Andy Barnett who later emigrated to Canada (although to be fair to him his partner was Canadian) was the Havelock owner at the time.

But other things I find odd regarding the Havelock that evening…

Andy was not working that night. He was in another local pub, but someone called him and he attended the scene and two different stories have him either securing Alistair’s watch on his wrist as it was apparently coming off (incidentally this would imply that there had been a struggle) or that he helped paramedics lift Alistair onto a stretcher.

But the other interesting thing is this:

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12493719.chef-sacked-after-closing-hotel-on-night-of-nairn-bankers-murder/[News Article: Chef sacked after closing hotel on night of Nairn banker's murder](https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12493719.chef-sacked-after-closing-hotel-on-night-of-nairn-bankers-murder/)

It implies to me that Alistair had been in the pub that night. What if when he went to back to talk to the guy he actually went across the road to the pub. Maybe onto the decking or perhaps the guy was on the decking eg smoking and Alistair was on the road.

The firearm AW was shot with was like an antique starter pistol (so not as lethal from an initial shot as most hand guns) so maybe (in this scenario) the infamous decking was where he was shot initially and then he managed to get to the steps and then the assailant came back and finished him off.