Page 120 of The Boathouse By the Loch

Her heart was pounding in her chest as she reached for the car key. Logan had disappeared down an alleyway between the general store and a shop next door, presumably to see if he could force a back door instead.

Bonnie took a deep breath and turned the key in the ignition. The car didn’t start. She’d never driven Logan’s car. Her first thought was that she was doing something wrong. She put her foot on the clutch, this time, and then tried again. The engine turned over a couple of times as she stared wide-eyed at the lane between the shops, thinking that Logan was going to hear the car and come running. He would assume she’d spotted someone.

Then the car engine died. ‘Oh, god! Don’t do this now!’ She tried again, but the same thing happened.

Without a second thought, Bonnie left behind her suitcase, grabbed the bag full of money, and ran.

Chapter 43

She wiped tears from her eyes and looked around the room.

Duncan said, ‘But my shop wasn’t robbed the Christmas just gone – was it, Joe?’

Joe pursed his lips and looked at his hands.

David turned to his brother. ‘What are you not telling us, Joe?’

Joe breathed a heavy sigh. ‘Look, after what happened two years ago, I’d asked one of my colleagues just to pass through Aviemore on Christmas Eve.’

‘Keeping an eye on my store?’

‘Yeah, Dad. It was a stupid thought. Why would the guy who lost his brother that night return to the scene of the crime or attempt another robbery? I knew that the thief, Logan, had been released from prison a month earlier. But why would he return? Of course nothing happened on Christmas Eve, but imagine my shock when I found out he was back, and had been spotted by the police officer as he cruised through town on Christmas Day, running along the road with an illegal firearm and carrying a crowbar. He recognised Logan, pulled over, and arrested him on the spot. And outside Dad’s shop was a car – stolen. It was obvious what he’d returned to Aviemore to do.’ Joe turned to David. ‘I hadno idea he’d blackmailed you.’

David looked at him sheepishly.

Joe continued, ‘But after what had happened at your store before, I didn’t want to ruin our family’s Christmas by bringing up the fact that he’d come back to finish the job.’

Nobody spoke for a moment. Then Gayle asked Bonnie, ‘So, after you ran from the car, did you go to the hotel?’

She shook her head. ‘I didn’t know which hotel he’d booked, and even if I had, that would have been the last place I’d have gone. I couldn’t check into the hotel. He’d be looking for me there. So, I ran through the town, towards the train station, thinking that would be a refuge from the cold, and maybe there might be a train. But it was Christmas Day, and there were no lights on. There were no lights on in any shops – apart from one.’

‘Wilbur’s Bookstore,’ said Judith, ‘where Robyn was living and working over the Christmas holidays.’

‘I ran up to the bookshop and couldn’t believe it when I saw a young woman sitting at a table in the window. Although the bookstore said it was closed, I banged on the door. I was so cold, and getting wet from the snowfall, and I couldn’t carry the bag full of cash for another second. Oh, the relief when she opened that door.’ Bonnie remembered the young woman ushering her inside.

‘I told them my car had broken down on the way through Aviemore. I didn’t want to tell her that I’d run away from my rotten boyfriend who was, at that moment, robbing one of the stores. She appeared genuine and kind, and … and I should have told her to phone the police, but …’ She looked at her hands. ‘I had all that money. I didn’t know whether it was drugs money, or what it was, but I was sure I’d be arrested too as an accomplice. I felt so bad for lying, but this was my chance to escape – don’t you see?’

She barely looked up, too embarrassed to look them all in the eye. ‘I know I did the wrong thing, but all I was thinking about was my baby, and getting away.’

She gathered herself and looked up. ‘Robyn explained that she lived there above the shop. She sent me upstairs to change out of my wet clothes and choose something to wear of hers. Even my shoes were soaked from running along the slushy pavements. She gave me a pair of her Doc Marten boots. They weren’t the sorts of clothes I’d normally wear – the clothes she dressed in weren’t me at all – but I didn’t care. I was warm. I was dry, and the two women were keen to help me.’ Bonnie frowned when she remembered that while she was changing, she’d also stuffed a few of Robyn’s clothes into the rucksack to hide the cash.

‘Who was the woman with Robyn?’ Judith asked.

‘She said her name was Eleanor.’

‘Eleanor?’ Jake stared at her, wide-eyed. ‘Are you sure? Are you absolutely sure?’

Bonnie looked over at Jake Campbell-Ross. ‘Yes, she said her name was Eleanor.’

‘So, that’s where she went on Christmas Day. She said she was doing last-minute shopping. It didn’t make sense to me. What shops were open on Christmas Day?’

Bonnie said, ‘There weren’t any shops open. Didn’t she tell you she was meeting a friend?’

‘Robyn was her friend?’

‘Yes. They’d only met the day before, on Christmas Eve, when Eleanor had stepped into Wilbur’s Bookstore. While Robyn was making me a hot drink, I sat with Eleanor at the table, and she told me that she’d invited Robyn to have Christmas dinner with her family in Aviemore, but that Robyn had refused. She hadn’t wantedto intrude. So Eleanor had come to see her on Christmas Day instead.’

Jake stared at her. ‘Thank you, Bonnie, for telling me that. I’ve always wondered where she’d been that afternoon before she arrived at the ski slopes.’

---