"And when do the salmon usually start arriving in Loch Ness?"

"At the end of each winter when they're large and well fed. The fish must wait until the rivers are swollen, since they often have to leap up waterfalls and beyond strenuous currents. Once a salmon returns to its birth pool it spawns, and it usually won't eat again until it returns to the ocean in the fall."

"According to your testimony, when you fell into Loch Ness seventeen years ago, you were surrounded by a school of salmon. Is that correct?"

"Yes."

"What month was that?"

"August."

"Then summer is the season a school of salmon would be found in Loch Ness?"

"Spring and summer, yes."

"But not this summer?"

"So far… no."

"And what might cause the salmon population to avoid Loch Ness this season?"

I hesitated, not wanting to bring up the subject of pollution until I had proof. "When a salmon approaches Loch Ness, a chemical memory enables the fish to literally smell its own river. It's possible something's interfering with that process, but that's just conjecture. For all we know, they may have diverted to another Highland loch or river—"

"But not Loch Ness? At least not this season?"

"No, not this season."

"And if not this season, then certainly not this past winter?"

"No. The water's too cold to spawn."

"I see. Then February is certainly out?"

"Yes."

"Thank you, Dr. Wallace. No further questions."

The judge looked at Max. "Mr. Rael?"

"My lord, the defense has no further witnesses."

"Lord Advocate?"

"Yes, my lord, we'd like to recall Mr. Angus Wallace to the stand."

My father shot Max a worried look, then strutted to the witness box. The clerk of the court verified that Angus knew he was still under oath, while the prosecutor circled like a shark.

"Mr. Wallace, I'm going to read back to you your testimony regarding the death of John Cialino… a death that occurred on the fifteenth of February. And I quote, "so I hit him, square in the nose. It was a good shot, and he stumbled back a few steps, then twisted his ankle on a rock and tumbled over the edge, right into Loch Ness. I dropped to my knees and looked over the slope. John was treading water, in fair shape, though blood was pouring from both nostrils. Suddenly the water came alive with salmon, must have been hundreds of them. Some were leaping straight out of the water, a few smacking John right in the head. Then I saw a huge animal, long and serpent- like, at least fifteen meters, and it was circling John and those salmon like a hungry wolf.' End quote."

Angus looked pale.