Chapter 48
Erling had thought carefully about which officer he should choose to partner him on his interview with Hugh Mowat.
In normal circumstances, DS Green would have been his choice, but he’d sent her back to Hoy, in part because of the officer who now sat beside him.
And the circumstances were not normal. DS Gowan had experience of county-lines gangs, and was also a Liverpudlian.
Whatever had gone down last night in the Kirkwall nightclub, he had been closest to it.
As he had been in the tragic death of Hugh Mowat’s grandchild.
On entry to the interview room, Hugh had looked like a man who’d died and been resuscitated, much against his will. But his surprise at finding an unknown officer sitting next to Erling had seemed to breathe life into him again. However fleeting it might turn out to be.
Introducing DS Gowan, Erling explained that he had been the one to answer the emergency call to the harbour. And that it had been he and Pastor Strachan who had pulled Eilidh from the water and tried to resuscitate her.
Hugh listened to all he had to say, his gaze firmly fixed on Gowan, then said a simple thank you.
Following on from this, Erling explained that they’d like Hugh to give them his part in the story.
Hugh nodded, as though feeling on safe ground, before offering his explanation.
‘I received a call from Liz, Eilidh’s mother, early this morning.
She said Eilidh had snuck out of the house yesterday, after being refused permission to spend the evening in Kirkwall, and wasn’t answering her phone.
Liz was convinced she’d gone into Kirkwall anyway.
When rumours reached her that a young girl’s body had been retrieved from the harbour, she was desperate to know if it was Eilidh.
So I came in here to speak to you,’ he said, directing his gaze at Erling.
‘Was Eilidh in the habit of going against her mother’s wishes?’ Erling said.
‘She was a teenager.’ Hugh shrugged. ‘But not a troublesome one,’ he added, as though he had experience in that area.
‘Was she involved in the drug scene in Kirkwall?’ Gowan asked pointedly.
Erling watched as Hugh’s expression darkened. ‘I don’t know.’
‘There will be a post-mortem, which will reveal if any drugs contributed to Eilidh’s death,’ Erling explained.
‘But from the description given of Eilidh’s last moments by an American visitor, who saw her from his room window at the Kirkwall Hotel, Eilidh was disorientated and shoeless.
She looked very much like someone under the influence of drink or drugs or both. ’
Continuing, Erling said, ‘Pastor Strachan saw Eilidh outside the club with a tall, dark-haired male, mid-twenties. He had her by the arm. He also had what sounded like a Scouse accent. Do you know who that man might be?’
Hugh remained silent, although Erling could see the turbulent thoughts reflected in his eyes.
‘Stronger drugs are getting into Orkney,’ Erling added firmly. ‘We believe via county-lines gangs, likely originating in Liverpool. Perhaps your granddaughter was a victim of this?’
Hugh’s head sank towards his chest.
Signalling to DS Gowan to remain silent, Erling waited, sensing this might be the moment of reckoning.
Eventually Hugh drew himself up.
‘My father found out what was happening. He knew that Harald, using Mowat money, was behind the drug trade into Kirkwall from Aberdeen. I told him I would stop it. He didn’t believe me. We argued. He said that I was incapable of controlling Harald and that he would leave everything to Kris.’
‘That was the argument Cathy overheard at St Magnus House?’ Erling said.
‘Yes.’
‘And Ivor was alive when you left him?’
Hugh looked shocked. ‘Of course he was. I would never have hurt my father.’
‘And what about Kris Mowat?’ Erling said.
Hugh met his eye. ‘I don’t know where he is,’ he said firmly. ‘Although, if I know my father, he would have warned Kris about what he would face here from the family.’
‘And Harald?’ Erling said. ‘Was he aware of Ivor’s plans for Kris?’
‘I only told Harald that Ivor wanted the drugs business to end—’ He hesitated. ‘I didn’t mention Kris.’
‘So when Kris turned up at the funeral . . .’ Erling began for him.
‘Harald saw him and realized who he might be.’ Hugh paused again. ‘Kris looks a lot like Betty.’
‘And Harald?’ Erling said quietly. ‘Does Kris look like his father?’
A deafening silence followed this and Erling heard a deep intake of breath from DS Gowan beside him.
When a stunned Hugh failed to answer, Erling continued.
‘Ivor told the two ladies at the care home that he knew who “the bastard” was who made Betty pregnant. He then wrote it in the notebook he kept in the deed box. Harald raped Betty. She became pregnant and, unable to confide in anyone about this, left Hoy.’
Hugh was a man turned to stone, then his expression twisted in horror. ‘Harald is Kris’s father?’ He said this almost to himself, as though this revelation might answer other questions.
‘It appears Kris turning up here was a threat to Harald in more ways than one,’ Erling continued. ‘Did Harald threaten Kris? Maybe at the wake?’
‘No,’ Hugh said. ‘And he maintains he has done nothing since. Although he will of course fight any claim to the family business that Kris might make in court.’
‘And you believe Harald when he says he hasn’t harmed Kris?’ Erling demanded.
Hugh was trying to gather himself. ‘I think Kris took Ivor’s advice and went into hiding. The girl too. I think Harald’s likely looking for him, just as you are.’
‘So who is the body on the beach?’ Erling said.
‘My guess is it’s one of the Liverpool mob. Or someone who crossed them. To show us what happens when you do that.’ He looked frightened by his own words.
‘You think Eilidh crossed these people?’ Erling said quietly.
‘Or she stood up to them.’ Hugh shook his head, as though in despair.
‘Is there something about Eilidh and all this you’re not telling me?’ Erling checked.
Hugh appeared to be wrestling with himself, before finally blurting out, ‘It’s my fault she’s dead. I told her about the drugs coming into Kirkwall. I said Ragnar could be implicated and things were going bad with a gang from down south. That the police were involved.’
It was an explanation for Eilidh coming to Kirkwall, despite her mother’s order to the contrary. Maybe she wanted to warn Ragnar, or maybe the man seen with her was warning her to keep out of it. Whatever happened, it had resulted in her death.
At this point, DS Gowan chose to remind Hugh of what he’d said earlier about Ivor.
‘You said you believe Ivor told Kris to go into hiding for his own safety. But Kris didn’t know Orkney. This was to be his first time here. Ivor would surely have advised him where he might go?’
It was an important question and Erling acknowledged this with a nod.
‘I’ve checked everywhere I could think Ivor might have suggested,’ Hugh said. ‘As I’m sure Harald and family have too.’
‘Maybe they found him,’ DS Gowan said. ‘And disposed of him. Together with the pregnant Rachael.’
It was the scenario currently playing out in Erling’s head, and hearing it voiced by Gowan further reinforced it. By the look Hugh now wore, it was a thought he’d also had.
After they swabbed him for his DNA, they let him leave. Whatever happened now, Hugh Mowat was a broken man, who had a post-mortem to face, then a funeral.
Plus he had to deal with the knowledge that his brother had raped his niece.
Erling thought back to Ivor’s funeral at the cathedral. The faces of the pall-bearers, the barely suppressed anger. Not at the death of their patriarch in his nineties, but for the legacy he had left behind.
Eilidh’s funeral would be something different altogether. A young girl on the cusp of life. A life ended, he suspected, by the rapaciousness within her family.
‘Who’s next?’ DS Gowan was saying. ‘Harald Mowat?’
‘Harald it is,’ Erling agreed. ‘There’s an APB out on him. Now I need to speak to my second-in-command, who has had the difficult job of talking to Eilidh Mowat’s mother.’
His voice, he knew, had a tone that suggested he was now aware of Jo and Gowan’s story.
Gowan, flushed with the success of the interview and his place in it, didn’t bat an eyelid.
Erling, taking note of this, confirmed now to himself that DS Gowan was a good detective, but rather less of a man than he’d hoped.
Instructing Gowan to check back with the team, he made for his office, where he immediately took a call from PC Tulloch. Erling listened as the story told by Eilidh’s mum regarding her daughter unfolded.
‘And her mother thinks Ragnar Mowat may have been the one who picked up Eilidh from the ferry?’ he asked.
Ivan explained about the friendship between Eilidh and Helen, Ragnar’s sister. ‘Her mother suspects it was Ragnar who helped the girls get into the club. He works there some nights.’
Listening to confirmation of what Hugh had already alleged, Erling said, ‘Tell DS Green I’d like her to head for the ferry as soon as she’s finished talking to Eilidh’s mother. Has the father, Jason, put in an appearance yet?’
When Ivan confirmed that he hadn’t, Erling added, ‘You be the one to talk to him. I need DS Green here to interview Eilidh’s cousin Helen about last night.’
It was going to be a long day, Erling thought, as he rang off, but hopefully a productive one. And it had taken the death of a teenage girl to open the floodgates.