When I got home I thought, "I need a strong drink." But there was none in the house, so I thought, "Right. Strong coffee will do."

—VAL MOFFAT, LOCH NESS RESIDENT, SEPTEMBER 1990

Chapter 33

Inverness Castle

There were no members of the media present, only two shell-shocked guards and Francesca Kasa, my father's private nurse, who hovered over Angus as he lay slumped on the floor of his cell.

"Angus, listen to me! You're having a heart attack! Hang on, I've called the hospital, an ambulance is on the way."

The nurse turned to the two guards as Angus lay there groaning. "They'll never get a gurney down that circular stairwell. We need to carry him up. Now! Come on, move!"

The two guards hurried into the cell.

* * *

Sirens blaring, the ambulance roared up the driveway behind Inverness Castle, then backed up to the police barracks just as the guards emerged carrying Angus.

A female EMT jumped down from the back of the van, her long, raven-colored hair tucked beneath her cap. With one of the guards help, she removed the gurney, "Lay him down, quickly!"

The guards complied, just as their superior, Captain Douglas Galliac, hurried over from his post. "Whit's a' this?"

Nurse Kasa secured Angus to the gurney as the female paramedic hovered over him, listening to his heart with her stethoscope. "Myocardial infarction… it's a massive heart attack."

"Probably a blood clot in one or more of his coronary arteries," called out the EMT. "I'm startin' him on Retavase."

The paramedic hooked up a clear IV bag to the gurney, passing the needle end to the nurse, who jabbed Angus in the arm.

"Ahh!"

Captain Galliac went pale. "Is he gonnae make it? Where are ye takin' him?"

"Where dae ye think?" the nurse yelled back.

"Well, I cannae jist let him go, he's been convicted o' murder!"

"An' he could die if ye keep us here. Then you can explain tae the media how the sheriff's office executed their prisoner without him ever bein' sentenced."

"What's the holdup, people?" the female driver yelled from the front seat of the ambulance. "We've got a surgical team standing by for an emergency angiogram and stent."

"Oh Bloody Hell… Mastramico, Edwards, load him aboard, then follow them tae the hospital. I've got tae find the sheriff. An' no media!"

The paramedic and nurse climbed in the back of the van as the two guards lifted Angus and his gurney to them. The double doors were slammed closed, and the ambulance accelerated away.

The emergency vehicle raced down the winding path of Castle Street, its blasting siren alerting a second ambulance, identical to the first, that had been waiting at the bottom of the hill for the last ten minutes.