Page 58 of Death at a Scottish Halloween

The rigs? Jasper and Mara glanced at me with wide eyes.

“Mind you, making this place livable will take a bit.”

I thought the lodge was quite warm and homey, but I wasn’t one to judge. “Your husband works on the oil rigs.”

“He’s a manager. Oversees the roughs out there. He’s gone for weeks at a time, which is why I insisted we keep our flat in town. This isn’t bad for a weekend, but I’d be bored or barmy if I stayed all the time.”

She put out a plate of biscuits and poured us tea. “Now, Doctor, what is it I can help you with?”

I explained again about the estate sale they’d had.

“Right, we sold off some of the old furniture, art, and tapestries. And we divested the big house of everything inside.Amazing what kind of old junk people will buy. With the money we made, we can fix this place up and have plenty left over.”

“And you said your husband inherited it. What’s his name?”

“Robbie. Robbie McClendon.”

I was proud that my friends didn’t gasp. I nearly did. I’d just found a connecting dot between our victims.

“This place is gorgeous,” Mara said. “I know you said it needs fixing up, but I think it’s beautiful.”

“Oh, I do too, in its way. But we need new heating and plumbing. Half the time there is no hot water. I can live without a few niceties, but that isn’t one of them. You mentioned the list of goods sold at the estate sale? Let me get that for you.”

She left.

Mara opened her mouth, but I shook my head. “Wait until we get in the car.”

She nodded.

When she came back, she handed me a binder. There were at least thirty pages of items. “Do you mind if I take pictures?”

“Sure. But I don’t understand why pictures of old stuff is going to help you.”

“Well, I said. It’s an ongoing case, so I can’t say much. But the dead man came across something that may have poisoned him.” We’d already found that item, but she didn’t need to know that. “I’m doing my due diligence, making sure the owners weren’t accidentally poisoned.”

“Oh, dear. I touched so many things. Who knows.” She patted her heart. “Do you think I’m ill?”

I felt terrible. I’d just been thinking on my feet and wasn’t worrying about what I said.

“It was old medical devices,” I said.

“Did you have anything like that?” Jasper asked.

“No.” She still seemed worried. “I can’t remember seeing anything like that. His aunt, who owned this place, had a collection of so many things. Art, tapestries, the woman loved a unicorn tapestry. And a bunch of old boxes. Those seemed to be popular with the antiques dealers. Or that’s what Sarah, our estate person said. We didn’t care much about anything but that final amount.”

She put a hand to her mouth. “That makes me sound terrible. Did I mention it takes a fair sum to run a place like this?”

“We all live in older homes. We get it,” I said.

I found the puzzle box, along with a few others on one of the pages. So, if the ring had been in the puzzle box, it had been bought here.

Now to make the connection between her husband and our dead men. The fact they shared a name had to mean something.

Chapter Fifteen

As I pulled up behind the pub, my mind still whirled with facts and questions. My friends and I had talked all the way home, and we were confused by what we’d discovered. After I turned off the car, we sat there a minute.

“My mind will never calm down. Do you two want a drink? It’s on me,” Mara said.