Page 7 of Death at a Scottish Halloween

“No,” Isobel said. “We were having so much fun. And I handed out the flyers for our booths at the fête. Some of the guests actually thanked me because they were having so much fun being scared. ”

“You did a great job,” I intervened. “And we could hear the laughter and screams on our side of the hall.”

She gave me a tight smile. “Thanks. We were all excited to raise money for such good causes. We’re big readers and literacy is important to us. And we love that old house. Duncan had signed up to be part of the restoration team. Well, when he was in town.”

“She’s right. If he wasn’t working or carving, Duncan always had his head in a book. When we were invited to present a room at the haunted house, we thought it was a good thing we were doing. And it gave us a chance to do a bit of promoting.”

“Let’s go back to McClendon. You say they didn’t get along?” Ewan asked.

“They did until recently. I don’t know what happened exactly, but Duncan reported him to the big bosses. Something about forgoing safety checks and allowing more overtime than was legal. Duncan was worried that if an accident happened on his watch, that he’d get into trouble. He was trying to cover his liability by reporting the numbers correctly instead of fudging them like the boss wanted.

“After Michael’s accident, there wasn’t much McClendon could do. But he was angry with Duncan for sending things up the chain of command.

“But I can’t see that as a reason for someone to kill him. That also wasn’t something new. The bosses are always covering up things to keep life going out there.”

That didn’t sound good. Had Duncan found something that made him worth killing?

Baird rubbed his head. “I can’t believe he’s gone. I have to say, I feel like Isobel. None of this feels real. Do we, uh, need to identify him?”

“You will, but not tonight,” Ewan said. “The doc will make arrangements for you to come by when she’s ready. You need to give her your details so she can contact you and I’ll need them as well.”

I’d already taken out my notebook to write down a few things. I turned the page and had them write down their numbers.

“While we investigate, I’ll need you to stay in town.”

Isobel frowned. “I’ve never … Duncan handled all the arrangements when our parents died. I don’t know where to begin.”

Baird squeezed her next to him. “I’m here, lass. I’ll help you every step of the way.”

She gave him a watery smile.

“We’ll leave you to it,” Ewan said.

“Wait, one more thing,” I said. “I’ll need the clothing that you were wearing tonight. You can bring it by when you come to identify the body.”

“You can’t think we hurt him,” Baird said.

“No. It’s more to rule out any fibers you were wearing. Helps us when we’re looking at the evidence. If we find stray fibers, it might help our investigation.”

There would also be blood splatter if it was one of them. Even though I didn’t think they had anything to do with this. They were much too sad.

“Oh, OK,” he said.

As we walked away, the rest of the pub watched as we headed to the front door.

“Any bets on if they all know what is happening?”

“I wouldn’t want to lose my money.” He shook his head. “This town cannot keep a secret. Come on, I’ll walk you home.”

“Thanks,” I said as he opened the door for me. “We were having a blast. I had no idea scaring people would actually be fun. I feel awful that someone killed him right there, and we had no idea. We were separated by the hallway, but if he yelled, we would have heard something. I mean, he had to see his attacker since he was killed from the front.”

“I’ve been thinking about that. Maybe he thought it was a joke at first.” Ewan said.

“Like the assailant had a retractable knife?”

He nodded. “If he didn’t know his attacker, he might have screamed. But he may have thought it was some kind of joke.”

“Until it was too late. Like I said, he didn’t linger. Death was fast. Oh.”