Chapter 29
Darkness was falling as he made his way home, although a full moon lit up the now calm waters of Scapa Flow.
On reaching Langwell, Erling found himself remaining in the car rather than heading inside.
Mainly because he needed to think over what had just happened, and he knew he couldn’t do that lying next to Rory.
He kept thinking of his sergeant’s face when she’d got out of her vehicle to greet him. She’d sounded embarrassed on the phone and had looked equally uncomfortable when he’d appeared in the flesh. And he wondered why.
Her discomfort during the phone call, he could understand.
She’d known it was perhaps the only free time he might have with Rory over the weekend.
But why the unease when he’d arrived at Stromness?
She’d done the right thing in getting in touch about the possibility of Rachael going missing and he’d stressed that, even when she’d phoned.
No. There was something else bothering her, and she wasn’t ready to voice it yet.
He was still getting to know Jo Green as an officer, and she hadn’t spoken of her life outside of the job.
He knew on her arrival in Orkney she’d briefly dated a young farmer from Birsay, although he’d never learned his name.
And now it seemed she liked Leo Strachan.
He recalled her laughter when he’d come across them together on the street pastor’s visit to the station.
For some reason he’d been wary of that possible link-up, but wasn’t sure why.
The religious angle maybe? Jo, the daughter of a minister, had made disparaging jokes about that aspect of her previous life.
In fact, she’d given him the idea that she’d left Caithness to distance herself from all of that.
But she’d done the right thing tonight. Had she not gone to Stromness to check on Rachael, they wouldn’t have discovered her disappearance so swiftly.
Instinct more than anything had told him that the hooded female, seen leaving by the front entrance, was Rachael.
Probably because he’d been in Rachael’s presence, both when she was upset and when she was confident and assured, as she had been this morning at the lawyer’s office.
In the brief moments when the security camera had captured her, had she been frightened or self-assured?
If he could answer that question, then he would know whether to be afraid for her safety or not.
And what about the male with her? He’d never met Kris in the flesh.
He’d taken note of the young dark-haired male behind him at the funeral, who’d attracted angry looks from the coffin bearers, but hadn’t seen him after that.
All he really had to go on was a photograph.
This thought made him take out his mobile to study the image Rory had taken on the Flotta shore.
For a few moments, he allowed himself the hope that this was Kris Mowat and that he had come back to Stromness for Rachael. The hope was fleeting and soon replaced by a darker scenario.
The one in which Kris would prove to be the burnt body on the beach at Lyrawa Bay and therefore couldn’t have been the male seen with Rachael on the steps of the Stromness Hotel.
He realized that this was why he’d chosen not to tell Jo about Rory’s possible sighting of Kris on a Flotta beach. It was a hope too far.
He must have dozed off after that, because he was wakened by the first rays of the rising sun through the windscreen at four o’clock. Dragging himself out of the car, he undressed in the living room, then padded quietly into the dark bedroom and slipped into bed.
When he woke a little later than usual, because of the blackout blind, he found Rory already gone from the bed.
And, in fact, from the house. A note by the coffee machine told him what he already knew.
Rory had left for their planned dive at the sunken wrecks that clustered round the north shores of Cava. Without him.
See you when I see you, Rory had added with a flourish.
Erling, already dressed, now contemplated whether to have breakfast or just get going. Deciding almost immediately that there was no time to be wasted, he checked his mobile to find no missed messages overnight, then rang the Stromness Hotel for an update.
It was the night porter who picked up.
‘Ms Everett hasn’t come back,’ came the answer to his question. ‘And no one else has come looking for her.’
‘When do you finish?’ Erling checked.
‘Eight thirty, when Gail arrives.’
‘Okay, I’m about to speak to one of my SOCO team. Warn Gail there should be someone with her shortly to work on the room and collect copies of the security footage.’
Hanging up, he now called Eleanor Gilmore, his chief SOCO, who was definitely awake as evidenced by her swift response.
‘Hey boss, what’s up?’
‘I was about to apologize in case I woke you,’ Erling said.
‘I’ve already been out on my morning run,’ she told him with a laugh.
‘So you won’t mind a trip to the Stromness Hotel?’ he said.
‘Why?’ she answered, her tone turning sombre.
Erling gave her a swift résumé of the previous night’s proceedings.
‘God. I’d heard the news about Rachael’s appearance at the will reading and was nursing the hope that Kris Mowat was about to resurface,’ she told him.
Erling acknowledged this before saying, ‘No one, other than myself and DS Green, has been in the room since Rachael left the hotel with a hooded man. And I’m pretty sure the guy used the toilet while in the room with her.’
‘Right, we’ll collect whatever we can,’ she assured him.
‘Plus take possession of the security footage we watched last night. Gail, the receptionist, knows the drill. And keep in touch,’ Erling told her. ‘If there’s anything, however small, I want to know about it.’
Swallowing some of the coffee Rory had left in the pot for him, Erling grabbed one of the fresh bannocks and headed out to the car. The first sailing from Houton was soon. If he was quick, he might just catch Jo and PC Tulloch before they left for Longhope.
The pleasant sunrise he’d experienced earlier had developed into a bright but blustery morning.
Noting the white horses as he drove down to the pier, Erling wondered how rough the crossing might be.
Ivan Tulloch, coming from Sanday, was well able to deal with rough water.
As for his detective sergeant, he remembered she’d crossed to Rousay in poor weather on their last case and had coped okay.
His mind then switched to Rory. Would he go out on the dive despite the choppy conditions?
Doubtless he would. If your work required you to deep dive in the wild waters of the North Sea, then today’s Scapa Flow would hold no cause for concern on Rory’s part.
Or his own, had he been able to go with him.
Putting that regret to the back of his mind, Erling parked up and, exiting the car, made for the police vehicle that was already in the queue to board.
‘All set?’ he said as Jo lowered the window.
‘We are, aren’t we, PC Tulloch?’ she said, nodding to Ivan. ‘I’ve learned a lot about Hoy already,’ she added with a smile, before asking whether there had been an update from the Stromness Hotel.
‘I spoke to Derek, the night porter. He says Rachael didn’t return last night,’ he told her.
‘There’s a SOCO team on their way there shortly to examine the room.
’ He changed the subject. ‘Let me know when you’re all set up at Longhope.
I get the impression from Willie Halcro that there are quite a few folk keen to talk to you. Including Willie himself.’
‘PC Tulloch has relatives on Hoy,’ Jo told him. ‘And on Flotta and Longhope,’ she added.
‘You’re in good hands, then. Look after DS Green,’ Erling told a serious-looking Tulloch.
‘I will, sir,’ Tulloch assured him.
He didn’t wait for the ferry departure, but headed to his car and set off for Kirkwall.
He’d scheduled a meeting for nine o’clock with the remainder of his team to be brought up to date on developments.
Having ordered the forensic team to the Stromness Hotel, he fully expected everyone at the station to be already aware of Rachael’s disappearance. And likely as worried by it as he was.
But there were other aspects of the case to be discussed and acted upon. If the team had confirmed Kris Mowat’s identity, then the Pandora’s box destined for Kris from Ivor could be opened.
He’d also decided that Hugh Mowat had some serious questions to answer about his father Ivor and the night he had died. Added to that, the police needed to examine Ivor’s laptop, phone and anything else released to Hugh on his father’s death.
Reaching his office, his first call was to Balfour Legal Services to leave a message informing Eddie of Rachael’s disappearance. His next was to Cathy McCue. Cathy was one of the last people to see Ivor alive, and also likely to know what had been handed over to Hugh Mowat after Ivor’s death.
Despite the early timing of the call, it was swiftly answered. Listening to his request for information about Ivor’s belongings, Cathy told him she would send over the official list.
‘I can tell you now that Ivor had a mobile phone and a laptop, although he didn’t watch programmes on that.
He preferred the television. He used his laptop to search for things.
Especially the history of Orkney during the two World Wars.
He loved all that stuff about the sunken ships in Scapa Flow.
He was on numerous sites chatting to folk about it. ’
She was silent for a moment, before adding, ‘I do remember he got quite excited when that Maitland guy wrote in The Orcadian about his grandfather serving on Hoy during the war. Seems he was stationed close to the Mowat croft at Lyrawa Bay.’
‘Do you know how Ivor got in touch with Kris?’ Erling tried.
‘I think Kris found Ivor, not the other way round. But I do remember Ivor was over the moon about it. And no wonder. He used to talk a lot about Betty, his granddaughter, who left Hoy when she was only seventeen. Kris’s mum, that is. It was a sad tale.’
‘Did Ivor ever mention Kris’s father?’
‘Not until just before Kris was due to visit. It seemed Kris had never met his father, but the day before he died, Ivor told me he knew who the bastard was. His word exactly.’
‘But he didn’t give you a name?’
‘No, he didn’t. Maybe he would have told us, me and Elspeth that is, if he’d lived longer.’
‘You think he planned to tell Kris who his father was?’
‘Yes. I think that was the plan.’
When he thanked Cathy for her help, she told him to call any time. ‘I’ll send you the full list of belongings that were handed over to Hugh Mowat. And I hope with all my heart that the body on the Hoy beach isn’t Ivor’s great-grandson.’
His next call was to Hugh Mowat, who took a great deal more time than Cathy before answering. Erling imagined him staring at the screen, aware of who was calling and not keen to pick up. When he eventually did, his tone sounded upbeat but cautious.
‘Inspector Flett. Good news, I hope?’
Erling chose his words carefully. ‘I’d like you to bring Ivor’s mobile phone and laptop to the station, please, together with any correspondence and notebooks of his.’
‘May I ask why?’ came the guarded reply.
‘You asked that we verify Kris Mowat’s identity, so checking through any correspondence between Kris and Ivor would be useful in that regard,’ he said, wondering whether in fact Hugh Mowat had already done this, and his intervention at the reading of the will had been merely an attempt to delay acceptance of Kris as the rightful heir.
‘I’ll bring what I have in today,’ Hugh said.
‘I also require to speak to you regarding your visit to Ivor the night he died,’ Erling added.
The thick silence that followed this announcement was eventually broken. ‘For what reason?’ Hugh said.
‘I have a few questions for you,’ Erling told him.
Silence reigned again until Hugh said, ‘Of course, Inspector. I’ll be happy to help in any way I can. When would you like me to come in?’
‘This morning around ten,’ Erling said, thinking the sooner he asked the necessary questions the better.
‘I’ll see you then, Inspector.’ And with that he rang off.
Erling found himself forming an image of Hugh on the other end of the now silent phone. He was in little doubt that Ivor’s eldest son had the annulment of Ivor’s will in his sights, and would therefore do whatever was required of him to make sure that happened.