The Long Glasgow Kiss

I had lost sight of the taxi around a bend. It didn’t concern me because there was nowhere for it to go. A little bit of acceleration and I could bring it back into view. But when I turned the bend I was suddenly faced with the rear of the cab, pulled into a farm gate. I drove on without looking in its direction and only once I was past did I see Claire Skinner disembark and hand some notes to the driver. Clearly not waiting for change, she turned, opened the gate, and headed up what looked to me like a farm track.

Bingo.

I continued along the road until I reached the next bend. In my rear-view mirror I saw the taxi struggle to make a three-point turn and head back in the direction of the main road. I drove around the next bend, a sharp turn to the left. A little further on there was a copse beside the road. Bumping the Atlantic onto the grass verge, the two driver’s side wheels still on the tarmac, I felt reasonably sure I had concealed my car from the farm track and presumably any buildings at the track’s end.

I made my way on foot through the clump of trees until I was at its edge and had a clear view across the fields. The sun was low and rich in the evening sky, softening edges and warming tones. I spotted Claire’s head for a second before it disappeared from view where the path dipped between its banks and I couldn’t see her – which meant she couldn’t see me. For how long, I didn’t know: the path could soon incline back to become level with the surrounding fields.

I broke out from the cover of the trees and ran across the field, angling my trajectory across the grass to aim for the field-height stretch of path behind the point at which I had last seen Claire Skinner. The lush green grass in the field was ankle height, but the ground beneath was reasonably firm, having been dried out of its normal sodden state by the recent atypical spell of sunshine. Siberia has permafrost; Scotland has permasog. My rush across the pasture was watched disinterestedly by a handful of black-faced, dead-eyed sheep. I wasn’t hurrying in order to catch up with Claire – my guess was that there would be only one destination at the end of the lane – but rather to keep out of her sight by getting to the path before she emerged from the hollow and had a view of the field.

Vaulting over the dry-stone wall, I dropped down onto the lane, a thin grey ribbon of dusty earth between grassy banks. There was something about the lane and the evening light that made me feel I should be in a collarless shirt, sleeves rolled up and with a scythe over my shoulder. But that wouldn’t really be me: as a character I always thought of myself as more Leslie Charteris than Thomas Hardy. Ruddy-cheeked farm girls and frothy ale weren’t my thing. Although I’d probably give the ruddy-cheeked farm girls a go.

I put these bucolic musings out of my head and made my way along the lane at a steady, unhurried pace. There was no sign of Claire Skinner until I came to a bend in the lane. I could see her up ahead, about a hundred yards distant. I ducked behind the cover of the grassy bank and watched as she headed towards a farm cottage tucked into a tangle of bramble and bush. Scotland’s latitude made for long summer evenings, but the sun was low now and I would have expected to see a light from inside the cottage. There was none. Claire knocked on the door and had to wait for a minute or so before someone unseen to me admitted her.

I watched the cottage for five full minutes, just to make sure it wasn’t going to be a flying visit. Seeing as Claire had dismissed the taxi at the lane’s end, and the fact that we were in the middle of nowhere, my guess was Claire had no plans to make the return journey to Glasgow that night.

I considered my options. I would have a long loiter if I waited until it got truly dark before approaching the cottage; but in any kind of light I would be visible on the path a hundred yards away. Time enough to put a party together and shout ‘surprise!’ when I came in through the front door. I didn’t know what I was dealing with and it would be best to check it out unseen first.