Chapter 46
Erling had made up his mind to await the arrival of his second-in-command before revealing what had happened at the Balfour.
He’d sent the car for Jo for that reason.
Whatever lay between Jo and Gowan, his DS would put the job first and act accordingly.
Of that he was certain. As for Gowan, he hadn’t made up his mind on that score as yet.
He had his own misgivings about the Caithness officer, who had apparently volunteered to come to Orkney, probably because of Jo’s presence here, he thought.
He now knew this had made her uncomfortable.
Even to the extent that she’d declared she didn’t know DS Gowan, which turned out to be a lie.
And his DS was not prone to lying. That he did know.
If asked, he would have described her as straight-talking and honest.
So Jo had lied about knowing DS Gowan for a reason. And Erling was beginning to think that reason might involve fear.
Watching DC Gunn arrive with his passenger, Erling resolved to speak to Jo alone in his office before the strategy meeting. He would ask about Mackie and the journal first. Find out what had been learned from the tightly written and – to him at least – indecipherable scribbles.
His hope was that Ivor’s secret thoughts might go some way to explaining what had been happening on Hoy and here on Mainland, regarding Kris Mowat, his partner Rachael and much else besides.
The duty officer had been told to send DS Green directly to his office, and to inform DC Gunn to join the others upstairs.
The soft knock on the door announced her arrival.
‘Come on in, Detective Sergeant,’ he ordered, in a voice he hoped was firm but welcoming.
Her expression on entry was unreadable. It was the first time he’d encountered this and it perturbed him. He knew his sergeant as open and approachable. This was a different version of Jo.
When he opened with a question regarding her work with Mackie on the diary, she appeared to relax a little and, responding, explained that the first entry had featured Stella’s arrival at the Mowat croft, and Ivor’s remark that she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
‘So Mackie was right about that,’ Erling said. ‘Stella was Ivor’s first love. Anything else on her?’ he added.
‘A little about Ivor’s jealousy when his older brother Billy asked Stella to dance at the village hall,’ she told him. ‘I went to make tea then and, when I got back, Mackie had skipped to the final entry.’
Her tone darkening, she told him what Ivor had written regarding Kris and his mother, Betty.
‘Ivor believed his third son, Harald, was Kris’s father? Did he mention how he knew this?’
‘If so, we haven’t found it yet,’ Jo said.
‘So incest could be at the heart of what the family feud is all about?’
‘I think from what we managed to decipher, it plays a part.’ Jo thought for a moment.
‘But I also feel that what happened to Stella and her baby is part of the story too. We just don’t know how as yet.
’ She continued. ‘Also, in the journal Ivor mentions that he warned Kris that he might have to lie low here in Orkney until Ivor sorted things out with the family.’
‘Only Kris arrived to discover that his great-grandfather had died and no one had informed him,’ Erling said thoughtfully.
‘His appearance at the funeral didn’t go down well with Ivor’s sons.
And we know he’d anticipated that, because he wouldn’t let Rachael attend with him.
’ He halted there, meeting Jo’s eye. ‘After which, he may have taken Ivor’s advice and gone to ground. Leaving that note for Rachael?’
Erling thought back to Rachael’s sudden appearance at the solicitor’s office. How brave she had been to stand up to the Mowat men.
‘Might Kris have come back for Rachael after the will was read, realizing she too was now in danger?’ Jo suggested.
It was definitely a possibility. One Erling found himself wishing for. ‘And the body on the beach?’ he said.
‘Ethan thinks that’s linked to the dive boat anchoring off Cava,’ Jo told him. ‘If they are drug runners and someone crossed them,’ she added.
Which were his thoughts exactly. ‘We should receive the DNA results on the body tomorrow,’ he said. ‘Then we’ll know for certain.’
He paused there for a moment.
‘And now we have another body,’ he began.
‘However, this one has already been identified. I’ve just been with Hugh Mowat at the Balfour,’ he said quietly.
‘The body taken from the harbour in the early hours of this morning by DS Gowan and Leo Strachan has now been confirmed as that of Eilidh Mowat, Hugh Mowat’s sixteen-year-old granddaughter. ’
Jo’s hand flew to her mouth in both surprise and horror. ‘His granddaughter,’ she repeated in disbelief. ‘How?’
‘An elderly American visitor staying at the Kirkwall Hotel spotted a distressed and seemingly disorientated young woman exiting Bridge Street and making for the harbour. When she disappeared through the gate and down the walkway, he called 999. DS Gowan and Leo Strachan were first on the scene and got her out of the water. The ambulance arrived, but the paramedics couldn’t revive her. ’
‘Did she go into the water on purpose?’
‘It’s not clear what happened. APT Hannah Weir at the Balfour identified what she believed was an injection site in Eilidh’s left arm. The post-mortem should provide us with answers.’
‘Leo did say he thought that stronger drugs were getting into Kirkwall,’ Jo said.
‘Exactly,’ Erling confirmed. ‘Leo also told me he remembers seeing the girl outside the club earlier that night, with a male he didn’t recognize, who was holding her by the arm.
He was called away at that point to tend to a female who’d fallen.
When he got back, the girl and guy were gone.
All of which I intend sharing with the whole team shortly. ’
He halted there briefly, then broached the subject he’d avoided until now. ‘Before we go upstairs, I need to ask you about DS Gowan,’ he said.
‘And why I lied to you, sir, when I professed not to know him?’ Jo said.
Erling nodded. ‘Yes.’
‘Then I’ll tell you.’
All faces turned towards them as Erling opened the door.
He did not seek out DS Angus Gowan, but instinct told him the detective’s focus would be on the two of them as they entered the meeting room together.
Gowan, he surmised, would be questioning whether DS Green had revealed their history together to her commanding officer.
One thing Erling was certain of, Gowan’s story would not match Jo’s. And he was pretty sure which version of the tale he would accept as the truth.
But that was for another time.
Moving to the front, with DS Green at his side, he asked her first to describe to the assembled officers what had happened overnight on Cava and the possible reason for it.
The drug running now in their focus, he thanked DS Green. Once she’d left the stage, he asked DS Gowan to come forward and relate the events of last night that had resulted in the death of teenager Eilidh Mowat, granddaughter of the current head of the Mowat family, Hugh Mowat.
There was a heavy silence as Gowan told his story of being present in the nightclub. His suspicions at what was happening there. Liverpudlian voices, like his own. No open trading but an underlying feeling of tension.
‘If asked now what I thought was unravelling there last night, I would say there was a stand-off brewing. If the Mowats did have control of the drugs coming into Kirkwall, they were being challenged on that front.’
Erling accepted this and indicated he should continue.
‘It was around closing time when I received a call regarding a young woman in the harbour area. I exited the club immediately, and Leo and I ran down Bridge Street. We saw a body in the water and, entering the gate, traversed the walkway and together managed to pull the girl out.’ He halted there for a moment.
‘We attempted resuscitation until the ambulance arrived and the paramedic took charge. Sadly, she was pronounced dead shortly after that.’
Erling now gave details of his conversation with the elderly American visitor who had spotted the disorientated girl and had called 999.
‘He noted that she was shoeless and was behaving as though intoxicated, either through drink or drugs or a mixture of both.’
He then explained about the possible injection site on her left arm discovered by APT Hannah Weir at the Balfour mortuary.
‘The body has since been viewed by Hugh Mowat and he has identified her as his sixteen-year-old granddaughter, Eilidh, who, against her mother’s wishes, had taken the ferry to Mainland from Hoy.
’ His words, he knew, were detailing every parent’s nightmare, as was obvious by the reaction in the room.
He then doled out his orders. Both the club and the route to the harbour required a thorough search.
‘We’re looking for the victim’s mobile in particular.
The search team have not located this, so she may have dropped it between the club and the harbour.
Or it may be in the water, so we require a police diver to take a look.
Her shoes are also missing. I don’t have a description of those as yet. ’
At this point he knew he would have to talk to PC Tulloch, who would have the difficult job of visiting the girl’s home on Hoy and speaking to her parents.
Alone, with Jo back on Mainland. But then again, maybe, after their talk, his DS would welcome the opportunity to return to Hoy, despite the circumstances.
Having directed the troops as much as was possible for the moment, Erling retreated to his room.
His aim now was to try to put the pieces of the ever-expanding jigsaw of Mowat family secrets together.
Including their business interests, which seemed on the surface to have been on a collision course, both within the family and, if DS Gowan was right, with a rival drug supplier.
Before he died, Ivor Mowat had set a ball rolling that had succeeded in exposing the secrets of his family, both in the past and in the present.
Was that what the fight had been about with his eldest son before he died?
Erling’s initial thoughts on that altercation had placed Hugh Mowat firmly in the driving seat regarding his father’s death. To the extent that he’d considered exhuming Ivor’s body.
But now?
He replayed his entry to this room and the devastated man who’d awaited him here. It seemed to him now that Hugh Mowat had, together with his granddaughter, become the latest victims in whatever was really going on here.
As soon as Hugh had shown him the photo of Eilidh, Erling had known that he was looking at the drowned girl. No false eyelashes or smeared make-up. Just an image of a smiling teenager, her dark hair whipped away from her by the wind and the golden sands and waters of a bay behind.
Where had it been taken, he wondered. Somewhere on Hoy, he presumed. Maybe even at Lyrawa Bay.
He drew his thoughts back to Hugh and what had taken place in the mortuary at the Balfour, revisiting the scene as the drawer was pulled open and Hugh saw his granddaughter. The devastation on the man’s face. The horror at what had come to pass. And the guilt.
Hugh had felt responsible in some way for his granddaughter’s death. Was that because of the family’s likely foray into the supply of drugs in Orkney, probably sanctioned by him? Or because he had not succeeded in preventing such a move from happening?
And the fight that night at the care home. Had Ivor revealed Harald as Kris’s father? Or had the old man challenged Hugh on whether the family were involved in the drugs trade? Or maybe even both?
When Hugh reappeared here as requested later today, Erling intended to get answers to all of those questions.