Chapter 6
‘Disappeared?’ Erling repeated.
Auld Mackie nodded. ‘I remember it as clear as if it had happened yesterday. I went with my father to Hoy and Ivor told me that Stella had gone missing. Everyone was out looking for her. Ivor was mightily upset. Blamed his eldest brother, Billy. Said he heard them arguing and that Billy had told her to go away.’
Erling was remembering the rough wooden coffin and its contents and was now trying to match them in some way to Auld Mackie’s story.
But – and it was a big but – there had been two bodies in the coffin, one of them a child, and the old man’s story of Stella didn’t feature a baby.
As though reading his mind, Mackie said, ‘I heard there was an infant in there with the lass. Is that true?’
Erling saw no reason to deny this. ‘There was,’ he confirmed.
‘Ivor never mentioned a bairn,’ Auld Mackie said. ‘But maybe the lass was pregnant. Maybe that was the reason for the fallout with Billy. Though it still doesn’t tell us how she ended up dead and buried there with her child.’
‘No, it doesn’t,’ Erling agreed. ‘But I’m glad you sent me that note and that we’ve spoken about Stella. DS Green will give you her card, and if you remember anything else, you can call her.’
‘You’ll find out who the lass is?’ Auld Mackie said, taking the card Jo offered. ‘She deserves a proper burial at least.’
‘We will certainly try,’ Erling assured him.
Back now on the road with Erling driving, Jo asked him what he’d made of Mackie’s story.
‘It sounded genuine enough. Hoy was a busy place during the war with a lot of army personnel and associated civilians. The evidence of that stretches all along the coastline fronting Scapa Flow. Gun placements, camps. There was even an anti-submarine boom stretching across to Houton,’ he said.
‘Ivor would have known all the local lasses. As would his brothers.’ Erling paused, then continued.
‘Anyway, I’ll drop you at the station and head for UHI.
Hopefully Colin will be able to place our victim’s era, at least.’
‘It’s a shame Ivor died before we found her,’ Jo said. ‘I can’t help but think he would have told us more about Stella.’
Erling had been thinking the same thing.
‘I plan to speak to Tommy again. He was the one who pointed to Auld Mackie as the likely sender of the note. Plus my grandfather Sandy and Ivor Mowat were best pals, and Sandy spent a lot of time at the Mowat place. He must have known about this Stella. If Ivor told Mackie, he would have confided in Sandy without a doubt. Maybe there’s some evidence of that among Sandy’s things. ’
Dropping Jo at the station, he reminded her to call him if anything urgent came up.
‘And can you contact Hugh Mowat and check when the Mowat will is due to be read out? And if Kris Mowat is still around.’ Then he remembered who else was likely to turn up.
‘Also, I told Mr Maitland to come into the station when he arrives in Kirkwall. If I’m not back by then, explain that we’ve a team on site and he can’t start work there until we’ve concluded our examination. ’
Jo was definitely up for dealing with Mr Maitland, as evidenced by her smile at this part of his request.
‘Sure thing,’ she told him.
Erling headed for the shore road, rather than weaving his way through the town. The University of the Highlands and Islands building was at the top of Burnett Brae and had, on one side at least, a fine view out over the bay.
Despite his chat with Auld Mackie, he was nursing the hope that the grave they’d unearthed would prove to be outwith the time limit on a police investigation. But he still wanted and needed to know the truth about the woman and child they’d exhumed on Hoy.
Parked now, and heading for the Archaeology department, he steeled himself for what was to come.
Colin greeted him on entry, and despite trying to read the Prof’s expression, Erling found himself at a loss as to whether the initial examination of the remains had proved informative or not.
Once kitted up, he followed Colin into the inner sanctum, where he registered that the bodies of mother and child were now free of their joint coffin . . . and, shockingly, of one another.
Noting his expression, Colin immediately said, ‘It’s distressing to see them separated, I know. I felt that too. But they can be buried together again, once we discover the truth of their deaths.’
Erling nodded, still not ready to speak.
‘They are, as you know, mummified in parts, with no obvious signs as to how they died,’ Colin began. ‘No obvious bone breakages. No head trauma. I suppose there is always the possibility that they died of natural causes. Although both at the same time would seem odd.’
‘When do you think this happened?’ Erling said.
‘Bodies buried in peat are well preserved, because of the chemical nature of the soil. The famous Betty Corrigall being such a case.’ Colin halted there. ‘But these two bodies are much more recent, as evidenced by fillings in the woman’s teeth and the remains of their clothing.’
‘How recent?’ Erling heard himself say.
‘In my estimation, the woman and child have lain there for eighty years or so,’ Colin said. ‘Both sets of clothing have mostly decomposed, which suggests they were made of natural fibres and not of later man-made materials. But that’s not all.’
He ushered Erling towards a table where he pointed to a tarnished locket, retrieved, he explained, from around the woman’s neck.
‘I found a tiny lock of hair inside, belonging, I suspect, to the child. And the name engraved on the back, visible under a microscope, says “William 18.3.42”.’
‘So the child was a boy born on the eighteenth of March 1942?’ Erling said.
‘It looks like it. And I think he was six months to a year old when he died,’ Colin confirmed.
‘So she came back to Hoy with a child maybe early in 1943?’ Erling muttered under his breath.
‘She came back?’ Colin repeated. ‘You think you may know who this woman is?’
Erling told him about the note he’d found at Langwell the previous night and his father’s suggestion that he speak to his elderly neighbour regarding its origin.
‘Auld Mackie was friendly with Ivor Mowat back in the day,’ he explained.
‘He told us a story about a young woman called Stella, stationed on Hoy during the war, who visited the Mowats when Ivor was twelve, and then disappeared. It appears she didn’t have a child at that time.
But was possibly courting Ivor’s big brother Billy. ’
The significance of the name Billy wasn’t lost on either of them.
‘I take it Ivor was the last of the brothers from that era?’
‘He was,’ Erling said. ‘But by the numbers at the funeral, his three older brothers also had offspring. I’m not certain when the family left the original croft house.
Maybe they’d already gone by the time the bodies were buried there.
Maybe the Stella that Ivor knew is not this woman at all, but someone with no connection to the Mowats. ’
‘On that front,’ Colin said, ‘the age and sex of the victims will be properly established by the forensic pathologist, when the remains are transferred to Glasgow for the post-mortem. Plus they may provide an answer as to how they died.’ He halted there for a moment.
‘Of course, since we’re looking at something that happened eighty-odd years ago, this is more of an archaeological investigation than a forensic one.
We’re unlikely to locate a live perpetrator even if she was murdered. ’
‘I know,’ Erling said. ‘But I’d like to identify her, at least, and give her a proper burial. If the child’s father was in fact a Mowat, that might help.’
‘You’ll have to provide a DNA sample from a current Mowat for comparison, but yes, that could be done,’ Colin confirmed. Then added, ‘If this Stella was connected with the service personnel stationed on Hoy, that may also be a way of identifying her.’
Erling already intended pursuing that line of enquiry. As to acquiring a DNA sample from a current Mowat, he was planning to speak to Hugh regarding the body and what he might know, if anything, about a girl called Stella.
Having discussed the arrangements for the transfer of the bodies to the mortuary in Glasgow, he headed out to the car.
Jo’s call came as he started the engine.
‘Sorry, sir, but Mr Maitland and Ms Barrett are here and insist on speaking only to you,’ Jo said in an exasperated manner.
‘I’ve just finished with the Prof,’ he said. ‘I’ll be with you shortly.’
Erling could hear the relief in Jo’s response to that.
So the couple from last night were as irritating in person as they had been on the phone, he thought.
Heading for the station, he reminded himself that said couple had bought a piece of land on which to build their dream house. Only to have the first machine to arrive on site unearth the grave of a possible murder victim.
He wouldn’t have been very happy with that state of affairs either.
‘They’ve been installed in an interview room,’ Jo told him, her expression reflecting how well that had gone down. ‘It was the only space available,’ she said, ‘apart from your office, and I didn’t think you’d want that.’
‘You were right,’ Erling told her. ‘Anything back from Hugh Mowat?’
‘He offered to come in to see you late afternoon. I said yes. Hope that’s okay?’ she added.
‘Late afternoon is fine. Any luck finding Kris Mowat?’
‘He and his partner are staying at the Stromness Hotel. The reading of the will is this Friday morning.’
‘Okay. We’ll head there directly after I talk to Maitland.’
Arriving at the interview room, Erling steeled himself before entering. The usual stiff greetings followed, after which he took a seat opposite them, noting the full coffee mugs and plate of biscuits.
‘When can I access my land?’ Maitland said, on a nod from Ms Barrett.
‘Just as soon as we’re finished with it.’
‘And that will be when exactly?’ the woman asked sharply. ‘We have a crew of men waiting to begin work on the site.’
Erling eased back in the chair and exhaled. ‘The bodies of a young woman and we assume her child were found buried next to the remains of the old Mowat croft house. There is a possibility she may have been murdered,’ he said.
The term ‘murdered’ wasn’t what either of them wanted to hear, which was why he’d used it.
‘Murdered?’ Maitland repeated. ‘But I thought it was an archaeological find?’
‘It may turn out to be that. Nevertheless, we wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t deal properly with an unmarked grave and its contents.’
‘But I understand you have already retrieved the bodies?’ the woman said.
‘The surrounding area also needs to be examined,’ Erling said as pleasantly as possible. ‘We have a team there now.’
‘How long will that take?’ Maitland tried. ‘We have workers due to arrive together with the materials. The ground should have been cleared by now to allow us to lay the foundations.’
‘I can assure you we will work as swiftly as we can,’ Erling said. ‘Now, I require some information regarding the land you purchased.’
‘Why?’ the woman demanded. ‘It was a private sale.’
Maitland shot her a look before saying, ‘Of course, Inspector, anything we can do to help.’
‘When did you purchase it and from whom?’ Erling said.
‘I purchased it from Mr Ivor Mowat, its owner, two months ago.’
‘May I ask why you chose that particular spot?’
Maitland appeared unsure as to whether he wanted to reveal this, but perhaps deciding it was in his best interest to do so, said, ‘I have family connections to Hoy, from the Second World War. My grandfather served there and married a local girl, my grandmother.’
‘She was a Mowat?’ Erling asked.
He shook his head. ‘No, she was a Sinclair. Margaret Sinclair. Neither of my grandparents are alive.’
‘May I ask how you found out about that particular piece of Mowat land?’
‘Ivor Mowat contacted me personally to tell me the land was available for purchase.’
Erling waited for a further explanation regarding how or why Ivor might have believed Maitland to be interested.
Sensing this, Maitland said, ‘I wrote a piece about my family connection to Orkney and Hoy. It appeared in The Orcadian. He said he’d researched my background and discovered I was an architect who specialized in eco-housing and wrote to tell me he wanted to sell the old Mowat croft house and land.
Was I interested? We spoke on the phone and I said I was. We agreed a price and that was that.’
‘Did you ever meet Ivor in person?’ Erling asked.
‘I was to meet him on arrival here, but then I learned he had died.’ He sounded surprised by that. ‘He seemed so alive the last time we spoke. He was excited that his great-grandson was coming back to Orkney to visit him.’
‘That’s Kris Mowat?’
‘Yes. He appeared to be very fond of him, but had indicated in our previous conversations that that wasn’t the case with other members of the family. In fact—’ He halted there, as though wondering if he should say any more.
Erling waited, but only briefly. ‘In fact what?’ he encouraged.
Maitland still hesitated, before eventually saying, ‘I believe he was selling the land to spite them.’
‘He said that?’ Erling asked.
‘Not in so many words, but yes, I believe so.’