Page 9 of A Very Bookish Murder (Ally McKinley Mystery #3)

SEVEN

Ally had been very touched by what Rigby had told Amir.

She was also relieved that he seemed to be making some sort of recovery, and wondered if she could manage to visit him while he was in hospital.

As she was serving breakfast, she wondered if she could get a midday train from Fort William, have a couple of hours in Glasgow, and then get a late train back?

It would be tight but just about manageable.

Just as she was mulling this over, the telephone rang.

That solved the problem. Ally knew she could comfortably drive to Inverness for a hospital visit and be back again a few hours later because it was Magda’s, the earl’s wife’s, birthday today and they’d arranged a dinner at The Bistro in the evening.

She decided to ring Rigby there and then, to find out what he could possibly want to talk to her about.

It obviously wasn’t a matter that could be delayed, and so she dialled the number of the hospital in Inverness.

‘My name is Alison McKinley and I’ve been asked to contact Detective Inspector Rigby, who asked for me to get in touch with him urgently. Would it be possible to visit him this afternoon?’

‘I’ll put you through to the ward,’ the operator said.

The sister on the ward answered the phone, asked her to wait while she checked with Rigby and came back to say, ‘The inspector would be very glad to see you as soon as you can get here. He says it’s important.’

The journey never failed to impress her, Ally thought as she drove through the mountains, glens and past the little lochs before finally arriving in Fort Augustus and then driving the rest of the way along the side of Loch Ness.

The famous loch could be turbulent and quite menacing at times, but today it was calm and deceptively inviting.

People had drowned in this loch when its mood had suddenly changed while they were out there in the middle, and their bodies were not always recovered.

Whether there was a monster or not, Loch Ness always attracted the tourists, and today was no exception as Ally saw several buses pulled in by the lochside and clusters of people milling around and taking photographs.

Propped up on pillows, Rigby was looking a great deal better than he had when Ally had seen him last. He looked very pleased to see her.

‘They’ve got me stabilised now,’ he said, ‘and I’m hoping they’ll let me home in a day or two – with a mountain of medication, of course.’

‘I’m so pleased,’ Ally said.

‘I want to thank you for what you did when I collapsed at the Craigmonie,’ Rigby continued. ‘I’m told it was you who stopped the helicopter from leaving until I was taken on board, and that probably saved my life.’

‘Well, I’m glad I did,’ Ally said, feeling a little emotional.

‘Detective Inspector Kandahar will be taking over in the meantime,’ he said, ‘and I’m sure you’ll get on well with him.’

‘We’ve already met,’ Ally said, ‘and I thought he was charming.’

‘He’s a good bloke,’ Rigby confirmed, ‘but he’s had a bad time recently.

His wife died a couple of years ago and he struggles to keep an eye on his two teenage daughters.

So I thought that, as you were such a help to me on my first cases up here, perhaps you’d take him under your wing for a bit? Familiarise him with who’s who?’

Take him under my wing for a bit ! Ally was immensely flattered that Rigby would suggest such a thing. And it was making her feel quite tearful for both Rigby and Amir Kandahar.

‘I really hope you’ll be back soon though,’ she said truthfully.

He smiled. ‘We’ve had a few arguments, but I want you to know that I’ve always appreciated your thoughts. And we always got there in the end.’

‘We did,’ Ally agreed, giving her eyes a wipe. ‘And I hope we will again in the future.’

‘All thanks to you for getting me on that helicopter!’ he said. He paused for a moment then added, ‘We’ve always been so formal, but I wonder if I may call you Ally now? And please call me Bob.’

‘Of course you can, Bob,’ Ally replied.

‘I really appreciate you coming,’ Rigby continued, ‘because I know you’re very busy, but this could be important. Are you here on your own?’

Ally nodded. ‘Yes, I am.’

Rigby gazed out of the window for a moment, then cleared his throat. ‘This Jodi Jones,’ he said, ‘the woman who got strangled?’

Ally nodded again.

‘I think there’s a very good chance she could be my sister,’ said Rigby.

Ally could scarcely believe what she was hearing. ‘ What ?’

‘I got a massive shock when I saw her body, which I think triggered this.’ He patted his heart.

Ally was confused. ‘Your sister ? Surely you’d have known for certain?’

‘I haven’t seen her for nearly fifty years,’ said Rigby sadly.

‘When she was sixteen, my sister left home and vanished. Vanished completely. She was never heard of again. I was only five or six at the time, but it broke my mother’s heart.

She went to her grave not knowing. In fact, it’s one of the reasons I wanted to join the police, become a detective, but of course I never did come across anyone who could be her – until now. ’

‘Oh, Bob, how awful! Your poor mother! But what on earth makes you think she might be your sister?’

‘Several things. She’s the spitting image of my mother and…’ He paused for a moment. ‘The thing that convinced me was the birthmark. She had a birthmark on her neck.’

‘Yes, I saw it.’ Ally hesitated. ‘I saw it when I loosened her scarf.’

‘She was always very self-conscious about it, and she nearly always wore high-necked sweaters or scarves to hide it. I was only very little, but the scarves were one of the things I remember about her. I think I could only have seen her birthmark once or twice. But it fascinated me. The reason I remember it quite clearly is because I thought it was shaped like a goldfish!’ He gazed into space again.

‘You see, I’d been to the fair and won a goldfish, and I took him home, put him in a bowl and called him Cedric. ’

‘ Cedric ?’ Ally smiled.

‘Don’t ask me why! I’d seen or heard the name somewhere and obviously fancied it. And I remember thinking that Joanne’s strawberry birthmark was very similar in shape to Cedric. It could have been construed as a goldfish, I suppose, bearing in mind how young I was at the time.’

‘Do you have any idea why she might have left home?’ Ally asked, intrigued.

‘Not then, because I was so young, but now I think she’d most probably got herself pregnant.

And my mother had always said stuff like, “If a daughter of mine ever got herself pregnant out of wedlock, she needn’t ever bother coming back here !

” My sister’s name was Joanne, but she obviously changed that.

’ He leaned forward. ‘I want you to try to find out, Ally. Maybe she has a husband, a child, someone who may now appear out of the blue, and who might be able to tell you something about her.’ He lay back and smiled.

‘I know you’ve become something of a super sleuth. ’

Ally smiled. ‘I’ve already met your brother-in-law. Jodi’s husband turned up to collect her things last night,’ she said.

Rigby looked somewhat taken aback. ‘So, I have a brother-in-law, do I? What’s he like?’

‘He’s a scruffy, rather unpleasant man by the name of Owen Jones, who she left years ago, but he’s still legally her husband I believe. He went up to her room, picked up her things and squashed them all into a big canvas bag, showing no emotion whatsoever.’

Rigby sighed. ‘Do you know anything else about Joanne?’

‘Well, I’ve enjoyed her books and, from what I’ve read, so have lots of other people.

She was quite well known in popular fiction circles.

’ Ally didn’t think it was a good idea to tell Rigby about Jodi’s torrid love life, not in his current condition.

Then she remembered Desdemona’s reaction.

‘Desdemona Morton said she’d been at university with her. ’

‘University?’ Rigby looked surprised. ‘I remember she was clever, but university? How the hell would she have got there without any money?’

‘I think I need to talk to Desdemona again and see if I can find out. I had no idea at the time of our conversation that it was going to be of major importance,’ Ally said.

‘Is this Jones fellow still in the area?’

‘He’s got a camper van and wanted to leave it in my little car park, but I refused, so he’s camped down somewhere on Ross’s land. As far as I know he’s still there. Have you told Amir Kandahar about Jodi possibly being your sister?’

He shook his head. ‘I don’t want to at the moment, although I may later, depending on what happens.

The thing is, Ally, if my suspicions about Jodi Jones became known, they’d take me off the case because, obviously, I’d be emotionally involved.

I don’t want to be taken off this case because I’m damned determined to find out who throttled my sister.

I just cannot believe that I’ve gone all these years wondering about her, and then I find this lifeless body…

’ He wiped his eyes. ‘See what you can find out, Ally.’

She patted his hand. ‘Don’t you worry – I will.’

Privately, she doubted that Rigby would ever be back on this case, but she knew that he mustn’t lose hope.

All the way back to Locharran, Ally pondered over what Rigby had said.

When she sat down with Ross that evening, she was eager to share her thoughts with him.

She told him about Rigby’s sister disappearing and how no one had ever discovered what had happened to the sixteen-year-old Joanne Rigby.

And that Rigby had asked Ally to discover all she could about Joanne when she first left home.

‘How can you possibly find out?’ Ross asked.

‘Well, I can start by talking to Desdemona,’ Ally said, ‘and maybe Penelope, because she was at university at the same time.’

‘What difference would it make now that the woman’s no longer able to meet him?’

Ally sighed. ‘He just needs to know, Ross. The only member of her family who’s appeared so far is the scruffy husband, and he wasn’t saying much.

Mind you, Jodi had left him years ago, apparently, but never bothered to get a divorce.

I feel sorry for Bob Rigby. What a shock he must have got when he saw her body. ’

‘My suggestion would be that he requests a DNA test or something,’ Ross suggested.

‘Maybe he’ll be able to do that when, and if, he returns to work,’ Ally said, ‘but he doesn’t want his suspicions to become public knowledge. He hasn’t told Kandahar or anyone.’

‘Well, you don’t have time to do anything about it now. We’re meeting Hamish and Magda in an hour, so it’s time you got ready. Try to put it out of your mind while we entertain Magda tonight,’ Ross said with a smile. ‘After all, it is her birthday!’

That evening, her head was still full of Rigby’s revelations as she got ready for Magda’s birthday dinner.

Yes, of course she wanted to find out who had killed Jodi, but she also wanted to find out everything she could about the woman, if only to give poor Rigby some closure.

She was so preoccupied that she found it difficult to decide what to wear.

Finally, she settled on some tailored navy-blue trousers and an emerald-green silk top, which coordinated well.

When she looked in the mirror, the colours of Jodi’s beautiful scarf came into her mind.

She removed the top, hastily placed it back in the wardrobe and chose a cream cashmere sweater instead.