“I did warn you when I called,” Isobel said through gritted teeth. “I said, come quick, there’s a dead body on the beach.”
“I thought you were joking,” Donna said.
“About a dead body?” Isobel practically shrieked.
“Right.” Agnes held up her hands. “Everybody calm down. This isn’t helping. It’s getting light, and we need to deal with the body. It’s not like people use this beach, but if someone did come down here, they’d call the police.” She looked at Isobel. “And seeing as your house is the closest, you’d be first on their list to interview.”
“That wouldn’t go well,” Mairi said. “Your whole face goes red when you lie, and you start stuttering.”
“Then you just blab the truth and apologise for trying to lie,” Donna added.
“Which means you’d get arrested for fencing stolen goods.” Agnes nodded. “Something we’re trying to avoid.”
“Are you all about done?” Isobel put her hands on her hips and glared at them. Was this really the time to bring up every single one of her flaws? “The kids will be awake soon. We need to deal with this now.”
They all stared at the man.
“I’ve never seen a dead body before,” Mairi said. “They look so lifeless.”
“Idiot.” Agnes smacked Mairi on the back of the head.
“What was that for?” Mairi rubbed her head.
“For being an idiot,” Agnes said. “Now focus. Do we leave him here? Cover him and come back later to bury him? Bury him now? Or move him somewhere else while we think things over?”
“I think we need to move him. It would be too hard to bury him here, and we couldn’t guarantee the tide wouldn’t unearth him later.” Isobel felt weary. She was sick of the stress in her life. Sick of dealing with other people’s messes. Sick of struggling every single day just to survive. “Whatever we do, we need to do it fast, before the kids wake up. Either way, I want him off the beach. Jack sometimes comes down here with his friends after school, and I wouldn’t want them to find the body.”
“You could put him in the freezer in your garage,” Donna said. “It still works, doesn’t it?”
“Aye, but it’s old, full of rust and smelly,” Isobel said.
“I don’t think he’ll care,” Donna said.
“What do we do with him once he’s in the freezer? We can’t leave him there forever.” Isobel gnawed at her bottom lip and wondered how her life had come to this point.
She was a single mother of two, with two failed relationships behind her, a mountain of debt she hadn’t personally accumulated, a minimum-wage job in the village shop and an ever-growing list of crimes under her belt. It was not how she’d imagined life would be at the grand old age of thirty-two.
“We need advice. We need someone who knows what to do with a dead body,” Agnes said. “We need an expert.”
“I’m not calling the police,” Isobel said adamantly. She was the only stability her kids had. She couldn’t even think of risking it.
“I wasn’t thinking of the police,” Agnes said. “I was thinking of an outlaw.”
“Yes!” Mairi clapped her hands and grinned. “Great idea, Aggie.”
“No.” Isobel shook her head. “No. Just no.”
Donna placed her hand on Isobel’s arm. “Don’t dismiss this idea just because you fancy the man. He used to be in the army. He’s bound to have seen dead bodies during conflict. He must have an idea what to do with them.”
“I-I don’t f-fancy him,” Isobel protested, but nobody was listening. No, she just dreamed about him every blooming night. What was it with her and bad boys? Hadn’t she learned her lesson by now? Why couldn’t she find a nice six-stone weakling of an accountant to fall in love with?
“It’s well known he’s dangerous,” Agnes said. “Old man McKay used to tell everyone that his grandson was deadly. He was in the Special Forces. He knows about dead bodies.”
“Plus,” Mairi said, “there’s a security company watching him—covertly.” She whispered the last word as though it had special powers. “That must mean he’s on the other side of the law now, which means he won’t report us to the cops.”
“I didn’t know he was being watched.” Donna’s eyes went wide. “Maybe talking to him isn’t such a good idea.”
“I spoke to the woman who was setting up cameras,” Isobel said. Of course she was going to grill a stranger who was setting up CCTV in the street, in the dark. “She showed me her ID and said he wasn’t dangerous to the town. He isn’t a criminal. She said he’s only dangerous to bad guys.” And then the blue-haired woman had laughed. It wasn’t reassuring. Neither was the fact she was wearing a Wonder Woman T-shirt and a pair of pink, glittery Doc Marten boots. “She gave me her business card, in case I was ever worried about anything.”