Cold Earth

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Perez sat in his office. He’d been relieved when he’d received the text from Willow. He hadn’t known quite how he’d respond to her this morning. The night before, she’d caught him in an unguarded moment, and now his invitation to cook her a romantic meal seemed embarrassing and inappropriate. She was his boss.

Sandy had gone north to Brae first thing with a sheaf of photos he’d collected of the men involved – even in a remote way – in the investigation, to show the shop assistant in the Co-op. Perez had stayed at home until it was time to take Cassie to school and was surprised to see Kathryn Rogerson come to the school door, when it was time to let the children in.

‘I thought you’d be taking some time off.’ He’d waited until the children were in the classroom before speaking to her.

‘I’d prefer to be here.’ She’d looked grey and drawn, as if she hadn’t slept. ‘My mother’s sister arrived from Orkney on the last plane yesterday. They’re very close. She doesn’t need me at home.’

‘You should take care of yourself.’

Then she’d given him a brief, thin smile. ‘You mustn’t worry about me, Jimmy. I’m the tough one in the family.’ She’d reached out and put her hand on his arm. ‘Thank you, though. I’m glad it’s you looking for my father’s killer. It would be dreadful if it was someone who didn’t know us.’ And she’d turned and walked with a straight back into the school.

He was sitting in his office and running the scene in his head, wondering what it was about Kathryn Rogerson’s composure that he found so disturbing, when his phone rang. He answered it, still slightly distracted. It was Sandy and he forgot the teacher to give the man his full attention.

‘I showed the photos to Peter in the Co-op.’ Sandy’s voice was a little too loud. He sounded like an excited child.

‘And?’

‘You’ll never guess who he picked out.’

‘Just tell me, Sandy. We’re not playing games here.’

‘Paul Taylor!’

For a moment Perez struggled to place the name and then he remembered. Taylor was a solicitor, Tom Rogerson’s partner. He’d given them the keys to Rogerson’s office on a wet Sunday morning while his wife was cooking lunch.

‘And that’s not all!’ Sandy hadn’t waited for a response from Perez. ‘Taylor was the man chatting to Alison Teal in the bar, but Kevin Hay was in Mareel that night too. Peter picked him out from the photos I’d spread out over the table.’

Perez waited until Sandy returned, before interviewing Paul Taylor in the office that he’d shared with Tom Rogerson. He thought Sandy was owed the right to accompany him; he’d cultivated the shop assistant until he’d come up with the information they needed. They walked to the solicitors’ office along Commercial Street. Everywhere people were talking about the weather and turning their faces towards the sun.

In the office a receptionist greeted them. ‘I’m afraid Mr Taylor’s very busy. You’ll have heard that Mr Rogerson died suddenly at the weekend. We’re all very shocked and there’s such a lot to do.’

Perez didn’t recognize her. She was English and he thought she was probably new to the islands. Perhaps she’d moved with her family in the hope of finding an idyllic community where nothing bad happened, only to be confronted with the murder of her employer. He introduced himself and Sandy and she became flushed with panic and a kind of voyeuristic excitement. ‘I’ll see if Mr Taylor is free.’

Paul Taylor came down the stairs to meet them himself. He led them not into his own poky office, but into the space that had once been Tom Rogerson’s.

‘I’d been half-expecting you, Inspector. I’m sure you’ll have questions about Tom’s clients. I’ll be happy to help in any way I can.’

‘What plans do you have for the business now?’ Perez thought Taylor seemed very comfortable behind the large desk that had once belonged to his partner.

‘It’s too early to say yet.’ The man who had been so fraught and out of control with his small sons was entirely relaxed here. ‘I might see if I can go it alone, or take on another solicitor. Of course there will be financial implications and I’ll need to have discussions with Tom’s widow, but it wouldn’t be appropriate to consider that yet.’

‘We’re not here to talk about Tom Rogerson,’ Perez said. ‘Not yet. We’ve identified the woman who was killed at Tain. Her name was Alison Teal. She’d stolen the identity of Ms Sechrest, who inherited the property Minnie Laurenson left. Alison was an actress who grew up in Norfolk. Do you know anything about the identity theft? You managed the property, after all. Does her name mean anything to you?’

‘Didn’t your colleague mention it, when you collected the keys on Sunday? Apart from that I’ve never heard of the woman.’

‘Yet you were seen having a drink with her about ten days ago in the Mareel bar.’ Perez took some delight in the panic on the man’s face.

‘I’m sorry, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.’ The voice had become rather haughty.

‘A reliable witness identified you as the man seen drinking with Alison Teal in Mareel.’

‘Then they must be mistaken.’

Perez took a copy of the drawing of Alison from his briefcase and set it on the desk in front of Taylor. ‘Perhaps this will jog your memory.’

For a moment Taylor stared at it without speaking. ‘Ah, I do remember that woman,’ he said at last. ‘But I don’t know her.’

‘Yet you were having a drink with her. The witness says you were on obviously intimate terms.’

There was another silence and Taylor seemed to be choosing his words with considerable care. ‘I’d had a bad day at work. Nothing dramatic had gone wrong, but it was one of those days full of minor irritations. I’m sure you have those too, Inspector.’ He looked up, as if he was hoping to get Perez on his side. Perez didn’t answer and the solicitor continued. ‘Usually at the end of work I drive straight home, so I can help my wife get the boys ready for bed. They’re not at an easy age and they’re a nightmare to get to sleep. But that night I wanted some time to myself, before facing the mayhem that is bathtime in the Taylor household. I went to Mareel for a glass of wine. One small glass. I was driving, and a lawyer can’t afford to be charged with drink-driving. It was relatively quiet when I got there – perhaps it was too early for the film to start – but I took my drink upstairs. I wanted some time to myself. A woman came in. In contrast to me, she seemed to be looking for company. She asked if she could join me. I suppose I was flattered. She was attractive, with dark hair and dark eyes. We chatted for a little while. Inconsequential stuff. I suppose I was flirting with her. Or we were flirting with each other. She was good company and time passed very quickly. I bought coffee for us both and by then the bar was filling up. Then my wife phoned, wanting to know where I was. I said goodbye and left. She told me her name was Alice. I assumed it was spelled in the traditional way. I don’t know anything else about her.’

Yet you wanted to, Perez thought. If your wife hadn’t phoned, would you have gone with her to the little house in Ravenswick? He wondered what he would have done, if he’d been there. Perhaps he’d have been seduced by her too.

‘We’ve been asking for information about her,’ he said. ‘Haven’t you seen the news reports?’

Taylor shook his head, but he wasn’t quite convincing. Perez couldn’t tell whether it was the police he’d been frightened of or his wife.

‘It’s quite a coincidence, you see,’ he said. ‘Now we know you had a connection to both murder victims.’

‘I’d never seen the woman before in my life.’ Taylor looked up, shocked. ‘I swear.’

‘How did she seem?’ Perez asked. ‘What sort of mood was she in?’

‘Lonely.’ Taylor didn’t need time to answer that. ‘A little bit desperate.’

‘Did she tell you anything about her private life? Her family? Did she tell you what she was doing in Shetland?’

‘She said she was here for work.’ Taylor shuffled in his seat. ‘I assumed she was something to do with the oil or gas.’

‘Did she mention where she was staying?’

‘She said she was renting somewhere for the duration of her contract.’

‘And you never connected her with the Alissandra Sechrest who owned Tain?’

‘Of course not! The Alice I spent those couple of hours with was English, not American.’

Perez tried to work out if Taylor was telling the truth. Perhaps the meeting in Mareel had been coincidental, a chance encounter between a man overwhelmed by domestic responsibilities and a lonely woman. Perhaps.

‘Did you talk to her about your work? Did you give her your name, for instance?’ Because Alison might have recognized the name of the solicitor she’d defrauded of the American publisher’s keys.

Taylor looked uncomfortable. ‘I told her my name was Paul, but I didn’t give her my surname and we didn’t talk about my work. She assumed I worked for the council.’

If the flirtation turned into something more serious, you didn’t want her to be able to trace you.

‘What did she do when you left her to go and see your wife? Did she come out with you?’

Taylor shook his head. ‘When I left her, she was still sitting in Mareel, drinking the last of her coffee.’

‘Do you know a man called Kevin Hay? He farms most of the land around Ravenswick.’

Taylor shook his head. ‘Is it important?’

Perez wasn’t sure how to answer that. He’d lost all perspective on what might or might not be important. He got to his feet and thought that the Alison Teal described by Taylor was rather closer to the Alison who’d called into the Befriending Shetland office to ask for help than any of the impressions they’d had before. Lonely and a little bit desperate.

Out on the street the sun was still shining and the shoppers were still talking about the fact that spring had come early this year. Sandy was obviously full of questions about what Perez had learned from the interview, but he knew better than to ask them. He bounced along beside the inspector as they walked back to the police station, waiting for his boss to speak.

Perez took no notice because he had nothing to say yet. He was thinking about Alison Teal and deciding it might be easy to get to a position where you were so lonely that you couldn’t stand your own company for a minute more and wandered into a bar just to find someone to talk to. Willow came into his mind. Perhaps it would be good to spend some time with her and talk about anything other than work. The idea made him smile.