He switched on the word processor and managed to find the beginning of the book. He ran through it. Only chapter one. Well, what had he expected? He had expected that Tommy had been killed because there was something incriminating in his manuscript.

He switched off the word processor and made sure that he had replaced the pages of manuscript exactly where he had found them.

Then he went outside and looked around. A policeman came up and stared at him suspiciously.

"I'm Hamish Macbeth from Lochdubh," said Hamish easily.

"PC Peter Harvey," said the policeman. "I hope ye have nae been in there. I'm supposed to be guarding it. I just popped into the village for a cup of tea. It's a hell of a wet day."

"So what's happening now?"

"Nothing much," said Peter, lighting a cigarette. "Strathbane says it's an overdose. The boy's parents will be along sometime to take away his stuff"

"Do you know if they found any drugs in the chalet?"

"Aye, they found a wee bit o' heroin."

"I'll just take a stroll into the village myself and have a cup of tea. Good idea. If you see Parry, tell him I'll be back."

Hamish walked through the rain to the village, which consisted of a small huddle of houses. There was no shop, the locals all driving to Lochdubh to do their shopping. But there was a tearoom run by a Miss Black, an incomer, English. She had set up her tearoom in what had once been the village store. As she provided strong tea and very good cakes and biscuits, she had built up a regular trade among the locals as well as people in other towns and villages in Sutherland, many driving in from as far away as Lairg.

As Miss Black had bought the village shop for very little and acted as baker and waitress, a complete one-woman operation, she managed to make a modest living.