Cold Earth

Chapter Forty-Six

Jane walked with Perez and Andy back towards Gilsetter. Perez’s appearance had shocked her, but she was pleased that he was there. It was easier than being on her own with Andy, who was trailing behind them like a recalcitrant toddler. Perez had lost phone reception again once they’d left Tain and she could tell that he was preoccupied. There’d been a message that had disturbed him and he’d said he would walk with her back to the house, so that he could use their landline. She knew he’d have questions for Andy too, though. He’d have questions for them all. She still wasn’t sure where it would all end.

The Lerwick bus drove along the main road, lighting their path so that for a moment there was no need for her torch. It stopped to let off a passenger, and briefly the land around Gilsetter could be seen clearly in its headlights. Glancing up, Jane caught sight of a figure in the field beyond the house, a silhouette. And a reflected gleam. Then the bus drove on towards town and everything was dark again.

‘What’s your father doing out at this time of night?’ Because she’d seen that the figure had been standing next to Kevin’s new drainage ditch. It was her husband’s pride and joy, and who else would be standing in the rain inspecting his handiwork? He’d said he’d line the ditch with concrete, so there’d be no chance of floodwater seeping into the ground and drowning the polytunnels. ‘He told me he was taking the evening off.’

Andy gave a non-committal grunt, but Perez had already started to run, with a speed and lack of concern for his own safety and comfort that seemed like panic. Or desperation. The evening flights must just have come into Sumburgh, because now there was a steady stream of cars and taxis heading north, their headlights passing over the scene and then disappearing, so that the activity in the field had the jerky, flashlit appearance of an early cartoon. Every couple of seconds she caught sight of Perez. First he was vaulting over a wall, then sprinting across the open field towards the figure by the ditch.

There was no sound. He was too far away already for them to hear his laboured breathing or pounding feet. This was a silent movie. The person standing next to the ditch seemed oblivious to his approach. If it hadn’t been for Perez’s desperation, the scene would have been ridiculous. Then Jane thought she could hear something. The thin cry of an injured animal. She peered through the darkness, but the traffic had disappeared; other cars coming from the airport had probably been held by the traffic lights controlling the one-way system further south. Everything was quiet and dark once more.