Chapter 51
The first of the Mowats who’d arrived to be interviewed were likely the innocent ones in all of this, Erling thought. Particularly since few of Harald’s branch of the family had as yet appeared.
Harald and Max were reported as being in Aberdeen, and Ragnar had apparently gone to ground, although his younger sister, Helen, was here and waiting to be interviewed by himself and hopefully DS Green.
Hugh’s branch of the family had begun to appear shortly after his interview, obviously urged on by the man himself.
Eilidh’s body had already been transferred to Glasgow for the post-mortem, although it appeared that most folk who’d turned up at the station had already decided that drugs had been the cause of her death in the harbour, which, in their minds at least, pointed the finger at one particular branch of the Mowat family tree.
And now it appeared that Auld Mackie had found himself in the firing line.
According to Jo, it was likely because he’d been helping them with the notebook, which had, Erling reminded himself, been his idea. One he found himself regretting now.
But if, as Jo had intimated, the answer lay in those journal pages Mackie was so concerned about, then they had the originals here.
Hearing a car arrive, he rose and headed out to the lobby to meet Jo.
‘Any word on Mackie?’ he checked on her entry.
‘None as yet. Ethan said he would call if there was any change. Is Helen here?’ she asked.
‘Yes. She’s already in the interview room. You want some time before we go in?’ he added.
‘I’d like to do it now,’ she said, ‘but I think someone should be working on those pages in the notebook that Mackie was so worried about.’ She handed him her tablet. ‘What we’ve translated so far is on there, together with a note of the three pages we hadn’t tackled as yet.’
Watching for her reaction, Erling suggested that he give that task to DS Gowan.
‘Good idea,’ she immediately responded. ‘He’s meticulous on detail and he doesn’t give up.’
‘Right,’ Erling said. ‘You go on ahead and chat to the girl, and explain that I’ll join you shortly.’
He found DS Gowan in the midst of the flurry of activity that was the incident room.
He was seated at his desk, studying what looked like CCTV footage of the entrance to the club, stopping it intermittently to stare intently at the screen.
Something about his focus reminded Erling that he was still awaiting the result of the photo he’d sent to McNab’s super recognizer, the supposed image of Kris Mowat taken on a Flotta beach by Rory.
It was still the weekend, he reminded himself, and that response, plus the various DNA results, were unlikely to show up before Monday.
Gowan, sensing his presence, rose. ‘I’m going through the Saturday-night footage outside the club.’
‘Anything of interest?’
Gowan pointed to the screen. ‘That’s Eilidh there.
Plus the guy gripping her arm. You can also just make out a mobile in her left hand.
And she’s wearing shoes.’ He ran the recording on a little.
‘She goes back inside and he follows, but look. What’s he got in his hand?
’ He expanded the screenshot. ‘I think that’s a syringe, sir. ’
‘Can you isolate an image of this guy, one that we could run through facial recognition software?’ Erling said.
‘I can try.’
‘Good,’ Erling said. ‘But there’s something I want you to do first.’ He outlined how DS Green had visited Mackie, and what had happened to him.
‘The pages he’d managed to decipher using an enhanced phone image need to be examined in the actual notebook.
Sign it out and make a start on that. Whatever it says, we need to know, because whoever took the mobile thought them important. ’
Gowan, whose determined expression had faltered when DS Green’s name was mentioned, settled back into place. ‘Right onto that, sir.’
Now making for the interview room, Erling considered what he’d seen on the screen.
A feisty Eilidh arguing with the unknown Liverpudlian.
If she had pissed him off or threatened him in any way, the sooner he would want her closed down, at least until he departed Orkney.
Maybe the intention hadn’t been to kill her, just shut her up for a while or frighten her enough so she would no longer be a problem.
A glance into the interview room found DS Green and Helen seemingly chatting over coffee. His arrival, of course, might well ruin the atmosphere Jo had managed to create. Nevertheless, Erling entered and, greeting Helen, took a seat beside his detective sergeant.
‘I explained to Helen, sir, that this is a chat, not an interrogation. She came here voluntarily as a friend of Eilidh’s and wants to help us find out what happened to her.’
Jo’s words brought a worried look to Helen’s face, but she remained silent.
‘Thank you for coming in,’ Erling said, taking note of the young eyes reddened by crying.
‘Tell me about Eilidh,’ he said. ‘You were pals, although she went to Stromness Academy and you’re at Kirkwall Grammar . . .’
‘I’ve known Eilidh all my life. I used to live on Hoy when I was wee. We played together. I moved to Kirkwall when I went to the grammar school. Eilidh stayed on Hoy and took the ferry to Stromness.’ She paused there for a moment. ‘She came to stay with me at weekends, sometimes I went to hers.’
‘And she came to stay with you this weekend?’ Erling said.
Helen nodded, remaining silent, a quick glance at DS Green showing her discomfort.
‘But her mum didn’t want her to stay over last night. Didn’t want her to come to Kirkwall at all?’ Jo said gently.
‘I didn’t know that. Not at first anyway. She told us – me – what ferry she would be on.’
‘And your brother Ragnar and you picked her up?’ Jo said.
‘Yes . . . no. I mean, it was just Ragnar picked her up last night.’
‘So what happened then?’
‘When she arrived, I thought they’d fallen out. Ragnar went off somewhere and Eilidh and I got ready.’
‘Were you drinking?’
‘Yes,’ she said defiantly. ‘We had shots in my room, but we weren’t drunk.’
‘And how did you get into the club, being underage?’ Erling asked.
‘Ragnar lets us in.’
‘What about drugs?’ Erling said.
Her eyes were darting again, first to Jo then to him.
‘Eilidh didn’t do hard drugs. Weed sometimes.’
‘And you?’ Jo said.
‘The same.’
Erling thought she might be telling the truth about Eilidh, but doubted what she said about herself. Hugh had been against the drug trade. Both Helen’s father and grandfather apparently had other ideas.
‘There’s a strong chance that the state Eilidh was in when she wandered to the harbour was caused by her taking a substance,’ Erling said.
‘She wouldn’t take anything like that,’ Helen said adamantly.
‘Then maybe someone dosed her without her knowledge,’ Jo said. ‘Might that have been Ragnar?’
The girl looked shocked. ‘Why would he do that?’
Erling came back in then. ‘We have footage of Eilidh talking to a dark-haired man outside the club,’ he said. ‘He had a Liverpudlian accent. They were arguing. Do you know why?’
Helen’s face went ashen, so much so that Jo got up and went to her, suggesting she put her head between her knees for a moment.
As the girl recovered herself, she sat up, her expression still shocked, but determined.
‘Then Eilidh argued with the wrong man,’ she said.