Killing Cousins Read Online Free PDF

We must have given him a terrible fright.'
    'No more than he gave us,' said Faro. 'He was like some demon rising from the tomb. I'm glad you were with me.'
    Vince laughed. 'Good heavens, Stepfather. Troller wouldn't harm a fly. You'll get used to his strange appearance.'
    ' "Selkie born and selkie reared," ' said Faro.
    Vince asked him to repeat it.
    'I don't know where it came from, lad. Something from my childhood, games we used to play. Nasty things we used to shout after folk who were daft. That they were seal people.'
    'I'm glad you outgrew that, Stepfather. Sounds like Grandma's nonsense. Not quite in keeping with a detective inspector of police. What would Superintendent McIntosh say?' he added mockingly.
    The grey skies erupted into a sudden fine drizzle and Faro was aware of being chilled to the bone. Disenchanted by his introduction to Balfray, he longed for a warm fire and a good dram inside him.
    As they hurried in the direction of the drive, he asked, 'What was this about her being ill-wished, some nonsense like that? Did Francis ever explain?'
    Vince hesitated for a moment. 'You're not going to like this, Stepfather.'
    'Try me,' said Faro impatiently.
    'When you asked me about the Balfray household and retainers, I didn't mention someone who is almost a member of the family, by habit and repute, constantly at Thora's side, her dear friend and companion.' He hesitated.
    'Go on.'
    'This friend is also reputed to be a witch. Most of the island gives her a wide berth.'
    'Sensible, I suppose. But who the devil is she?'
    Again Vince hesitated. 'As I said, Stepfather, you won't like this. I'm sorry, but it's Inga St Ola - our cousin Inga.'
    Faro felt as if the breath had been knocked out of his body. His father Magnus and Inga's father had been remote cousins, boon companions and close as brothers. Like many other islanders who could trace their families back a few generations, they shared the same greatgrandfather.
    Inga and Jeremy had been childhood friends. There was a time while he was deciding whether to go to Edinburgh and join the police force when Faro considered asking her to be his wife.
    Two years his senior, Inga had been his first love. She had adored him, and had given him - a secret known only to themselves - his initiation into the mysterious world of sex. After that he felt honour bound, knowing he was leaving Orkney, to suggest marriage.
    Her rejection of his stammered proposal hurt his pride but also brought an enormous sense of relief. Her reason? Yes, she did love him and there was no other man she would ever wish to marry but sadly she shook her head. He had one rival. The island. She loved it better man any man and could never ever leave Orkney. She would die, she told him solemnly, if she ever tried to cut that invisible tie which bound her to this land.
    Faro's memory presented a vivid picture which had remained with him through the years of her rapt countenance as she said the words. He remembered too that loving her, while it made him feel so proud, so big and strong and manly possessing that fragile delicate body, he was afraid of her spirit.
    Afraid of her dark powers, for even in those days she was already a selkie, a self-styled white witch, dabbling in all kinds of herbal mysteries and what she smilingly called her magic spells.
    Her boast was that she could whistle up a wind, which was a profit if a sailor should find his bonny boat in the doldrums. But such abilities, as well as an undeniable talent for foretelling the future, only widened the gulf between herself and Jeremy Faro.
    Such psychic gifts as second sight made him uncomfortable, at a loss for appropriate words. And they were too unnerving for the practical policeman in the making, who wished to cut himself adrift from his superstitious island upbringing.
    In the early days, lonely in Edinburgh, he missed her, but he also realised that if word had got around that Constable Faro had a practising white witch as wife, this would