White Nights

Chapter Twenty-eight

Perez had spent the day in Lerwick, a frustrating round of phone calls and emails trying to track Booth’s movements since his arrival in Shetland. The incident room was airless and overheated and despite the impetus given to the investigation by the identification of the victim, by late afternoon he felt little had been achieved. After work he set off to Ravenswick, to Fran’s house. He hadn’t phoned in advance to say he was coming and felt ridiculously nervous. He’d been looking forward to seeing her all day and worried, as he always did, that he wouldn’t live up to her expectations.

Cassie was sitting at the kitchen table reading a schoolbook. She was frowning in concentration. There was a smudge of paint on her cheek and he thought how she was growing to look very like her mother. He stood awkwardly on the doorstep, afraid of intruding, of doing the wrong thing.

‘Is this not a good time?’

‘Of course it is.’ Fran stood aside to let him in. ‘Tea? Beer?’

He sat next to Cassie and asked her how things were going at school, but all the time he was thinking that Fran seemed a little uncomfortable too. He always thought of her as the confident one and wondered what she could be nervous about. She put the kettle on, then told Cassie that was enough homework for one night, and what about a DVD for a treat?

When Cassie was settled they took their drinks outside.

‘We’ve found out who the murder victim is,’ Perez said. ‘It’ll be all over the news tomorrow. I wanted to tell you. He was an actor. A man called Jeremy Booth.’

She shook her head. ‘The name doesn’t mean anything to me.’

‘He comes from Yorkshire.’

‘Sorry. I still can’t help.’

They sat in silence. On the hill behind them a curlew was calling.

‘I met Peter Wilding for lunch yesterday,’ she said at last. She was twisting the mug of tea in her hands. He could tell this was the cause of her tension. He wasn’t sure how he should react and ended up saying nothing.

‘He plans to stay in Shetland. He’s put in an offer on a house in Buness. Do you know it? The big place right by the beach.’

‘Very nice.’ Then, sensing more was required, ‘It’ll take some work to get it fit for living in.’ His head was bursting with questions about what had happened and why she’d gone with Wilding in the first place, but maybe none of that was his business.

‘I’m not sure why he asked me to meet him,’ she said. ‘I think he hoped I might have some information about the investigation. That’s how it seemed.’

‘And he fancies the pants off you,’ he said. ‘That might have had something to do with it.’

She gave him a big grin. ‘Maybe he does,’ she said. ‘But there was more to it than that. He has this intense way of asking questions.’

‘You believe he might be involved in some way with Booth’s death?’

‘No,’ she said quickly. ‘I’m not saying that. He’s a writer. Naturally curious. I’m sure that’s all it is.’

The thought came into Perez’s head that it would suit him very nicely if Wilding turned out to be a murderer. He hated the idea of the man living in Buness, which wasn’t so far from Fran. But he knew that was a dangerous way to think. If you hoped for a certain outcome in an investigation, you lost perspective, saw shadows that didn’t exist, ignored other possible scenarios.

‘Have you eaten yet?’ she asked. ‘If you can wait until I’ve got Cassie to bed, I can pull together a meal for us.’

‘I’d like that.’

They were at the table when the phone call came. It was on the landline and Perez had no thought that it might be for him. He sliced bread and helped himself to salad while she answered it. She frowned, handed him the receiver. ‘It’s Sandy for you.’

It was Sandy at his worst. Childish. Full of himself. ‘I tried you at home, boss. And I couldn’t get a signal on your mobile. Thought I might find you at Mrs Hunter’s…’

‘What can I do for you?’ Across the table Fran was pulling silly faces at him.

‘There’s been another death.’ Sandy paused. He’d developed a sense of the dramatic.

‘Who?’

‘Roddy Sinclair. Kenny Thomson found him at the bottom of the Pit o’ Biddista. I sent Robert, the new PC who’s based in Whiteness, to confirm it. It’s definitely Sinclair. Could have been an accident.’

‘A bit of a coincidence.’ Perez thought of his sense that Roddy had something to confide and knew that this was no accident. He remembered the walk he’d taken with the boy, the morning they’d found Booth’s body. Roddy had grown up there. He wasn’t the sort to fall. He pictured Roddy playing the fiddle at the Herring House party, caught in the spotlight of the evening sunshine, dancing. He was as lithe and nimble as one of the feral cats that lived on the cliffs. He’d liked the boy and was overcome by a sense of waste.

‘Does Bella know?’

‘Not yet,’ Sandy said. ‘I thought I’d best get hold of you first.’

‘Good, I want to tell her.’ Roddy had been Bella’s golden boy. His death would devastate her. Perez felt a stab of pity, then the thought of work took over. Bella had been playing games with him throughout the investigation. The shock of her nephew’s death might persuade her to talk.

‘You’d best be quick then. You know how news gets out.’

‘I don’t think Kenny will be on the phone to her. He and Bella aren’t that close and he’s not the sort to blab. But don’t send anyone on to the hill until I’ve talked to her. Tell them to stand by.’

‘I told Kenny to keep the news to himself.’ Sandy seemed extraordinarily proud that he’d thought of such a thing.

Perez smiled. ‘Good,’ he said. ‘Good.’

‘I wondered if I should phone Mr Taylor now. He’s going to be pig sick, being stuck down in England while everything’s happening here.’

‘Aye,’ Perez said. ‘I think maybe you should.’

Fran had been eating, but she stopped now, her fork poised. ‘You’ve got to go, haven’t you? And you won’t be able to tell me what it’s all about.’

‘Roddy Sinclair’s dead. Kenny Thomson found him at the bottom of the Pit o’ Biddista.’

‘Poor Bella!’ He could tell that Fran was nearly in tears. ‘She cared for Roddy as if he was her son.’

‘I’m just off to tell her. Can I say you’re here if she needs company? I know she was born and reared in Shetland, but it seems to me she doesn’t have many friends.’

‘Of course.’

He could tell she was pleased he’d told her so much. It was on the tip of his tongue to warn her not to tell Wilding, but he stopped himself just in time.

‘Roddy always had so much energy,’ she said. ‘It was as if he was lit up inside. It’s hard to imagine he’s dead.’ She paused. ‘Another death. What is going on here? You do realize the press will go wild over this? He was a celebrity, even in the south. As soon as word gets out there’ll be hundreds of journos here.’

‘No pressure then.’ Perez was thinking there’d be more pressure from the community too. Roddy was a Shetlander. He represented Shetland in the rest of the world. People would want his killer found now. It wasn’t the same as some strange Englishman found hanging from the roof.

‘Jimmy?’

He was already at the door and he turned back to her.

‘It wasn’t an accident, was it?’

‘No,’ he said. ‘I don’t think it can have been.’

‘Suicide? Because he’d killed the Englishman and couldn’t face the consequences?’

‘Maybe.’ He remembered Roddy standing at the top of the cliff, arms stretched wide like a gannet’s. It would be the sort of grand gesture he’d go for, killing himself by launching himself into the air. As close to flying as it was possible to get. But he’d want an audience. Without an audience it wouldn’t be any sort of performance.

‘Come back here when you’ve finished,’ she said. ‘It doesn’t matter how late it is. If you want to.’

Bella was sitting in her garden when he got to the Manse. A wrought-iron table and chair stood on a terrace by the side of the house and he found her there. The light was diffuse, milky, and he realized it was already ten o’clock. There was a book on the table but she hadn’t been reading. Perhaps she’d dozed off. Next to the book was a large glass of wine and a half-empty bottle.

‘Jimmy,’ she said when she opened her eyes, ‘isn’t it a lovely evening? So still. There are so few days when we can do this. Have a drink with me!’

He sat on the wall beside her.

‘When did you last hear from Roddy?’

‘I saw him at lunchtime. He was booked on the last plane south. He’d planned to go yesterday, but you know what the young are like. Time has no meaning for them. It’s as if they have for ever. I was expecting him to phone, but he’ll have met up with some friends.’

He thought there was no easy way to do this. If he lost someone close to him, he’d want to hear it straight. No platitudes and no prevarication. ‘Roddy’s dead, Bella. His body was found this evening at the bottom of the Pit o’ Biddista.’

Her eyes widened. ‘No. No,’ she said. ‘There’s been some mistake. He was on the plane.’

‘Did you take him to Sumburgh?’

‘I had a meeting in Lerwick this afternoon. He said he’d get himself there.’

‘He was going to drive?’

She stood and began to walk backwards and forwards across the terrace, her glass still in her hand. ‘I assumed he was, but when I got back his car was still here, so I thought he’d got a lift from a friend.’

‘Can I have a look in his car?’

‘Of course.’ Perez could see she was sure she’d be proved right. Bella Sinclair had never admitted to being wrong in her life. She’d convinced herself Roddy was in some bar in Aberdeen, surrounded by admirers. That was why he hadn’t phoned her to say he’d arrived safely.

The car was an old black Beetle, restored. It had probably cost more than Perez’s new saloon. It wasn’t locked. In the boot he found the bag Roddy must have been packing the day before, when it all got too much for him and he went to visit his father’s grave. Lying on top of it was his violin. Perez had left Bella sitting on the terrace, but now she came up behind him. He heard her footsteps, then a throaty cry, so quiet it sounded as if she was just catching her breath. ‘So it’s true,’ she said. ‘He’s dead. He’d never have left his fiddle behind.’ She wrapped her arms around her body and, bending double, she began to weep.

Perez led her into the house and into the kitchen. There was little light now. Sitting on the dark wood bench, she seemed small and very frail, like a child in Sunday school.

‘What’s been going on here, Bella? The hoax around the gallery opening was one thing, but now Roddy’s dead. Who hates you enough to do this to you?’

She took her hands from her face, so he could see her big eyes, red and wet with tears.

‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘Really, I don’t know.’

He stayed with Bella until Morag arrived from Lerwick to sit with her. During that time she refused to answer questions. ‘I’ve told you, Jimmy. I don’t know anything.’ He asked if she’d like him to drive her to Fran’s house, but she said she wanted to stay in her own home. ‘I need to be here.’ He was disappointed. He hoped she might take Fran into her confidence.

By the time he reached the hill, the greyest part of the night had already gone and the sun was starting to slide up from the horizon again. A different sort of dawn. A wren had been singing in Bella’s garden when he left the house. The team had managed to get a Land-Rover right up to the cliff-edge and from a distance he saw a number of people at the lip of the Pit. He hoped he wouldn’t have to climb down there. It was a crime scene, wasn’t it? So it should be preserved. He didn’t find the idea as horrifying as being on the edge of the cliff, with space and air all around him, but if he could avoid the climb, he would do.

Sandy was talking to the young doctor who’d called Booth’s death as murder. He waved to Perez when he saw him approaching.

‘I’ve called in the coastguard to help bring up the body,’ he said. ‘That is OK?’

Perez tried not to be surprised at Sandy’s initiative. ‘Sure, if they’ve finished down there.’

‘I went down with the doctor,’ Sandy said. ‘I found this. I wrapped it in polythene, didn’t get my fingerprints on it, but it was lying near the gully out to the sea, and I thought it might get washed out.’ He looked at Perez anxiously, not sure if he’d get yelled at for moving evidence.

‘I’d have done just the same myself.’ It was a black leather holdall, just like the one Stuart Leask had described as belonging to Jeremy Booth.

‘What do you think?’

‘I think someone killed Booth, made it look like suicide, then chucked the bag down here in the hope that we wouldn’t identify him.’

‘What about Sinclair?’

‘He could have been the murderer. Maybe he was climbing down to move the bag, or check it was well out of sight, and he tripped.’

‘But you don’t think so?’

‘No. I think the murderer arranged to meet him here. Roddy liked being on the edge. It wouldn’t have taken much to push him in. I’m not sure why he had to be killed. Maybe he knew something about Booth’s murder. But I’m sure that’s what happened.’

Perez stood silently for a moment, imagining what that must feel like. The shove in the back, the panic as he’d realized he couldn’t get a grip, then waiting to hit the ground. He saw that Sandy was staring at him. ‘Now all I have to do is prove it.’