Death of an Outsider by M.C. Beaton Page B

him. It was put there for a bad joke.’
    Hamish looked at her curiously. She seemed quite calm, but shock affected people in strange ways.
    ‘Would it upset you to talk to me about him?’ he asked gently. ‘Tell me about his army career. He said he had something to do with MI5.’
    ‘Told you that one, did he?’ Mrs Main-waring lit another cigarette. ‘He liked to play the retired army man, part of his act. He was a captain when he did his National Service. He was never a career officer. He just got drafted along with everyone else.’
    ‘And how did he make his money?’
    She gave a horrible kind of laugh. ‘He married me,’ she said. ‘I was living in Maidstone in Kent with my mother, who was on her last legs. No man had ever proposed to me or looked at me, and then William came along.’ Her eyes grew dreamy. ‘He was selling cars. Mother used to make nasty jokes about car salesmen and said he was only after my money. I didn’t believe her. He had very great charm. But I should have seen through him then. I told him Mother held the purse-strings and after that I didn’t see him for a week. At the end of that week, Mother died of a heart attack, the death was published in the local paper, and William came back again, just in time for the funeral. He was very supportive. He said he had inherited an estate in Scotland. We would be married and go and live there.
    ‘Mother left me the house in Maidstone and quite a bit of money. I was tired. I was old-fashioned. I had been led to believe that women did not have heads for business. William said if I transferred everything to him, he would arrange for the sale of the house and take care of everything.’
    ‘That was verra trusting of you,’ said Hamish awkwardly.
    She went on as if he had not spoken. ‘So I did, and we got married, and came up here to live. I know a lot of incomers don’t like Cnothan, but I loved it, and I still do. The women were so pleasant and gentle and friendly. Old-fashioned, just like me. But William changed. I forgave him for lying, you know. This place is hardly an estate. He started nagging me and nagging me from morning till night. He hated this place, and he began to enjoy people hating him. It made him feel important. I couldn’t walk out. He had control of the money.
    ‘You’ve heard of the Duke of Sutherland, the one in the last century, who was responsible for the Highland Clearances – the one who had his factors drive the crofters out of their houses so he could turn the whole of the north into a sheep ranch?’
    ‘Of course,’ said Hamish.
    ‘Well, you know how they still hate the duke in Sutherland. He had that statue of himself erected above Golspie and his memory is still so hated that people can’t bear to look at it. That tickled William. He liked going for long walks. He would often walk to the top of Clachan Mohr. He used to say that one day he would get a statue of himself put up there.’
    ‘And what is his family background?’
    ‘Surprisingly good. Went to Marlborough, then New College, although he left after only two years without getting his degree. Went to work for a family friend in the City as a stockbroker after he did his National Service. After that, I don’t know. He was always vague about it. But something happened. His family didn’t come to the wedding. He has two sisters and a brother living. They won’t have anything to do with him.’
    ‘Have you their addresses?’
    Mrs Mainwaring went over to a desk and fished out an address book. She copied out three addresses on to a slip of paper and handed it to Hamish.
    ‘Can you put those bloody teeth away?’ she said sharply.
    Hamish put the polythene bag back in his pocket.
    ‘You will inherit his money if he is dead, will you not?’ asked Hamish.
    ‘I’ll get my own money back, if that’s what you mean,’ said Mrs Mainwaring drily.
    ‘Now about those houses and crofts he bought,’ said Hamish. ‘What did he plan to do with