Raven Black

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Magnus Tait knew that they would come for him as soon as he saw the cars on the Lerwick road and the pinpricks of light moving over the hill. He wouldn't have known the police were there if he hadn't gone outside. He hadn't heard any unusual noise. He'd woken suddenly from one of his nightmares, panting and sweating, and had climbed out of bed because he couldn't bear the thought of going back to sleep and living the dream again.

Then he thought there would be nobody outside his door, not at two o'clock in the morning. He could see the time on his mother's clock. The journalists would be in their beds now, surely. It would be a chance to go outside.

He needed to remember what it looked like out there. He was going mad locked up in the house. It was making him upset and the nightmares were always worse when he was upset.

He went back to the bedroom and pulled on some clothes. Then he went out. He couldn't remember the last time he'd spent so long indoors. Even when he was ill with the sore throat and cough which came sometimes, he still liked to be in the open air. Then he thought it was probably the day after Catriona went missing. That was the last time. He'd been shut in all day then too. People had gathered outside the house and they'd all been angry, more angry than the folks there yesterday, because Catriona belonged, didn't she?

Kenneth was a Ravenswick man. His family had always been in the valley. It wasn't like Ross who'd only moved in six months before. That day they'd been crowded around the windows, banging on the panes, until his mother had gone out and shouted at them to leave him alone.

He's a good man.

That was what she'd said. She'd shouted it very loud and even cowering in the bedroom, he'd heard the words.

He wondered if she'd say the same thing now.

He opened the door slowly, just a crack at first, so if there were people there, he'd be able to shut it very quickly and put the bolt across. There was a car parked on the track below his house but he took no notice of that at first. He filled a tin bucket with peats and thought how clever he was to remember that. If the people came back at daylight he'd still have fuel. He put the bucket into the porch, then stood outside, just enjoying the air, thinking how mild it was. He didn't even have a jacket on and he hardly felt the cold:

That was when he saw there was a man in the car. He was in the driver's seat. Magnus could see the shadow of his head. He must be watching me. He's been sat there all night just watching me. And despite himself that made him feel important, that a man had been kept up all night to look out for him. Were they scared of what he might do?

Were they frightened of him? Were they?

He walked a little way down towards the track. Not so far that he couldn't run back into the house if he needed to. Perhaps halfway to the car where the watcher was sitting. He thought of him as the watcher, though he couldn't tell what he was up to. He walked there to see what the man would do and to stretch his legs.

Then something made him turn round. He looked up to the hill beyond the Lerwick road and saw the cars outside the Hunter wife's house, which had lights on in all the windows. And he saw the big van, which had been parked outside his house when they found Catherine, and the sparks of light from torches moving across the hill.

And he knew then that they'd found Catriona. And soon they'd be coming to get him.

When they came he was ready for them. He had a suit, which was hanging up in the painted cupboard in the bedroom. He'd worn it to chapel when he'd gone every Sunday with his mother. The last time he'd been, the last time he'd worn the suit, was the day of her funeral. Laying it out on the bed he remembered the service. That smell of damp was there and the smell of polish they used on the seats. He'd sat on his own at the front. All the relatives were dead. His uncle and his cousins. The place was full though. There were neighbours, people she'd grown up with.

He'd heard the whispers, spoken just loud enough to be sure he would hear. He was the death of her. She couldn't stand the shame. Mary was always a proud woman.

He found a white shirt. It was frayed at the cuffs but clean. He'd promised his mother he'd keep himself clean and most fine days he had washing on the line behind the house. He'd thought he had a tie, but he couldn't find one.

In the top drawer of the dresser he saw the ribbons he'd taken from Catriona's hair. Quite often he took them out. Not to remind himself of her he would never forget her – but because he could picture her better when he had the ribbons running through his fingers. The silky feel of them excited him, made him think of the pink silky petticoat she'd worn under her dress.

The shirt and the suit were too big for him. The jacket hung off his shoulders and he had to find a belt to hold up the trousers. He must have been a big man then, he thought, surprised. A big, strong man. He had nothing else to wear, so he kept them on, thinking his mother would have approved. Only decent, she would have said. A mark of respect. He put the ribbons on the table. He wasn't sure what to do with them. He'd stolen them. Perhaps Kenneth and Sandra would want them back. Then he made himself tea and sat in the chair by the fire to wait. He got up twice, once to use the toilet and once to put water out for the raven. It occurred to him that he should shave, but somehow he was too tired to make the effort.

It was still dark when the policeman came for him, but it was morning. The clock said seven thirty-eight. As on the last occasion, the man knocked and waited. He didn't attempt to come in until Magnus opened the door to him.

He looked exhausted. Magnus was reminded of men who used to go out all night for the fishing and came back with their hair stiff with salt and their hands red and cracked. When they got home all they wanted was their bed. They were too tired even to undress.

'Come in: he said, 'and warm yourself through. You'll be chilled out there on the hill all night, even though it's not freezing any more! A thought came to him. 'Did you go fishing around Fair Isle? It would be good there for fish!

'Not bad,' the policeman said. 'We had a few pots for lobsters. You can get a good price!

'Are we in a rush?' Magnus asked. 'Will I make some tea?'

The policeman smiled sadly and Magnus saw that there was no rush at all, rather he wanted to put off the time when they would have to leave. 'We just have some questions to ask: he said. 'About Catriona. And I would love some tea!

'We could put a dram in it:

'Aye, why not? Just a small one though. We don't want me driving you off the road!

'Are you on your own? Last time they sent two men!

'There's another chap waiting in the car, but we wouldn't want him driving. Safer me drunk than him sober!

Magnus saw that was some kind of joke and smiled to be polite.

'Would he want tea too?'

'No, he's asleep. We'll just leave him be, shall we?' Magnus put water into the kettle and put it on the hotplate.

Turning, he saw that the policeman had seen the ribbons.

'They belonged to Catriona: he said. 'I took them from her. I thought her hair was prettier loose. Finer that way, I thought!

'We shouldn't talk about Catriona. Not here. Not until we get to the police station!

'I don't like the police station: Magnus said.

'They won't hurt you. I'll be there and I won't let anyone hurt you!

'Do you think they'd let me keep the ribbons?'

'No! The question seemed to annoy the policeman. 'No, of course not! He changed his mind about the tea and said they should get off after all, because soon it would be light and the children would be on their way to school and the reporters would come.

'Will I be coming back?' Magnus asked, just as they were at the door.

'I don't know. Perhaps not for a while!

'Who will feed the raven?'

There was a silence. Magnus was hoping the policeman would say he'd take care of that, but he said nothing.

Magnus stood there, waiting for the police man to speak.

'If no one will care for the raven,' Magnus said at last, 'you must kill it. The best way is to hit its head against a wall. You can't let it starve in its cage. And if you release it, it will still starve. It has no way of finding food!

Still the policeman was silent.

'Will you do that?'

'Yes,' the detective from Fair Isle said. 'I'll do it! 'It eats dog food. If you can find someone to look after it, that's what it eats!

The room had been painted since he'd last been there – so recently painted that Magnus could smell it – but it was still the same colour on the wall. The colour of the top of the milk when it separated in the churn.

That made him think of Agnes with the cow again.

There was a big radiator and that was cream too. It was very hot. On his way in Magnus had heard the constables behind the desk talking about it. One of them said there must be something wrong with the controls, but the other thought nobody had bothered to turn the heating down since the freeze. He would have liked to take his jacket off. He could hang it over the back of his chair so it wouldn't crease. But he wasn't sure that would be respectful. So he left it on.

The detective from Fair Isle was there and a woman, younger, who wasn't a Shetlander. The detective introduced her but Magnus didn't remember the name. If he’d been given the first name he would probably have remembered that. He liked women's first names. Sometimes when he found it hard to sleep he repeated them in his head. The detective introduced himself with the strange foreign name which Magnus had heard before and which now stuck in his mind. And there was a lawyer, who looked as if he had a bad head from the drink, wearing a suit much smarter than the one Magnus was wearing.

It was a crush the four of them sitting round the little table. Magnus knew he should keep the grin from his face. Sometimes he missed what they said to him because he was trying so hard to keep his face straight.

'We're not charging you,' Perez said. 'Not yet. We'll just be asking you some questions!

The lawyer had told him he didn't need to answer all the questions and again Magnus remembered his mother's words tell them nothing.

'When did you get the ribbons from Catriona's hair?' Perez asked. 'Did she give them to you?'

Magnus thought for a moment. 'No: he said at last.

'I asked her if I could keep them, but she wouldn't let me.' He shut his eyes remembering the teasing voice why would you want ribbons, Magnus? You've hardly any hair.

'You took them then?'

'Aye, I took them.'

Should I have said that? He was suddenly confused.

Perhaps that was something to keep quiet about. But when he looked at the lawyer, his face was blank.

'Was Catriona alive when you took the ribbons, Magnus?'

This time he knew exactly how to answer. 'No, man. If she'd been alive I'd not have taken them from her. She'd have needed them. She was dead then. What use would she have of them?'

'Did you take anything from Catherine Ross, after you'd killed her?'

He was bewildered and for a moment he didn't know who they were talking about. Then he realized. Catherine.

His raven. 'I didn't kill her,' he said, rising in his seat to make them believe him. The idea was so shocking that he stopped thinking about his face and he could feel the grin sliding back. 'She was my friend. Why would I kill her?'