Chapter 52
‘You know the man we’re talking about?’ Jo asked.
Helen was struggling with how to answer that question.
Eventually Jo said, ‘Are you afraid of this man?’
The girl gave a slight nod, as though fearful even to admit to this out loud.
‘We think he may be part of a Liverpool drug gang who have infiltrated Orkney,’ Erling told her. ‘The gang who are trying to take over your family’s interests here.’
It was bluntly said, but it got a reaction.
‘You know about that?’ she said, eyes wide.
‘We do,’ Erling told her. ‘We also know that Hugh Mowat was trying to put an end to what’s been going on between the two factions in this war. He warned Eilidh about it. Which, he believes, put her in danger.’
‘So that’s why she and Ragnar fell out?’ she said, almost to herself. ‘And Eilidh still faced up to that guy?’ She thought for a moment. ‘Then I think he did do something to her.’
‘We have footage of the two of them outside the club. Plus two people report having seen them together. Would you recognize him?’ Erling said.
‘Maybe, but I don’t know his name. Ragnar never uses his name. Just calls him the Scouse bastard—’ She halted there, frightened again. ‘I shouldn’t say any more. Dad’ll be mad about me even coming here,’ she added.
‘Where is your father?’ Jo asked.
‘Away in Aberdeen. He runs the nightclub there.’ She appeared relieved about his absence.
‘And your grandfather?’
‘With Dad, I think.’
Erling wasn’t certain she was telling the truth about that, but he let it go. ‘We need to speak to Ragnar,’ he said.
‘I haven’t seen him since last night. He doesn’t know I’m here. None of them do. If they find out . . .’
She was brave, Erling thought, as they watched her leave, hood up to cover her face, moving swiftly away from the building and towards the centre of town. With luck, it being Sunday and with few folk about, she wouldn’t be spotted by anyone who might report her visit here to her family.
He’d decided not to expose her to the incident room, nor a view of her best friend and her possible attacker. She was, he thought, traumatized enough, and Jo had been swift to agree with him.
Helen’s last gifts to them had been her brother Ragnar’s mobile number and confirmation that Eilidh did have her mobile with her last night.
‘D’you think it might have been a member of her branch of the Mowat family that paid a visit to Mackie earlier?’ he asked Jo.
‘Maybe,’ she said thoughtfully. ‘But Mackie never talked about any of the Mowats apart from Ivor, even though he was obviously aware of their animosity regarding Ivor selling the land to Maitland.’
They were silent for a moment before Jo said, ‘I can’t help but think the attack on Mackie had something to do with Ivor’s intention to leave the business to Kris. And if neither Kris nor Rachael can be found . . .’
‘Then Hugh, as the eldest, inherits everything,’ Erling said. ‘We already know he was planning to contest the will citing Ivor’s state of mind. And that he’s been trying to assert his authority by challenging Harald regarding his supposed drug activities.’
Whatever plans Hugh had won’t be prominent in his mind after this morning’s discovery, Erling thought. Though broken men can act in ways we might never imagine, he reminded himself.
‘I’d like to see what DS Gowan’s made of the diary pages,’ he said, his look suggesting Jo could occupy herself elsewhere if preferred.
‘I’d like to come along, sir. If that’s okay?’
‘Of course, Sergeant.’
DS Gowan had Ivor’s notebook open in front of him, with what looked like an enlarged image of one of the pages on his screen.
Blowing it up hadn’t improved its legibility by much.
It still looked like the archaic script you found jotted in the margins of old books in the Orkney room in Kirkwall library.
Erling wondered again how Auld Mackie, together with Jo, had managed to decipher any of the notebook’s contents.
Noting their arrival, Gowan stood to greet them. ‘DI Flett, DS Green,’ he said formally.
‘How’s the translation going?’ Erling asked.
‘Slow,’ he said. ‘It’s like trying to interpret hieroglyphics. Your translations of the other pages have been a help, though,’ he added with a glance at Jo.
‘Can I take a look?’ Jo said.
‘Be my guest.’ He rose to let Jo have his seat. ‘My interpretation of the text is in this Word document.’ He brought it to the fore for her to read.
Erling had already noted that Jo hadn’t met DS Gowan’s direct look. But it was as Gowan leaned over to bring up the document on the screen that her discomfort at his close proximity became obvious.
Moving behind the chair, Erling placed himself between them.
Jo seemed to relax a little at that and now focused first on the original script before moving to the enlarged version on the screen and finally to Gowan’s Word version, occasionally amending this to what she believed it should say.
‘It’s mostly about Kris,’ she finally said. ‘Ivor’s excitement that he was coming to visit. His concerns about what would happen when he did. And Betty. How sorry he was that she had to leave the High Island. That he now knows who made her pregnant and intends to right that wrong.’
‘The High Island is Hoy,’ Erling told Gowan. ‘Not the Highlands of Scotland, as you interpreted it.’
‘Anything there that explains why Mackie wanted to speak to you?’ Erling asked Jo.
‘Not so far, but there are another couple of pages to go.’
At this moment they heard a text ping in and Jo reached for her phone.
‘It’s from Ethan. He says I should come to the hospital.’
‘Then go,’ Erling said. ‘If Mackie comes round, he could have the answers we seek.’