Chapter 21

Donnie convinced Vivien to stay at the farm with his parents for another few days while he tried to sort out the situation with the police. Katie had phoned him back after the police had left the apartment and made a suggestion.

"Why don't you meet the solicitor now and discuss the best way of getting out of this?"

"That's a good idea. Is Davie staying with you?" Donnie asked.

Katie confirmed that her 'minder' would be continuing to watch over her.

"Let me speak to the solicitor then and I'll try and fix up a meeting," said Donnie.

It was already getting late, but the solicitor agreed to meet Donnie at a popular bar in Stirling. Donnie drove to the pub and recognised the solicitor when he walked in.

"I'd offer to buy you a drink," he said, "but I've left my wallet at home."

The solicitor bought himself a pint and got a coke for Donnie. They found a table in a relatively quiet spot and the solicitor began asking questions.

"The information that the police took from the apartment, what will it show?"

Donnie tried to recollect everything that he had kept in the wallet.

"There's the paperwork for the sale of a large quantity of stocks, shares and commodities. I bought them less than a year ago and sold them in October. I made quite a bit of money on those."

"Were there any that you lost money on?" the solicitor asked.

"None," Donnie admitted.

"Does this involve insider dealing?"

"There was no illegal activity involved in those transactions and the police cannot have any information that proves otherwise," said Donnie firmly.

"What else?" asked the solicitor.

"The winning numbers for the UK, Irish, Spanish and Euromillions lotteries. I won all four over the one weekend," said Donnie.

"Four?! You won four lotteries? That's impossible!" the solicitor exclaimed.

"I'll accept that the odds are astronomical," Donnie smiled, "but not impossible as I've shown. There was nothing illegal in my lottery wins and the police will not be able to show anything to the contrary."

The solicitor shook his head in wonder.

"Is that it?" he asked.

"No, there's a summary of a number of accumulator bets. Horses, football and other sporting events. All of them in October. I think the winnings totalled somewhere in the region of £35million," Donnie told him.

"Bloody hell!" the solicitor cursed.

"Nothing illegal in any of it," Donnie stated simply.

"No one man could be that lucky," the solicitor disagreed.

"I'm here to prove that's not true," said Donnie.

His rebuttal, the confidence with which he declared there could be no evidence of wrong-doing and the utter certainty that nothing illegal had taken place, all convinced the solicitor that Donnie was genuine. He started to laugh.

"What?" Donnie asked.

"You're telling me that the police have got nothing? All of it is above board? All taxes paid?"

Donnie nodded.

"Priceless, absolutely priceless. You should just hand yourself in at the nearest station. I'll have you out within the hour, as they've got nothing to hold you on," the solicitor said. "They're just like me; they can't believe this can all be legal. That's why they're after you, but eventually they're going to realise that they have nothing."

"Yes," Donnie agreed.

"Who tipped them off?" the solicitor.

"Sorry?" Donnie asked.

"The DI – Katie said he mentioned a tip-off being bang on."

Vivien was coming out of her shell more and more as she adjusted to Mairi, Douglas and Kieran on the farm. It helped that Douglas found meaningful tasks for her to do that both kept her occupied and promoted her sense of worth. Donnie had been right about that, her whole reason for being over the past two and a half years had been nursing her parents.

Rory was her constant companion as she took on the job of hosing down the heavy farm machinery so that Douglas could then carry out routine maintenance. She had just finished using the heavy hose on one of the tractors, and Douglas was already crawling over the engine, when Sironaidh's voice spoke to her inside her head.

"You know that it is time for a change in your life, Vivien. The gift that I have given you will blossom as you grow closer to Dòmhnall and Katherine. When the time is right, you will become their wife – the first addition, but there will be two others to come. You also need to work hard at your studies and have a goal in mind. Healing will come naturally to you as your gift grows, but I want you to heal more than just flesh and blood. I want you to learn how to make other things whole again too. Push yourself, Vivien. Time is short."

As quickly as it had come, the voice was gone and Vivien wondered about what her goddess had told her.

"I'm to marry Donnie and Katie! Wow, that's neat! I wonder what the goddess means about making other things whole again?"

As Vivien puzzled over the goddess' words, she was absently watching Douglas changing a filter.

"What could she have been getting at?"

Douglas was now removing spark plugs and carefully checking that they were undamaged and fit to last for another year. He took a small emery board and delicately buffed one plug before replacing it. Perhaps it was the goddess' timing or maybe it was a metaphoric spark from the plug, but realisation dawned on Vivien that she was watching Douglas doing something that made things whole again.

"Could that be it? Could I learn to fix engines and machinery?"

The thought made her excited. Vivien realised that some would consider mechanics just plain wrong for a scrawny girl like herself, but the sound of it seemed to fit somehow. Already she liked the idea of being able to heal people and animals, but also to have the skill to bring broken engineering back to life in a much different way.

Crossing to stand beside Douglas, she made a request that really would mean another big change in her life.

"Tell me how it works?" she asked.

The special adviser glanced at his slide again before resuming his briefing.

"To understand some of what's going on in Bahrain, you need to understand a little more about the culture there.

"Many people in the west don't realise that there are deep divisions within the Islamic faith. The main division runs between Shi'ite Muslims and Sunni Muslims.

"In very simple terms, Shias believe the prophet Muhammad foretold that, after his death, his cousin, Ali, would lead the Muslims. This tradition has led the Shias to believe that there were certain members of Muhhamad's family and descendents – Imams they became known as – that hold special spiritual and political authority over the community.

"The more orthodox Muslims are Sunni; they're the more moderate group and hugely outnumber the Shias – probably by as much as four to one. The Sunni do not accept that Imams have any authority and this fundamental difference in belief can manifest itself in deep divisions between the 'sects'.

"Now, there are a number of countries where Shias are actually in the majority – Iran and Iraq are examples. Bahrain is another. Perhaps 75 percent of the population of Bahrain is Shi'ite, but ... and it's a big but ... the Royal family that rules in Bahrain is Sunni.

"So what appears on the face of things as a popular uprising to gain more democracy, could also be viewed as a sectarian act against a minority Sunni population. That's why troops have been deployed from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – both of those countries have large Sunni majorities."

Donnie sat behind the First Minister, soaking up the detail of the briefing. He understood that he was getting a fascinating insight into current events in the Middle East. The latest flash point was once again Bahrain, with its oil exporting facilities now being threatened by mounting unrest. This sectarian undercurrent wasn't something that Donnie had been aware of before.

"What about the Muslims in this country, what are they?" Donnie asked the advisor.

"The vast majority of the UK's Muslim population are actually of Pakistani origin and it is particularly the Shi'ite population that has settled here," the advisor answered.

"Is it being too simplistic to suggest that the more radical Muslims tend to be Shi'ite?" Donnie asked. "Is the influence of the Imams somehow linked to radicalism?"

"Yes, I'm afraid it is too simplistic. It's undoubtedly the case that more of the radical elements do come from the Shi'ite communities and there are some Imams who are known for fomenting radicalism, but the vast majority of Imams can't be described in that way," the advisor replied.

"Okay, thanks for that. Can we move on to university funding?" Alex Salmond asked.

A different advisor began the briefing on this issue.

"Westminster has confirmed its intention to allow English Universities to charge up to £9,000 per annum for course fees. That in turn is leading to lobbying from Scottish Universities for additional funding from ourselves," said the advisor.

"We have a history of keeping education free for all in this country," said Salmond. "We took the step to remove tuition fees altogether for Scottish universities, but this step in England is making life difficult for us. I need options on how we maintain our position – that probably means cuts elsewhere. Next, food inflation?"

"Prices continue to rise. Forecasts are for a shortage of wheat at major bread manufacturers sometime over the winter," advised another aide. "We'll possibly make it through Christmas, but expect bread shortages sometime in the New Year. Fuel for transport and utilities are also sharply up again and that will inevitably feed-through into general price rises across the board. I'm hearing that we might not be far away from demonstrations in this country over food prices."

One or two in the room showed worried looks. The idea that the huge unrest in the Middle East could somehow play out on the streets of the UK was hard to take in.

"Where have you heard that?" the FM asked.

"The Home Office has certain intelligence assets in place apparently. There's talk of a coalition – a kind of rainbow alliance – of some unlikely groups it has to be said. The National Union of Farmers, the Road Haulage Association, quite a few environmental groups and the country's two largest consumer groups – oh, and the students have been mentioned - the talk is of a national day of action," said the advisor.

"Nothing is more guaranteed to lead to unrest than a shortage of basic foodstuffs like bread. If there are power cuts at the same time then I fear the worst," Salmond almost thought aloud. "What are the latest intelligence estimates on the possibility of power cuts?"

"The estimates are variable," the energy expert piped up. "Much of it comes down to how much gas we can buy and get through the pipeline from Europe. I understand that Russia is being difficult with prices again, so there could be a shortage of supply at peak periods through January and February in particular. If temperatures drop as low as last year then I think power cuts are a definite possibility."

"We are all full of good news this morning, aren't we," groaned the FM.

Mrs Dunn's funeral was held in mid December at the main crematorium in Dundee. There weren't many in attendance, but Donnie and his family, together with Katie and Heather did all that they could to support Vivien. Mrs Dunn's effects had all been dealt with, the house reduced for a quick sale, and Vivien was left with an inheritance of £360k once all taxes and expenses had been deducted.

The service was blessedly short and Donnie and Katie bracketed Vivien as her mother's remains glided slowly through the velvet curtains towards the unseen furnace. The Minister offered some words of comfort to Vivien too, but even though she had cried throughout, the young girl almost felt relief that it was finally over.

In the weeks following the goddess' talk with her, Vivien had found her new friends a constant source of help and encouragement. Douglas had happily explained the basic workings of a combustion engine and started her on some minor maintenance tasks. Donnie had been shocked to see her up to her elbows in grease and oil for the first time, but he could see that this was something that Vivien was very keen to pursue and he was happy to encourage her.

Having Mairi and Douglas accepted as next of kin helped smooth over any potential difficulties in keeping Vivien out of the social services system and the transfer to a local school was also achieved without much drama. Donnie, Heather and Katie had already shared out tutoring duties for the subjects Vivien would now pick up and it was clear that her results were about to rocket.

They had even managed to arrange for Vivien to enrol at the local college for evening classes on mechanics, something that she was delighted about.

Sufficient progress had been made on a number of additional silos at Ardbrecknish and Donnie had amended the plans for one. Instead of the original one hundred layers of growing pods, the number in this silo had been limited to seventy-five to leave room at the bottom of the silo for a range of industrial facilities. One of these was a custom-built facility for Professor White to begin his work in constructing the huge recycling plant.

For convenience, Donnie decided that the dome over this silo would also contain additional living accommodation and work had already started on that. Carol was still travelling to the site each day, but she hoped to be able to move herself, Alan and Alisha into the new accommodation early in 2012. She had already investigated nearby schools for Alan as a short-term measure until the 'compound' established its own school.

Donnie had also planned a huge New Year's party for the entire village of Ardbrecknish as a way of saying thank you for the fact that they had put up with all of the traffic that had been coming and going to the site over the year. The quiet country roads weren't used to huge plant and loads of concrete and steel constantly being delivered, but so far the locals hadn't made a fuss. Donnie wanted to try and keep things like that if he could, hence the party at his expense.

The other members of Katie's immediate family were welcome guests to Scotland for Christmas and New Year. This was Donnie's first chance to meet his prospective mother and sister in law and he hoped things would go well. The planned party was also going to be the occasion when Donnie and Katie formally announced their engagement so Donnie was growing somewhat nervous about everything.

"Stop worrying, just be yourself. They'll both love you; in fact I'm a little worried that Jennifer will love you just a little too much!" Katie exclaimed.

They were waiting at the international arrivals gate in the airport and Donnie was looking rather pale.

"Get a grip; you've faced much worse than this!" he told himself.

After reaching out to make a subtle link to his gifts, he finally got his nerves under control. Donnie recognised the two American women even without having ever seen a photograph of them and he stepped forward to welcome them.

"You are so stunning that you just have to be the one who brought my nighean ruadh into the world," he said to Rose, as he hugged her and pecked her cheek. "And you must be Jennifer, the most glamorous trainee teacher in the entire US. Fáilte gu Alba (welcome to Scotland) both of you!"

Rose considered him carefully, recognising that Donnie's manner and confidence did belie his age – just as Katie had told her. She found herself warming to his charm immediately and allowed him to take her arm.

Jennifer was all but struck dumb by the force of Donnie's personality, even within such a few words, and her mouth hung open slightly as she tried to adjust. Before she could gather herself, Donnie took her arm too and escorted mother and daughter over to baggage reclaim.

"Now, a less savvy individual would probably underestimate how many bags you lovely ladies needed to pack to see you through your visit," Donnie suggested. "I fully understand the need for you to have just the right thing to wear for every possible occasion though, so I'm guessing we need at least two trolleys?"

Rose leant over to whisper in Katie's ear.

"My, he is smooth, isn't he?"

Katie laughed at her mother's comment.

Once they had recovered all of the bags and fully loaded both trolleys, Donnie led the way towards where he had parked. Once again he had shown forward thinking by hiring the Toyota Land Cruiser rather than try and fit the amount of luggage he had guessed at into the little Polo.

Rose and Jennifer were booked into the Hilton at Dunblane and that was Donnie's next stop.

"Why don't we leave you to freshen up," he suggested. "I've booked a table for us here in the hotel for 19:30 so perhaps we can meet in the bar half an hour before that?"

"That would be lovely," Rose replied. "Can I just say that you've been wonderful so far and we really appreciate you picking us up at the airport."

"Don't be silly, it was the least I could do for my future in-laws. Besides, I was determined that we would spend as much time together as possible. After all, I know that you must still have concerns as to whether Katie has made the right choice or not, so it's only fair that you get the chance to grill me to your heart's content," Donnie chuckled.

Rose bent to whisper to Katie yet again.

"Smart as well as good looking!" she said.

Katie had her own views on how the meeting had gone and she voiced them as Donnie drove them through Bridge-of-Allan to the apartment.

"Mom is already impressed with you," she told Donnie. "You charmed her from the very first and she loved every minute of it. As for that little baggage Jennifer! I was right about her; she couldn't take her eyes off you. As if it wasn't bad enough having Vivien all dewy-eyed about you, now I've got my sister at it too! I think I'll have to be more careful selecting what I wear tonight than I first thought."

Donnie knew better than to step into the middle of that, so wisely remained quiet.

The meal was a success, with Rose gently but obviously finding out more about the young man who her daughter had fallen in love with. She was taken with his confidence and his ability to talk knowledgeably on just about any subject, but most of all she was impressed by his knack of remaining modest despite his many qualities. By the end of the meal Rose was certain her daughter had made a good choice.

Katie smiled to herself as she watched her sister trying to flirt with Donnie all through the meal. The little hussy had worn a dress that scooped low to show an almost immodest amount of cleavage and it was obvious that Jennifer had taken advantage of the hotel's beauty salon to have her make-up professionally done.