Snare by Gwen Moffat Read Free Book Online Page B

better,’ the nurse said, it was either Flora MacKenzie or Hamish Knox.’
    â€˜It was the boy.’
    â€˜He did it deliberately?’
    â€˜No. The pony went down and the boy must have taken quite a nasty tumble, with the speed he was going.’
    â€˜And then what happened?’
    â€˜Why, Alec went for him and young Knox ran away. I thought, from a distance you know, that no harm had been done, except a few bruises to horse and rider. I did hear a scream, however.’
    â€˜That was the dog. It was all Alec could say when he reached home: “She screamed.” He’s not going to forget it in a hurry.’
    * * *
    â€˜That was an understatement,’ Beatrice said. ‘Alec’s world revolved around that animal. He told me once, and without a trace of self-consciousness, that he thought of her as his “kid sister”. His words.’
    They were in the sitting room at Feartag. This evening Beatrice was in fine pink wool and in the lamplight her skin looked like parchment, the deep eye sockets stressing her age and fragility.
    â€˜Another dog would hardly fill the gap,’ Miss Pink mused.
    â€˜He’d kill it.’ The statement was without emotion and Miss Pink was amazed. On reflection she agreed that this would be likely.
    â€˜You know how his mind works,’ she conceded. ‘I didn’t tell Anne Wallace this, but he would have attacked young Knox – he’d picked up a heavy branch – but the boy ran away. So then he aimed a blow at the pony.’
    â€˜A natural reaction for anyone, and Alec has less control than most people.’
    â€˜What can his relationship with young Knox be now?’
    â€˜Someone may have to accompany him on his walks for a while, but if there’s no dog he won’t take walks. The answer might be to send him away for a time, on a supervised holiday.’
    â€˜Or Hamish might be sent away for a while?’
    â€˜Hamish will do as he pleases.’
    â€˜His parents have little influence?’
    Beatrice regarded her guest speculatively. ‘Have you heard about the police car being found in Anne Wallace’s drive at dawn? The village people pretend it was Hell’s Angels, who were also supposed to be breaking into cars around that time. But they wouldn’t have known about Knox and the nurse, and they didn’t have access to the keys of the police car. But if local youths moved that car, then the keys still had to be handed to them, and replaced.’
    â€˜Why would Hamish want to do a thing like that?’
    â€˜As a practical joke. The village has known – I should say some of us have known – for a long time that Knox was more friendly with Anne Wallace than he should be. I suspect his own wife knew. But Joan Knox is a doormat and even if she weren’t, she might hope that the affair would run its course. Be that as it may, people knew, but with the discretion that you get in small communities nothing was said, at least in public. There was no gossip. We have to live together. Turning a blind eye is a survival tactic in a place like Sgoradale. Hamish doesn’t have that tactic.’
    â€˜Have there been other incidents?’
    After a while Beatrice said, ‘There are telephone calls.’
    â€˜What kind?’
    â€˜The type where you pick up the phone and no one speaks. Sometimes there is a laugh. The phone at the other end is put down with a clatter.’
    â€˜A pay phone or private?’
    â€˜A private line.’
    And the laugh?’
    â€˜Muffled, breathless, more of a snigger.’
    â€˜Does anyone else get such calls?’
    â€˜I haven’t asked. It’s not the kind of thing one talks to people about.’
    â€˜How long has this been going on?’
    â€˜For a few weeks. I’ve had two of them – that is, two that I’ve answered. They come late at night. The first two times I came downstairs; now I let the phone ring