bed so badly it was like a deep itch in his bones. "We just got unlucky, that's all."
"Tell me how it happened."
"Alex and me, we were mucking about. Pushing each other in the snow. He kind of lost his balance and carried on up the hill. Like the snow was making him excited. Then he tripped and fell and the next thing was, he was shouting at us to come up quick." For a moment, Weird's cockiness slipped and he looked younger than he was. "And we found her. Ziggy tried?but there was nothing he could do to save her." He flicked a smudge of dirt off his trouser leg. "Can I go now?"
"You didn't see anybody else up there? Or on the way there?"
Weird shook his head. "No. The crazed axe-murderer must have gone another way." His defenses were back in place, and Maclennan could see that any further attempts to extract information would likely be fruitless. But there would be another day. And he suspected there would be another way under Tom Mackie's defenses. He just had to figure out what that might be.
Janice Hogg slithered across the car park in Iain Shaw's wake. They'd been more or less silent on the drive back to the police station, each relating the encounter with the Duffs to their own lives with varying levels of relief. As Shaw pushed open the door leading into the welcome warmth of the station, Janice caught up with him. "I'm wondering why she wouldn't let on to her mum about who she was seeing," she said.
Shaw shrugged. "Maybe the brother was right. Maybe he was a married man."
"But what if she was telling the truth? What if it wasn't? Who else would she be secretive about?"
"You're the female here, Janice. What do you think?" Shaw carried on through to the cubbyhole occupied by the officer charged with keeping local intelligence up to date. The office was empty in the middle of the night, but the cabinets with their alphabetically arranged filing cards were unlocked and available.
"Well, if her brothers had a track record of warning off unsuitable men, I suppose I'd have to think about what sort of man Colin and Brian would consider unsuitable," she mused.
"And that would be what?" Shaw asked, pulling open the drawer marked "D." His fingers, surprisingly long and slender, began to riffle through the cards.
"Well, thinking aloud?Looking at the family, that buttoned-up, Fife respectability?I'd say anybody they considered beneath her or above her."
Shaw glanced round at her. "That really narrows it down."
"I said I was thinking aloud," she muttered. "If it was some toerag, she'd probably think he could hold his own against her brothers. But if it was somebody a bit more rarefied?
"Rarefied? Posh word for a woolly suit, Janice."
"Woolly suit doesn't mean woolly brain, DC Shaw. Don't forget you were in uniform yourself not so long ago."
"OK, OK. Let's stick to rarefied. You mean, like a student?" Shaw asked.
"Exactly."
"Like one of the ones that found her?" He turned back to his search.
"I wouldn't rule it out." Janice leaned against the door-frame. "She had plenty of opportunity to meet students at her work."
"Here we are," Shaw said, pulling a couple of cards out of the drawer. "I thought Colin Duff rang a bell with me." He read the first card, then passed it over to Janice. In neat handwriting, it read, Colin James Duff. DoB: 5/3/55 LKA: Caberfeidh Cottage, Strathkinness. Employed at Guardbridge paper mill as forklift truck driver. 9/74 Drunk and disorderly, fined ?5. 5/76 Breach of the peace, bound over. 6/78 Speeding, fined ?7. Known associates: Brian Stuart Duff, brother. Donald Angus Thomson. Janice turned the card over. In the same handwriting, but in pencil this time so it could be erased if ever called into evidence, she read, Duff likes a fight when he's had a drink. Handy with his fists, handy at keeping out of the frame. Bit of a bully. Not dishonest, just a handful.
"Not the sort of guy you'd want mixing it with your sensitive student boyfriend," Janice commented as she took the second file card from Shaw. Brian Stuart Duff. DoB 27/5/57 LKA Caberfeidh Cottage, Strathkinness. Employed at Guardbridge paper mill as warehouseman. 6/75 Assault, fined ?0. 5/76 Assault, three months, served at Perth. 3/78 Breach of the peace, bound over. Known associates: Colin James Duff, brother. Donald Angus Thomson. When she flipped it over, she read, Duff junior is a lout who thinks he's a hard man. Record would