Murder on the Moor - C. S. Challinor [42]
“Flora said something about Gorgon-like hair. Hamish is slightly lacking in that department.”
“Perhaps he had something over his head to keep off the rain.”
This was something Rex had not considered.
“Are you going to be questioning your friend Alistair?” she asked.
“I already spoke to him at length before lunch. Why?”
“Well, there’s something a bit secretive about him. Now, I know he’s a colleague of yours, but he seems rather mopey and brooding, in a Heathcliff sort of way, if you follow my drift. Devilishly handsome, of course. No wonder the women swoon over him. I just think there might be something going on there.”
Not what you might think, Rex said to himself, unwilling to out Alistair. Changing tack, he asked, “I saw that there was coal dust on your shoes, and I’m curious as to how it got there.”
“You know very well,” Mrs. Farquharson reprimanded. “I went to the coal shed to see what you were doing. I must have stood in some.”
“I might simply have been fetching coal,” Rex told her.
“But you didn’t come back with any, so I followed you up the stairs.”
“And you gave away my secret about Helen’s surprise.”
“Oh, dear. Did that feckless Allerdice woman spill the beans?”
“She is one to gossip, Estelle. I cannot imagine why you told her.”
“Mea culpa. She gave me her word she wouldn’t say anything.”
“Her word did not prove to be of much value,” Rex said pointedly. Estelle’s neither.
“Oh, did she tell Helen?”
“Aye.” Rex glared at her from beneath profuse ginger eyebrows, a look he used to good effect in court when confronted by a recalcitrant witness.
“My dear man, I feel horrible. Shona somehow managed to wheedle it out of me. She thought we were discussing Alistair.”
“Why would she think that?”
“Because he’s a friend of yours and he has been acting a bit strangely. He seemed fine last night and then today he’s been morose and hasn’t spoken two words to Flora.”
“He has a lot on his mind. Why is Shona so interested in Alistair?”
Estelle stared at him, dumbstruck. “Well, it’s obvious. She has designs on him for her daughter. If she could marry Flora off to a wealthy man, the hotel would be secure. It’s in trouble.” She leaned farther across the table. “Who else’s shoes did you find coal dust on? I didn’t buy for one minute that you had hidden a woolly lamb in the coal shed. You have more sense. So, tell me. What were you really doing out there?”
Rex smiled wolfishly at her. “Now, Estelle, you don’t really expect me to divulge any more sensitive information to you, do you?”
Estelle straightened in her chair and sighed in defeat. “I suppose not. I’ve been a complete idiot, suspecting you in the first place and then blabbing to Shona.”
“No real harm done,” Rex conceded. “But now Helen will expect a diamond ring.” He put a finger to his lips.
Mrs. Farquharson gasped. “A ring?”
He shot her a warning look.
She nodded solemnly. “Cross my heart twice and hope to die if I tell this time.”
You didn’t die last time you made that promise and broke it, Rex thought. “Who’s still in the house?” he asked.
“That journalist. Bertie and the Allerdice boy are outside somewhere.”
“I’ll speak to Rob Roy next.” Rex thanked Mrs. Farquharson and waited for his next interviewee. He hoped Donnie would return soon, since he could not reasonably detain the Allerdices any longer. On the other hand, there was no sign of the tow truck and, short of taking the three-wheeler, which could not possibly transport the whole family and their guest up the hill, there was no way out. Only Rob Roy and Donnie had worn footwear suitable for a long walk back to the hotel across muddy hills and water-logged glens.
Beardsley’s owlish face peered through the opening in the door. “Heard you wanted a chat.”
Rex gestured toward the chair. “Just an informal Q & A so I can help get the police up to speed when they arrive. They’re tied up with the latest child abduction on