she find it on the hillside. My belief is that the person who gave it to her and taught her a story meant to be told to the police also gave her the money to buy shoes. And there was enough extra to help her escape her father and this place. She would have bargained hard. She carried out her part very well indeed. It will be Oliver’s headache to track her down to testify at the trial. I’ve no doubt he’d do it.”
“I don’t believe it. You’re pulling at straws!”
The horn blew. Rutledge and MacDougal winced.
MacDougal went on. “It’s no more than speculation. You can’t be sure it’s the same brooch! No, until there’s proof to the contrary, I put my faith in young Betty.”
“I think there’s enough proof already to put some doubt into a jury’s mind.” Rutledge waited, then said, “Will you search for her?”
MacDougal gestured to the croft and the parents still standing in the doorway. “And bring her back to this?” He took a deep breath. “I suppose I shall have to. But it won’t be easy. Still, there aren’t many ways she could have gone from here. Even with her new walking shoes. Inveraray, most likely, where she could beg a lift in a wagon.” He turned away, settling his hat back on his head. “I’ll let Oliver know when she turns up.”
“Thanks.” Rutledge said to the boy, “Will you sit there while I turn the crank?”
The child nodded vigorously. Rutledge started the engine and then let him stay for a moment longer to feel the power of the car under him. MacDougal had already turned around in the yard and was heading back the way they’d come. Rutledge lifted the child down.
With a glowing face he said, “I’ll have mysel’ one of them!”
“I’m sure you will,” Rutledge answered.
And then, as if in payment for the special treat, the boy leaned toward him, standing on tiptoe. “There was a man with Betty—I saw him. Even though she claimed it was only the sun playing tricks.”
“What did he look like?” Rutledge asked quickly, suddenly intent.
The boy backed away, already regretting his confidence. “Fair,” he mumbled, and then ran back to the croft door, slipping between his mother’s skirts and his father’s legs. Disappearing into the house.
Rutledge nodded to the Lawlors, then turned the car around. He had lost his escort back