more expansively themselves. The publicans of St. Andrews had grown resigned to the drunken antics of the Duff brothers. They didn't have much alternative, not unless they wanted to face the wrath of their volatile clientele who reckoned Colin and Brian deserved all the sympathy that was going.
Tonight, the bottle of Bells was already past the halfway mark. Colin looked at his watch. "We missed it," he said.
Brian looked at him blearily. "Why should I care? Rosie's going to miss it every year."
"Aye. But somewhere out there, whoever killed her is probably raising a glass to getting away with it."
"It was them. I'm sure it was them. You see that picture? Did you ever see anybody look more guilty?"
Colin drained his glass and reached for the bottle, nodding agreement. "There was nobody else about. And they said she was still breathing. So if it wasn't them, where did the murderer disappear to? He didnae just vanish into thin air."
"We should make a New Year's resolution."
"Like what? You're not going to give up smoking again, are you?"
"I'm serious. We should make a solemn promise. It's the least we can do for Rosie."
"What do you mean? What kind of a solemn promise?"
"It's simple enough, Col." Brian topped up his glass. He held it up expectantly. "If the cops can't get a confession, then we will."
Colin considered for a moment. Then he raised his glass and chinked it against his brother's. "If the cops can't get a confession, then we will."
Chapter 11~12
Chapter 11
The substantial remains of Ravenscraig Castle stand on a rocky promontory between two sandy bays, commanding a magisterial view of the Forth estuary and its approaches. To the east, a long stone wall provides a defense against the sea and against any marauders. It runs all the way to Dysart harbor, now largely silted up but once a prosperous and thriving port. At the tip of the bay that curves along from the castle, past the dovecot that still houses pigeons and seabirds, where the wall comes to a V-shaped point, there is a small lookout with a steeply pitched roof and arrow slits in the walls.
Since their early teens, the Laddies fi' Kirkcaldy had regarded this as their personal fiefdom. One of the best ways to escape adult supervision was invariably to go for walks. It was deemed to be healthy and unlikely to lead to them falling into Bad Ways. So when they promised to be gone all day, exploring the coast and the woods, they were always heartily supplied with picnics.
Sometimes, they headed in the opposite direction, along Invertiel and out past the ugliness of Seafield pit toward Kinghorn. But mostly, they came to Ravenscraig, not least because it wasn't far to the ice cream van in the nearby park. On hot days, they lay on the grass and indulged in wild fantasies of what their lives would be, both in the near and the distant futures. They retold stories of their term-time adventures, embellishing and spinning off into might-have-beens. They played cards, endless games of pontoon for matches. They smoked their first cigarettes here, Ziggy turning green and throwing up ignominiously into a gorse bush.
Sometimes they'd clamber up the high wall and watch the shipping in the estuary, the wind cooling them down and making them feel they were standing in the prow of some sailing ship, creaking and wallowing beneath their feet. And when it rained, they'd shelter inside the lookout post. Ziggy had a groundsheet they could spread over the mud. Even now, when they considered themselves to be grown-ups, they still liked to descend the stone stairs leading down from the castle to the beach, meandering among the coal dirt and seashells to the lookout.
The day before they were due to return to St. Andrews, they met up in the Harbor Bar for a lunchtime pint. Flush with their Christmas earnings, Alex, Mondo and Weird would have been happy to make a session of it. But Ziggy talked them out into the day. It was crisp and clear, the sun watery in a pale blue sky. They walked through the harbor, cutting between the tall silos of the grain mill and out on to the west beach. Weird hung back a little behind the other three, his eyes on the distant horizon as if seeking inspiration.
As they approached the castle, Alex peeled off and scrambled up the rocky outcropping that would be almost submerged at high tide. "Tell me again, how much did he