"I'm not here as a messenger, Zachary. I've come to Miami to bring you back to Scotland. Angus needs you, he needs your emotional support."

I blurted out a laugh, the sudden movement sending a fresh wave of pain through my hung over brain. "Emotional support? Since when does Angus Wallace need anyone's emotional support? Where was my emotional support? Hell, the man hasn't so much as sent me a birthday card in seventeen years. As far as I'm concerned, he can use a few years in prison. Maybe next time he'll think twice before screwing around with another man's wife."

Max shot me a stern look. "If Angus's found guilty of murder in the first, he's looking at the death penalty."

"Death penalty? I thought Europe abolished capital punishment?"

"Britain's quietly changed their view since that last series of terrorist attacks. Make no mistake, the Cialinos are a powerful, well- connected family. The murder's become our equivalent of your O.J. Simpson trial. It's in every paper, on every TV station. If Angus is found guilty, he'll hang."

I sat back and stared at the passing beach-goers, feeling a bit lost. "Max, I haven't spoken with my father since I was nine. Why would he want me with him after all this time?"

"Maybe he sees it as his last chance to make some sort of restitution."

"Toward me? You obviously don't know my father. The man's a liar and a cheat and that's on his best days. The man never gave a damn about anyone but himself"

Max stunned me with a hard slap across the top of my skull. "That'll be quite enough negativity After all, the man is our father."

I balled my fists, until the Englishman's words sank in.

"That's right, little brother. Angus is my father, too. Knocked up my mum three years before leaving her and marrying yours. Maybe he did me a favor, seein' as how you turned out. But people change as they get older, and, in my book, they deserve a second chance. No doubt Angus did us both some wrong, but he's made amends with me, and now he's reachin' out to you. So now it's up to you. Will ye be there for him in his time of need, or do you prefer to take your anger with you to the grave?"

Two hours later, Max and I boarded a Continental Airlines flight out of Miami, bound for Inverness.

I was seated on a rock, above Abriachan, just watching the water when I saw what I took to be a log coming across the Loch. Instead of going towards the river, as I expected, it suddenly came to life and went at great speed, wriggling and churning towards Urquhart Castle.

—D. MACKENZIE, BALNAIN RESIDENT, 1872

I regularly traveled on the mail steamer from Abriachan from Inverness. During the early morning hours, just before the dawn, I'd often see a strange, huge, salamanderlike creature frolicking along the surface.