Chapter 56
The cross-body phone bag had hitched a ride on a small fishing vessel, the Betsy Ann, and was only spotted as she’d chugged out of the harbour. Waterproof, it had seemingly protected Eilidh’s mobile from the weather, but not from the danger the girl had found herself in.
The mood was sombre as an image of the now-unlocked phone appeared on screen. The background photo was a selfie of Eilidh with Helen. They were standing together on a beach with what looked like the dark mass of Hoy behind them.
For a moment, Erling thought it might even be Lyrawa Bay, before reminding himself of just how many such bays peppered the Hoy coastline.
The IT Support officer was looking to him, awaiting his orders as to which app they should open first.
‘Let’s take a look at her most recent text messages,’ Erling told him.
As the messages scrolled up the overhead screen, there was a sudden hush among the officers present. It was, Erling thought, like entering the mind of the sixteen-year-old girl, who had no idea that her life was about to end.
There was the message from Helen saying she’d see her soon. One from Ragnar about meeting her from the ferry. Her reply to that was a thumbs-up emoji.
The final message had been to Helen. It simply said, Where are you?
‘That was sent after I saw her outside, sir,’ DS Gowan said.
‘We have a witness who saw her inside around that time, heading, he thought, for the ladies,’ Erling said.
‘There’s a fire exit near the ladies,’ DC Gunn offered.
‘If the Scouser did inject her,’ Gowan said, ‘that’s maybe when she headed out the back.’
The image of Eilidh taken from the window of the hotel appeared on the screen. Enlarged now, and with the existence of the mobile now known, the blue pouch holding it became identifiable against her body.
‘She must have tried to get to her mobile when she stepped onto the walkway,’ Gunn said. ‘Maybe she came round enough to try to make an emergency call, got the bag off, but dropped it.’
The scene as described by DC Gunn was replaying in everyone’s mind. The finale of which was her tipping into the water.
‘If she was injected with coke, contaminated or otherwise, she likely had a cocaine-induced psychosis,’ DS Gowan announced. ‘I’ve seen that in action, and that’s what it looks like.’
When it appeared as though he might be about to continue in this mode, Erling halted him. ‘We’ll wait for the post-mortem before we decide what she had either taken or been given. Thank you, Sergeant.’ He now asked if Gowan had sent the CCTV footage as requested to DI McNab in Glasgow.
‘Just about to, sir,’ Gowan said in a tone Erling didn’t like and that reminded him of their tussle prior to his Saturday-night outing.
‘Do it now, Sergeant,’ Erling ordered, dismissing him, the underlying murmur from the rest of the team seeming to signal their approval.
Bringing in outsiders was never easy, Erling acknowledged, especially those who had no idea how island policing worked.
The closeness of the community to its police force.
The care that was required. DS McNab had found that out on more than one occasion, and he was both a man and a detective that Erling had a lot of time for.
Something he could not say of Gowan, particularly in light of what he thought was only a partial explanation as to why DS Green was noticeably uncomfortable in the officer’s company.
Consoling himself with the thought that Gowan wouldn’t be required much longer, he told the day shift that it was time they knocked off.
‘Hopefully we’ll have some of the DNA results back tomorrow,’ he added. ‘And well done on today.’
Although he’d decided there would be a full search of Cava first thing, he chose not to announce this. What they’d discovered in Ivor’s notebook was better known only to a few.
When he opened the door to his office, he was surprised to discover Jo rising swiftly to her feet, her expression both startled and wary.
‘Sorry to disturb you, Sergeant. I wanted to check if you’d discovered anything more of significance in the notebook?’
‘There’s nothing more regarding Kris or Cava,’ she said, relaxing a little. ‘It’s about Stella,’ she added.
He could tell by her manner that whatever it was had had a strong effect on her.
‘Show me,’ he said.
Moving aside for him to take back his chair, she indicated that the translation was currently on the screen.
He read what she’d written in silence, marvelling again at the transformation of Ivor’s dense script into something readable.
A text that revealed the story of Stella, her baby and the whole sorry tale of lives lived in wartime.
Separation and sadness. Love and abandonment.
Ivor as a child in an adult world. A woman who’d felt she had no choice in her predicament other than to kill both herself and her baby.
Erling couldn’t imagine the horror of the young Ivor as he’d realized that the news he’d given Stella about his brother William had had such a devastating result.
As to what the family had done by their secret burial of William’s former lover and child in an unmarked grave . . . had it been shame on their part? Or a need to protect the young Ivor from the pain of everyone in the community knowing the part he had played in her demise?
‘I wondered if Ivor told Hugh who Stella was and how she’d died,’ Jo said.
Erling was wondering that too. ‘Hugh did offer his own DNA to check if the child was part of the Mowat family,’ Erling said. ‘I think he’ll stand by that.’
Changing the subject, he suggested Jo should go home now as he’d like her to head up the Cava search team tomorrow.
‘Ethan Howie knows the island better than I do, sir. PC Tulloch probably too,’ she said.
‘But you do want to go?’ he checked.
She did.
‘Okay, speak to Ethan, tell him the plan. Ask if he’d like to bring the Angel over to Cava and help us with the search. I’ll let Constable Tulloch know.’
‘I could return to Hoy tonight, sir?’ Jo said. ‘Liaise along with Constable Tulloch from there.’
Noting her tone, Erling thought she might be keen to avoid any further close proximity to DS Gowan. He didn’t ask if that was true.
‘That’ll put you nearer to the search location, along with Tulloch and Ethan. I’ll send the patrol launch from here.’
Her face brightened at this. ‘Right, sir. I’ll head for Houton right away.’
When she’d departed, Erling decided it was time he gave Magnus a call.
‘What about coming in by Seaview on your way home?’ Magnus said when he told him he had news of Stella. ‘I’ve some photographs I think might be her, you can take a look at them.’
Magnus didn’t mention Eilidh Mowat’s death, although he would be aware of it already.
‘I’ll be there in half an hour,’ Erling told him.
‘Just in time to eat,’ Magnus said in a tone that brooked no argument.
It was the mention of food that reminded Erling of how little he’d eaten that day. Which led him to think about Rory’s disappearance. And then the police diver’s report that they’d had a tip-off from someone they thought to be a professional diver with a Scouse accent.
Might that have been Rory? Had he discovered something on his solo dive near Cava? Since he wasn’t answering his texts, Erling wasn’t able to ask, but something told him he was right.
Exiting the station, Erling headed for his vehicle.
Passing the Balfour on his way out of Kirkwall, he briefly contemplated calling in to check on Mackie, then decided against it.
He’d organized a changeover for the constable on guard duty and the report at the time was that Mackie was now sleeping comfortably.
Maybe because Mackie believed he’d successfully delivered the message about Kalfey to Jo, he thought.
The evening was soft, the seemingly inevitable wind of Orkney taking a rest. He tried to empty his mind of the day’s proceedings and enjoy the scenery. Opening the window a little, he took a deep breath of the salt air.
Now surrounded by the green of new grass and the grazing kye, his mind moved to Home Farm and his father, remembering that evening not so long ago when they’d sat and talked about Ivor and his family.
So much had happened in the interim and Tommy would know about Eilidh Mowat’s death by now and be wondering how such a terrible thing could have happened here in Orkney. He would, of course, never call Erling to ask. Waiting always for his son to decide what to tell him.
As it had ever been.
He would visit as soon as the current case was over, Erling promised himself. Maybe it was also time to take Rory down to the farm with him.
That thought lingered long enough for him to imagine Rory in the farm kitchen, talking to his father, each trying to understand the other’s accent, before he questioned if Rory might ever be in his kitchen again, never mind his father’s.
Turning now towards Houton, he noted a police vehicle in the car park, confirming that DS Green had caught the ferry. Spotting the boat already heading for Lyness, he found himself relieved that Jo was again putting Scapa Flow between herself and DS Angus Gowan.