Cold Earth

Chapter Forty-Two

Jane stood at the kitchen window watching out for Jimmy Perez and Cassie. She was already regretting the impulse that had made her invite them back to the house. What was the point, when she’d already decided it was too soon to tell Jimmy that she was anxious about her son? Beyond the polytunnel she could see the lights on Kevin’s tractor. This was his new project: he was digging a drainage ditch to save them from the water that he was convinced would soon sweep down the valley again. He’d been at it all day, but the light was fading and Jane thought he’d surely stop soon. She hoped he’d be in before Perez and Cassie arrived. He had an easy way with children and she would feel less awkward if he was around.

She was thinking again that Kevin would make a brilliant grandfather when there was a tap on the door. It had started raining again, a soft misty drizzle that had been invisible from the house. Perez and the child stood hand-in-hand, hoods up.

‘Come in,’ she said. ‘You’ll catch your deaths. We’ll give you a lift up the bank when you’ve had some tea.’ Sounding, she thought, almost normal.

Perez took off Cassie’s jacket and hung it up, before removing his own. ‘You’re on your own today?’

‘Kevin will be in soon,’ she said, ‘and Michael’s staying in Lerwick with his girlfriend tonight.’

‘What about Andy?’

She gave a little laugh that she knew was unconvincing. ‘Ah, we never know where Andy is these days.’ She switched on the kettle. ‘Would you rather tea or coffee, Jimmy? And I have orange juice, if Cassie would like it.’

She didn’t hear his answer first time round, because she was suddenly lost in her own thoughts. ‘I’m sorry, Jimmy, what did you say?’ Feeling foolish – the socially incompetent woman with the dirt ingrained into her fingers.

‘Are you OK, Jane?’

She’d found Cassie a box of toys that had belonged to the boys when they were little. The girl was on the floor building a Lego monster. Perez was sitting opposite Jane at the table, very still, very serious; more like a priest, she thought, than a detective. ‘We’re all under stress,’ she said at last. ‘How can we relax when there’s a killer out there?’ She nodded towards the darkness. ‘When will it all be over?’

He hesitated too. ‘Soon,’ he said. ‘Very soon.’

She wondered if that meant the police were close to an arrest. If so, why was Jimmy Perez sitting at her table, drinking tea? She pushed away the idea that they must somehow be implicated. Her head was full of questions, but she knew he’d tell her nothing further. The silence was broken only by the click of Cassie’s bricks as she created her own brand of villain.

‘How has Andy settled home?’ Perez asked. ‘It must be hard coming back once you’ve made the break. Well, I know how hard it is. I did it too – came back to the islands after working in Aberdeen.’

She shrugged. Andy was the last person she wanted to talk about. ‘It’s not so unusual these days. Kids go south for adventure, only to find that it’s pretty tough out there in the big, wide world. We have it easy in Shetland in lots of ways.’

‘I understand Andy was pals with Kathryn Rogerson. Have they hooked up since he came back?’

Jane felt a moment of panic. How could the police know the trivial details of a weird friendship that had happened when Andy was still a boy? It occurred to her that they were probably digging around in her past too. She felt herself blushing as she wondered what they might come up with. Tales of her exhibitionism in the more rowdy bars in town. Her one-night stands.

‘I don’t know. That was a long time ago. I doubt they have much in common now.’

‘Apparently he went to see her before Christmas. Asking for career advice, according to her mother.’

‘Why ask the question then, Jimmy? If you already know the answer.’ She was angry but didn’t raise her voice. She didn’t want to upset the child and she’d never enjoyed a scene. Not sober.

Suddenly he smiled. ‘Sorry. Sometimes it’s hard to get out of cop-mode. We turn every conversation into an interrogation. Forgive me.’ He finished his coffee. ‘Now we should go.’

‘No!’ The last thing she wanted was to be alone in the house, listening to the rain running down the gutters. ‘Kevin won’t be long. Wait until he gets in and he’ll give you a lift. I shouldn’t be so sensitive. You have your job to do.’

‘It just seems an unusual relationship.’ Despite his earlier apology, it seemed he couldn’t let the subject go. ‘A young lad and an older girl. What could she get out of it?’

‘Admiration,’ Jane said. What harm was there in discussing it, after all? ‘Andy was devoted to her.’

‘Did she ever come here?’

‘A few times, one summer. Not so much to spend time with Andy, but to talk to the old folk in Ravenswick. Minnie Laurenson and Kevin’s parents. She was doing a history project at the start of her Highers. Something about local agriculture and the changes there’d been. I think Andy might just have been a way in. She lived in town and didn’t have much access to the crofting communities.’

‘So she was using Andy; his friendship was just an excuse for her to get her project finished?’

‘Maybe that’s a bit harsh.’ Jane remembered the girl’s visits. Andy hadn’t hidden his excitement on the days she’d been expected. There’d been nothing cool about his approach to the girl. He’d run up the track to be at the stop long before the bus from Lerwick was due and then they’d walked together back to Gilsetter. They’d made an odd pair: the lanky, hyperactive boy and the girl who’d been confident even then. Kathryn had looked strangely old-fashioned. Long hair in plaits, wearing a hand-knitted gansey before they’d come back into fashion. She might only have been sixteen, but there’d been nothing shy or awkward in the way she’d talked to the old people. Jane had sat in on a couple of the chats and had seen that Kevin’s parents had felt totally at ease with her. Looking back, it had been one of those golden Shetland summers, fog-free and mild. She saw that Perez was waiting for her to continue. ‘Kathryn helped Andy too.’

‘With his acting?’

She nodded. ‘We always said she’d be a teacher, because she was so good with the young ones.’

‘It was a bit of a coincidence that she ended up teaching here in Ravenswick.’

‘Maybe, but it was always her plan to come home as soon as she could find a job here. She loves Shetland.’ Jane found herself lost in thought again. Kathryn and Andy. She’d thought the relationship had ended when the girl had gone south to university; now she thought they must have kept in touch. She felt strangely hurt that Andy had kept the friendship a secret. She stood up and began to put home-made biscuits in a tin for Jimmy Perez to take away. There was the sound of the tractor in the yard, and then of Kevin stamping his boots on the concrete to get off the worst of the mud. She opened the door into the hall to catch her husband before he took off his waterproofs.

‘Jimmy and Cassie are here. They walked up from the school. Would you be able to give them a lift home?’

He raised his eyebrows: a silent question to ask if there’d been more to the visit than she could say in the detective’s hearing. She shook her head.

‘Sure,’ he said. His voice was loud enough for the pair in the kitchen to hear him and there was something of a performance in it. ‘They certainly wouldn’t want to be out in the dark on a night like this. Such dreadful weather!’ Cassie stuck her head round the door. ‘Now, young lady, are you going to sit beside me in the Land Rover?’

There was a flurry of activity while Jimmy and Cassie hurried to put on their outdoor clothes and then the house was quiet again, except for the sound of water running down the drain in the yard. Jane gathered up the mugs and coffee cups and felt a little lost. Aimless. It had been good to have a child in the house again. Caring for children gave you some sort of purpose. She’d made a shepherd’s pie for tea and it was ready to go into the oven, so there was nothing more to do in the house. She was thinking that it might be worth talking to Kathryn. It would be right to pass on her condolences, and the teacher might have some idea what was troubling her son.

Her mobile was lying on the table. She stared at it, planning in her head what she might say to the teacher, when it rang. The noise seemed very loud and startled her. She picked up the phone.

‘Mum.’ The voice was strained and sounded very young. ‘Mum, it’s me. Andy. I need to talk to you.’