Juris answered the door. To Jimmy’s request, he shrugged and said, “I’ll try.”
They waited in the gloom of the hall. “This place is so creepy,” said Jimmy, “wi’ all those stags heads on the wall that you expect to see something awful up there, like a human head.”
Juris came back. “He will see you,” he said. “Come this way.”
He led them into the room where Gloria had taken Hamish. Mr. Harrison was in his motorised wheelchair, covered in a tartan rug. Behind him as if on guard stood his new nurse, Helen Mackenzie. She was wearing a uniform consisting of a dark-blue dress with a white collar, thick stockings, and clumpy black shoes. She had thick grey hair under a plain white cap. She had small, very green eyes under heavy brows and a nose that any Roman emperor would have been proud of. Hamish never damned any woman as being plain or ugly because he knew that often they had charming characters. But Helen opened her mouth and said in a harsh, bullying voice, “Five minutes. That’s all.”
“May we sit down?” asked Jimmy.
“You won’t be here long enough for that,” said Helen, folding muscular arms across her flat chest.
“Get them chairs, for God’s sake,” growled Mr. Harrison.
Jimmy waited until he and Hamish were seated opposite Mr. Harrison. “How did you come to be crippled?” asked Hamish before Jimmy could speak.
“Five years. Came off my horse and broke my back.”
“Where did you live before you came up here?” asked Jimmy.
“Outside Ripon in Yorkshire.”
Hamish opened his mouth to ask if Mr. Harrison had originally hailed from the East End of London, because under his posh voice were undertones of Cockney, but Jimmy scowled at him as a signal to keep quiet.
“Now, after Miss Dainty disappeared,” said Jimmy, “you are reported to have said, ‘Good riddance.’ Had you had a quarrel?”
“I had an anonymous letter saying that Gloria had been chatting up men at that hotel. I challenged her with it. She said it was all lies. I told her to get lost. When I heard she had gone out, I was still furious, but now I miss her like hell.”
“How did she get to the hotel?”
“Juris usually ran her over.”
Jimmy turned to the nurse. “Get Juris in here.”
When Juris came in, Jimmy said, “According to you, Gloria had gone out for a walk.”
“That’s what I was told. I had work to do so I left her to it. When my wife found her belongings missing the next day, we thought she’d decided to leave altogether.”
Jimmy turned back to Mr. Harrison. “So you employed Miss Mackenzie here.”
“Lucky to get her,” said Harrison. “At first, no one at that agency in Strathbane wanted to bury themselves up here, but Miss Mackenzie took the job.”
“What is the name of the agency?”
“Private Nursing. Juris will get you the address.”
“How does one get out of here apart from the front door?” asked Hamish.
Juris said, “There’s the kitchen door and beside that, the old tradesman’s entrance. Then, often the windows in this room aren’t locked because often Mr. Harrison likes to sit out on the terrace.”
Jimmy continued the questioning, asking Mr. Harrison for his previous address in Ripon, his age, and full name. “I am seventy-two and my full name is Percival Danby Harrison.”
“With your permission, sir, we’d like to take a look around.”
“Knock yourself out,” said Mr. Harrison.
“Pity he’s so crippled,” said Jimmy as they started to walk around the outside of the building, “or he might have strangled her in a rage.”
“That’s a powerful motorised wheelchair,” said Hamish. “Let’s look in the garages. Might have an invalid car.”
Juris followed them and unlocked the door of one of the two garages. “Now, that’s a pretty good invalid car,” Jimmy said.
“Mr. Harrison doesn’t use it,” said Juris. “He prefers to be driven. Your team of searchers went over it. Found nothing.”
Jimmy’s phone rang and Hamish listened patiently as Jimmy said, “Yes, ma’am,” and “No, ma’am.”
When Jimmy finally rang off, Hamish said, “What was that all about?”
“She says you’re to get back to where the body was found and look around. I’m to go back to headquarters. Checked on Juris’s previous employment. Impeccable record.”
“What about Gloria’s background?”
“Did her training in Glasgow, worked a bit at Strathbane Hospital, but decided to go in for private nursing. Harrison was her second job. Found her sister, Joyce, who’s on her road up. Charlie’s coming up to join you.”
“So Herring has let him loose.”
“Seems like that. You’ll need to take me back to see if they’ve got my car in working order.”
Apart from needing a new air bag, Jimmy’s car was pronounced roadworthy. Charlie was waiting at the station.
“How are you getting on wi’ the new boss?” asked Hamish.