Scarlet Rose

Chapter 74 (Part 1)

20th of July 1925 (Monday)

The time was past 1am in the morning. 

A spear of bright silver light stretched over the calm dark waters of the bay. Most people were fast asleep in Castlebay by that time. All but police officer Michael MacRae who despite the late of the night, and having the advantage of the full moon, walked with a steady quick pace, like a boat sailing through the nocturnal stillness in the dark quiet roads of the town. There weren't any gas lamp posts there, like the ones lighting close to the harbour. He did not pay any particular attention though. He knew the streets like the back of his hand. And he was in a hurry. A big hurry. The graveyard shift had officially started at Castlebay Police station. The Chief of Police was waiting for him. In fact, the whole police force of the island was on alert, since that morning. 

That particular Sunday was not what they -at the police station- had been used to consider, as a "usual" Sunday. Officer MacRae failed to remember any other day being even remotely similar, on all the years he had been part of the police force on the isle of Barra. Having someone on the island, on the trail of a couple from London, on orders of a famous gang leader, while the police had to wait for him to "act" following their orders directly from Scotland Yard, none other... certainly this case hadn't been anything but "usual".

They all  had got the phone call from their Chief of Police, Constable James Barrach, early in the morning. Everyone had to assemble at the station, he had something important to announce.

So here he was in the middle of the night. Coming back-

-Correction-

Running back-

To the station, where he was heading, to report the "act" everyone had been waiting for. He was the "lucky" one. The thread of his luck had started earlier inside Duncan's pub, when he saw and spoke to the lad from London, Terence Graham.

After having been briefed by their Chief of Police, officer MacRae who under normal circumstances would have been off duty, had spent the entire day being on edge. Being on alert with the possibility of catching something or somebody that was suspicious, out of place, blinking like the red light of the lighthouse at the edge of the harbour.

After having wandered about, on civilian clothes -

(that was directive given by the Scotland Yard officer, Detective Constable Robert Shaw, not to wear the uniform while on duty that day)

he had ended up in the pub. 

Not to raise the brow of his fellow islanders, even if he knew the rules of staying dry during duty, he ordered half a pint and nursed it for as long as he could while he observed everyone else. The person who had drawn his interest was the tall man who was sitting at the end of the bar, drinking alone.

What was, that actually made officer MacRae to take notice of him, was that he hadn't the look of a man who had stopped by for a few drinks before heading home. Instead he was sitting there, staring at the bottom of his glass with his shoulders hunched, and a lot of load on them by the sight of him. The police officer  tried to strike a conversation with him. The man wasn't rude, he wasn't a talker either. He shared some information however, and its nature was such, the officer had to take leave. He headed to the police station, greeted his two colleagues at the front desks and walked straight to the Chief's office.