Chapter 49
Ethan’s call was unexpected and Jo’s initial response was to question whether she was composed enough to answer after her traumatic chat with Eilidh’s grieving mother.
Now, slipping into the car beside Ivan, she found herself staring blankly at the phone until it stopped ringing.
‘Are you okay?’ Ivan said in a concerned voice.
‘No,’ she said honestly. ‘Although I will be in a minute or two.’
When she eventually turned to face him, he asked who the missed call had been from.
‘Was it the boss?’ he checked. ‘Because I’ve just spoken to him and he told me to wait for Eilidh’s father, and that he wanted you to get the ferry back to Houton.
He’d like you there when he interviews Eilidh’s cousin Helen about last night. ’
When she didn’t immediately respond, he added, ‘Are you okay to do that?’
‘Of course.’ Jo mustered herself. ‘I assume someone will collect me at Houton?’
Ivan nodded, a sympathetic look on his face. ‘Better you don’t meet the father anyway. I suspect he’ll blame everyone apart from himself.’
‘You know him?’
‘By reputation only,’ Ivan said with a frown.
‘It’s safer for him if I don’t,’ Jo said, recalling Liz’s last words before she’d left.
‘So if it wasn’t the boss calling, who was it?’ Ivan said.
‘Ethan Howie,’ she told him.
Ivan looked intrigued. ‘Maybe he’s got some news on the missing couple,’ he suggested. ‘Or perhaps on the whereabouts of Harald or Max Mowat, who’ve apparently gone AWOL.’
He checked his watch. ‘I’ll take you to the ferry, then come back to await Mr Jason Mowat’s arrival.’
He dropped her at the visitor centre, where she took shelter from the stiff breeze and occasional shower of rain. Installed inside, she made the return call.
Ethan answered on the second ring. ‘Thanks for getting back to me,’ he said, before asking where she was.
‘In the waiting room at Lyness,’ she told him.
‘Are you coming or going?’
‘Heading back to Houton.’
‘I’m close by. Can we talk? It’s about last night in Kirkwall,’ he added.
‘Okay,’ she said. ‘Although I’m under orders to catch the next ferry and it’s due now.’
‘Then I’ll head over with you,’ he said. ‘And we can talk on the way.’
He arrived as the ferry docked, climbing out of his car, wearing the bright oilskin and knitted hat as though he’d just come off duty. Greeting her with a nod, he suggested they talk once on board.
After he’d stowed the car, they headed to the lounge, with Ethan being acknowledged en route by his fellow ferrymen. She too was observed, and Jo wondered how many of the crew knew she was a police officer, despite the lack of uniform.
She assumed they all did, since she’d been back and forth to Hoy often enough now.
Seated together in a corner, he removed the woolly hat to expose the thick head of black hair, beneath which the blue eyes were fastened on her.
‘Well,’ she said to sever the intense look. ‘What did you want to report about last night?’
‘The body in the harbour. It was young Eilidh Mowat, wasn’t it?’ he said in an undertone.
She wasn’t sure if that had been officially announced as yet, but saw no reason to prevaricate. ‘It was,’ she told him.
A look of pain crossed his face. ‘Jesus. The lass was only sixteen.’
‘You said you had something to tell me,’ she reminded him.
‘I needed to be sure the rumours flying around were right first, though when I got wind that you’d come back to Hoy, I thought they likely were.’
She studied him closely for a moment. ‘You heard I was picked up by PC Tulloch and taken to Liz Mowat’s house?’
He gave a wry smile. ‘I did.’
She kept her tone brisk. ‘So what is it you wish to tell me?’
‘It’s about Eilidh,’ he said quietly.
‘Did you know Eilidh personally?’
‘I do. I did,’ he said, pain in his voice.
‘How did you know her?’ Jo found herself asking.
He met her look. ‘As Hugh Mowat’s granddaughter. And as one of the group of kids who catch the ferry to Stromness for the high school.’
‘The ferry you work on?’ she checked.
‘Yes.’
It was beginning to sound like an official interview, so she stopped herself there and said, ‘Just tell me what you know.’
‘A ferry mate of mine was in Kirkwall last night at the club, although he left before . . . it happened,’ he said.
‘He says he saw Eilidh with Helen Mowat, Harald’s granddaughter.
They’re underage, so someone let them in.
Probably Ragnar, Helen’s older brother, who works there.
Eilidh spent some time with a guy, tall, dark hair, not local.
She seemed to be arguing with him. The two of them went outside together.
He saw her a little later heading for the ladies. ’
‘And the guy she spoke to?’
‘One of the Liverpool lot, but he didn’t see the bloke after that so assumed he’d cleared off. He left himself shortly afterwards.’ He halted there for a moment. ‘Maybe if he’d stayed on . . .’
He looked so worried that she said, ‘Life is full of maybes. Especially in my line of work.’
He nodded and, gathering himself, said, ‘If you need him to come in and give an official statement . . .’
‘Yes, that would be good. It helps us build up a complete picture of last night.’
‘I could give you a lift into Kirkwall?’ he offered.
She was about to say no, but realized that would be churlish. Plus she could message the station and avoid having a car sent for her.
‘Okay. Thank you,’ she said.
He seemed to relax at that, which revealed how tense he’d been.
‘So can you tell me what actually happened?’ he eventually said.
She gave him the bare bones, all of which would appear soon enough in The Orcadian.
‘Eilidh was spotted by a visitor from their second-floor window at the Kirkwall Hotel. She was barefoot and appeared disorientated. She entered the gate to the walkway and disappeared. He called 999. A police officer and one of the pastors on duty got there and managed to pull her out of the harbour, but they couldn’t revive her.
Nor could the paramedics who arrived shortly after. ’
‘No way was she in that state when my mate saw her,’ he stated vehemently. ‘She must have taken something after. Or someone slipped her something.’ He met her eye. ‘The guy she was giving grief to, he wasn’t well pleased about it.’
‘Could your friend ID him, d’you think?’
‘You could ask him.’
The call from Mackie came in as they disembarked.
‘Is there a chance you could come and see me?’ he asked in a tremulous voice.
‘I took a photo of some of the pages I found hard to read, when you were out of the room. I know I shouldn’t have done that, seeing as it’s evidence, but I thought that if I could make the image bigger on my phone, then maybe I could better make out the words.
There’s something you definitely need to see. ’
What he’d done was wrong, of course, but she couldn’t fault Mackie’s determination to help in any way he could.
‘Okay,’ she responded. ‘I’m approaching Houton now. On my way back to the station I’ll pop in and you can show me what you’ve found.’
Ringing off, she told Ethan that she would need to call in at Mackie’s house in Orphir, before heading to Kirkwall.
‘Auld Mackie who lives on the hill behind your boss’s house?’
Jo shook her head in silent amazement.
‘What?’ he said. ‘Mackie was a pal of Ivor Mowat’s from way back. It’s common knowledge you lot were talking to him.’ He gave her a smile. ‘What about, I have no idea.’
‘Wait for me here,’ Jo instructed Ethan when they reached Auld Mackie’s drive entrance.
‘I wouldn’t attempt to drive up that hill if you paid me,’ he informed her.
The door stood open as before, but when she announced her arrival, there was no response. Entering anyway, she headed along the corridor towards the sitting room, the scent of peat as strong as before. But when she opened the door, there was no sign of Mackie in his usual chair by the fire.
‘Mackie!’ she shouted. ‘It’s Sergeant Green.’
The old man was hard of hearing, so he could be elsewhere in the house and not hear her. After another call went unanswered, she decided to look for him.
The kitchen was empty, although a tea tray had been set as before. She wondered if Yvanna had been there already today or whether Mackie had done that himself.
There were three doors leading off the hall, all of them shut. She knocked on the first, then opened it to find a bathroom. The second door led to what appeared to be a storeroom.
Outside the third door now, which had to be the old man’s bedroom, she knocked firmly and called out Mackie’s name.
‘It’s DS Green here. May I come in?’
The silence that followed had a depth to it that sent her heart into overdrive.
Throwing open the door, she saw him, fully dressed, his upper body on the bed, face down, his knees on the floor.
Hurling herself towards him, she reached for his neck, her trembling fingers frantically seeking a pulse. And all the while, her brain was asking her why he should die now.
She’d spoken to him mere minutes ago and his voice had been strong and urgent.
The pulse was there – weak but there. Pressing the emergency call button on her phone, she requested an ambulance.