Chapter 33
His first impression was of a tall, well-built male with dark hair. Probably in his early thirties, fit, maybe from running or working out. Something about the way he held himself also reminded him of Rory.
Shaking that thought from his head, Erling rose and, coming round the desk, offered his hand as DC Gunn introduced the new arrival.
‘DS Gowan, it’s good to have you with us,’ Erling said.
‘Glad to be here,’ came the deep-voiced reply.
‘You’re not from Caithness, then?’ Erling attempted to keep his voice even, so as not to alert DS Gowan to both his surprise and immediate unease at the unexpected accent.
DS Gowan gave him a wide smile. ‘Been in Caithness five years now, but the accent’s still from my home city.’
‘Liverpool?’ Erling tried, although he already knew the answer.
‘Scouser, born and bred. Joined the police force there at nineteen.’
Erling waited a moment before saying, ‘A big change coming to a mostly rural area from a major English city.’
‘And the best decision I ever made. Although Scotland has its own share of rogues and scumbags,’ he said.
‘It has indeed,’ Erling agreed.
Introductions over, Erling waved the new arrival to a seat and asked if he’d been brought up to speed on why he was needed here.
‘DC Gunn gave me a broad outline regarding the Mowat family and their missing heir, Kris. Plus the dead body on the beach of the neighbouring island. And I believe Kris’s girlfriend’s gone missing now too?’
Erling indicated all that to be true. ‘Then there’s our concerns regarding stronger street-drug shipments getting into Kirkwall. Probably through county lines via Aberdeen. Have you had similar problems on your patch?’
‘Inverness definitely has a problem with county lines. Mainly coming in from Liverpool. There’s a big pool of vulnerable people’s homes in the city being used as distribution points.
That’s moved on north to the towns in Caithness, Thurso, Wick, but on a smaller scale.
We’re liaising with local communities to locate any cuckoo-in-the-nest scenarios. ’
‘Here in Orkney, we were alerted by Leo Strachan, the lead street pastor. So we’ve upped our street presence in Kirkwall clubs, last night and tonight. Plain clothes, of course. Not being a kent face hereabouts, you would be a welcome addition to tonight’s surveillance.’
‘Sure. Happy to go along. It’ll be interesting to observe your clubbing scene first hand.’
‘Right. I’ll get DC Gunn to introduce you to the team now and show you where we are with the current cases. I forgot to ask if you’ve been to Orkney before?’
‘No, I haven’t, although I have a former colleague who moved here relatively recently.’
There was a moment while Erling tried to work out who that might be. Then, ‘You mean DS Jo Green?’ he said.
‘Yeah. We worked together in Caithness. How’s she settled in in Orkney?’
Erling suddenly found himself unwilling to discuss Jo with DS Gowan, especially since, to his knowledge, she’d claimed not to have worked with him at all.
In fact, she’d denied even knowing him. Why would she do that?
he wondered, before saying, ‘Jo’s out on Hoy at present.
You can catch up with her when she gets back. ’
Erling thought DS Gowan was about to ask when that would be exactly, but he seemed to stop himself, before saying, ‘That would be good.’
Handing Gowan over to a returning DC Gunn, Erling sat down to think over their conversation.
He’d definitely been thrown at first by the passing likeness in colouring and build to Rory, but it had been the voice that had most disturbed him.
Worst still was the realization that, being of similar age to Rory, Gowan had been a serving officer during the time of Rory’s interaction with the law. Might Gowan even recognize him?
Erling stopped himself there. There was little chance of the two men meeting. Rory never came to the police station and he would be safely back on Flotta on Monday anyway. If not immediately returning to work in the North Sea.
But what about his detective sergeant? Why on earth would Jo deny all knowledge of DS Angus Gowan?
He thought back to their earlier interchange. Jo had been the one to take the call about Gowan’s late arrival at Stromness. He realized now she’d been relieved to find she would already be on Hoy, so wouldn’t meet him.
Something must have happened between the two of them.
Something his detective sergeant wasn’t comfortable with.
Well, he decided, if Jo wasn’t easy in his company, then he would strive to keep them apart.
As much as that was possible, and at least until she chose to tell him why she had misgivings about DS Gowan.
Checking the time, he registered that the Hoy team would likely have ended their morning interviews and may even now be checking in at their accommodation or already on their reconnaissance trip round the island.
When Jo answered his call, he read her voice as guarded, so he kept his own tone as normal as possible.
‘How did this morning go?’ he asked.
A short pause, then, ‘We were kept busy. Mostly older residents and not much love for the Mowats on display.’ She halted briefly before adding, ‘We were flagged down on our way to the fire site by a Mr Maine, a star gazer with a powerful telescope. He reported boy racers using the road as a racetrack and probably getting high in the ruins of the croft.’
‘He thought they might be the fire-raisers?’ Erling said.
‘Could be, especially if one of them is a Mowat. He gave PC Tulloch two car registration numbers. I’ve sent them through for checking. Also, he spotted a boat late at night between the bay and Cava. Definitely not a dive boat.’
Now that was interesting, Erling thought.
‘Our burning guy might have come from that boat?’ he said.
‘Could be,’ Jo answered. ‘He’ll keep a watch for it coming back, he says, and try to take a photograph.’
She halted there and he had the sense she felt she should ask about DS Gowan’s arrival, but didn’t want to.
‘DS Gowan’s here,’ he told her. ‘He’s being brought up to speed on where we are with the investigation and he’s going out on drug patrol tonight.’
When she replied with a ‘good’, he could sense the relief in her voice.
Jo, he registered, now believed that Gowan hadn’t mentioned her name in their conversation, which was what Erling had sought to achieve.
As to what her history was with Gowan, he had no doubt his sergeant would tell him in her own good time, although he already thought it wouldn’t be positive.
‘We have another session at the fire station tonight,’ she was saying.
‘So nothing useful came up this morning?’
She hesitated. ‘We plan to go through the responses together in preparation for later.’
He accepted that before saying, ‘I intend to come across tomorrow, depending on tonight’s patrol of Kirkwall. But if anything important comes up before that, just call me.’
When she rang off, Erling phoned Eddie Balfour and asked if he was free to come into the station. Eddie immediately guessed the reason.
‘It’s open-the-box time, I take it?’ he said.
‘It is. And I’d like you to be there representing Kris and Rachael.’
‘In truth, I was hoping you were calling to tell me you’d located Rachael.’
‘No, but we’re working on it,’ Erling assured him. ‘Can you come now?’
‘I’ll be with you in fifteen minutes,’ Eddie promised.
Erling used the time to retrieve the box from the evidence room and take it upstairs, where the whole team would be party to its opening. Including the recently arrived DS Gowan. Whatever was in there might impact any of the areas currently under investigation.
As the team assembled, together with Eddie, he explained the background to the tin box, and reminded them that Ivor had given it to two of his carers at the home for safekeeping until his great-grandson Kris should appear.
‘Ivor died before that could happen and Kris disappeared before he could be told about its existence. As you are all aware, Rachael learned about the box, but understood that until we confirmed Kris’s identity, she could not take custody of it.
She was happy for us to keep it until then.
With Rachael’s disappearance, her solicitor, Mr Balfour, is here to represent her today. ’
He signalled that the video recording should begin, then, using the key attached by a cord to the handle, Erling opened the box.