Page 127 of Death at a Highland Wedding
“I do not care. I have the chance to marry a good man, and I do not dare to guess who my parents would wed me to next. You do not wish to marry me? Fine. Take me to America as your sister. As for fleeing with only a few pounds, that is ridiculous. You have money. I have access to money. Leave the whisky business to Violet and she will be taken care of. But we both gather what funds we can before we run.”
“Fiona…” McCreadie says.
She lifts a finger. “Do not, Hugh. You are my brother, not my master or even my guardian.”
I glance at Cranston, who stares at her as if witnessing a transformation.
“However,” she says, “as for leaving, I do not think that is necessary.” She turns to McCreadie. “Have you not said, repeatedly, that you have no authority in this case?”
“I—”
“You searched for any way that you might be able to take charge, and you concluded there is none. You have no place in the investigation, andConstable Ross has made it very clear that he does not want your help. So why help him by turning in Archie?”
McCreadie sighs. “Fee…”
“Do not ‘Fee’ me. Do youwantto see Archie hang?”
McCreadie stiffens.
“Fine, that was unfair,” she says. “Do you believe Archie should hang for striking a fiend who mistreated his sister and molested other women?”
“Fee…”
She lifts a hand. “Still unfair. Do you believeanyoneshould hang for striking someone who abused others? No, you do not. I know that because I knowyou.”
She moves toward him. “If this were a case you had to investigate, as part of your job, you would need to turn Archie in and let the court decide his fate. You would be uncomfortable with that, but it is your job. You make the arrest. The procurator fiscal chooses the charges, and the judge or jury finds the accused guilty or innocent. But you are not working this case. It is not your job to find the killer.”
“I—”
“So you feel ethically bound to take your findings to Constable Ross? Fine. Do that, and if we are not here when you return, that is not your fault. But if you cart Archie off to face justice, you will never forgive yourself, Hugh. Even if a jury decides it was not murder, you will have ruined Violet. Again. Yes, that is not fair, but you know the truth of it.”
McCreadie rocks back, pain flashing over his face.
Fiona continues, “At worst, Archie hangs for doing something you could just as easily have done. What if you discovered a dear friend had gotten me with child and mistreated me? And then turned his eye on Isla, planning to seduce and abuse her? Youknowyou could have struck him in a fit of rage and fury and hurt.”
She glances at Cranston. “Yes,hurt.Ezra’s betrayal hurt you.” She turns to McCreadie, Gray, and myself, as if addressing a jury. “I think we can all understand why Archie hit Ezra. We can also agree, given the tenor of his confession, that he did not intend to kill him. I also heard nothing that sounded as if Archie did not expect to pay for this unfortunate accident, whether by the hangman or by penniless exile. He wantedyouto investigate, Hugh. But if you follow either of those paths, you will regret it, andI am offering you a third choice. Not because I do not wish to lose my chance at a husband. As I said, I will go with Archie if he leaves. But I do not wish to hurtyou.”
McCreadie exhales and drops his head forward.
“It will still hurt,” Fiona says, her voice low. “I realize that. You will suffer guilt with any choice you make. Turn him in to Constable Ross. Or let us flee. Or step back and do nothing. But which will be the least painful? We are not sentencing Müller to the noose. You are not giving evidence to see Müller convicted of the one crime he did not commit. You are simply letting Constable Ross do what Constable Ross insists on doing. Solving this bloody case himself.”
McCreadie says nothing. Oh, I know what he’ll decide. The only thing he can. But he’s taking his time, and he’s making sure not to look at us because this decision must be his.
Fiona continues, “You are not absolving Archie. If Constable Ross comes for him, we will deal with that and you will have no part in it. But let this go, Hugh. Please. I beg you. Let it go.”
The silence stretches… and then, slowly, he nods.
FORTY-ONE
McCreadie made the only choice he could. I’d have made the same one, and I told him that later, as did Gray and Isla, when she heard the whole story. He will feel guilt. I will, too. Or maybe not guilt so much as discomfort.
I was raised to believe in the righteousness of the law, but that was the viewpoint of a child convinced that her mother only helped free the falsely accused. Of course my mother never claimed that, and as I got older, she answered honestly when I asked whether she’d ever helped someone she thought had committed the crime. That was how the law worked. If you were charged, the prosecution had to make its case beyond a reasonable doubt, and for every guilty person a defense lawyer kept out of prison, there were dozens of innocents they helped do the same.
I was a cop. I still am, in my soul. But that is never—ever—going to mean that I think our legal system isn’t fundamentally broken, and I don’t mean because guilty people go free. I don’t even necessarily mean because innocents go to prison. I mean the way we look at crime and punishment, and all the nuances the law does not see. Justice is blind, and that’s not always a good thing. In this time period, it is even blinder, with the specter of capital punishment looming.
Archie Cranston doesn’t deserve the hangman’s noose. He doesn’t deserve life in prison or deportation. He deserves the chance to explain his actions and make an appropriate restitution to society. Fine him with themoney going to an orphanage. Sentence him to community service. Make sure he pays in a manner that befits the crime.
But that won’t happen. He’ll be sentenced to hang or rot in prison or be deported to Australia… or he’ll be set free. This is a world where women are considered property, even if Scottish law says otherwise. In defending the honor of women under his protection, Cranston defended his property. Either way, McCreadie agrees there’s a good chance the court would set him free.
