Ann Cleeves - Red Bones

Back at the hotel, Perez found Berglund still in the bar, still working. He’d moved on to whisky, was sitting with a glass in one hand and a pen in the other.

Perez took a low chair on the other side of the table. ‘Sophie tells me she’s resigned.’

‘I know, it’s a bugger. I don’t know who we’ll find to replace her at this stage.’

‘What did Hattie make of the news?’

‘She seemed pleased. She said she’d just as soon work on her own. I have the feeling the girls haven’t got on so well this season. I’m not sure how that would play with our health and safety officer though, especially as Setter is empty now.’

‘You didn’t think to tell me about this when I was looking for Hattie earlier?’

‘It didn’t seem important. Besides, I’m still hoping I can persuade Sophie to change her mind. Haven’t you found Hattie yet?’

The question was an afterthought. He seemed curious but hardly concerned. Am I the only person to be worried about the girl? Perez thought. Even Sandy had thought he was overreacting. But Sandy had his own concerns at the moment: a grief-stricken father and a funeral to prepare.

‘No. I thought I should check with her family in case she’s left the island. I don’t want to organize a full-scale search if she’s not here. Do you have a phone number?’

He expected Berglund to resist, but perhaps thought of the search, the publicity it would bring to the university, made him suddenly co-operative. ‘I’ll have it in a file on my laptop. Give me a few minutes and I’ll get it for you.’

Perez made the phone call from his room. Gwen James answered immediately. ‘Hello.’ A deep voice, rich, pleasant on the ears. Perez had a picture of a dark woman, full-breasted, singing jazz in a shadowy club. Ridiculous. She was probably skinny, fair and tone-deaf.

He introduced himself; found himself stuttering, trying to explain, to hit the right note. ‘There’s no real cause for concern at this point. But I wondered if you’d heard from Hattie.’

‘She called me this afternoon.’

He felt a brief moment of relief. ‘Did she tell you she planned to leave Whalsay?’

‘She didn’t tell me anything. I was in a meeting and my phone was switched off so she left a message. She just said she’d call back. She wanted to talk to me. Of course I tried to phone her when I was free but I couldn’t get through on her mobile. She often has no reception there. Perhaps she borrowed a phone to call me, or used a public box.’ There was a moment’s silence. ‘I can’t help worrying about her, inspector. In the past she’s had mental-health problems. She’s not good when she’s under stress. I thought the island would be perfect for her. Safe, relaxing. And she did seem to have a great time last year. But on the phone she sounded quite ill and panicky again.’

It was as if she was blaming Shetland, as if the place had betrayed her trust.

‘Is it like her to take herself away if she’s feeling upset?’

‘Perhaps. Yes, you’re probably right. She preferred to be alone even as a child. Crowds always sent her into hysterics.’ She paused, then added quickly, ‘I don’t think I can come up. Not at short notice. I have to be in the House tomorrow. I’m not sure how I‘d explain my absence. The last thing Hattie needs if she’s unwell is a pack of reporters on her trail.’

She seemed completely in control. Perez remembered what Fran was like when she’d believed Cassie to be missing: so desperate that she could hardly speak. He wondered if this woman suspected where Hattie might be, if that was why she seemed so calm.

‘Hattie wouldn’t have gone to her father?’

‘I don’t think so, inspector. We divorced while Hattie was still a toddler and he’s never taken much interest in her welfare. He’s a journalist. The last time I heard he was in Sudan.’

‘Is there anyone else she might have contacted if she was feeling ill? A nurse or a doctor?’

‘I really don’t think so. It’s possible, I suppose, that she could have phoned the unit where she was treated as an in-patient. I’ll check. If they’ve heard from her I’ll get back to you.’ She paused again. ‘You will be discreet, won’t you, inspector?’

In the hotel he talked to Billy Watt, one of the regular workers on the ferry that ran from Whalsay to Shetland mainland. By now the bar was closed. Berglund had taken himself to bed without waiting to hear if there was news of Hattie and Billy had come along as a favour. He couldn’t get there earlier because his son wouldn’t settle. ‘He’s teething,’ Billy said, a great grin on his face. ‘Poor little man.’ They sat in Perez’s room, drinking coffee.

‘I think she might have left Whalsay on an afternoon ferry. Have you seen her about? Little, very dark. Would you recognize her if she went out with you?’

‘I don’t know her, but we don’t take that many foot passengers. I’d remember if she came out while I was working. There was no one like that on my shift.’

‘What time did you start?’

‘Four o’clock this afternoon. There were two ferries working today like there usually are. Just because I didn’t see her doesn’t mean she didn’t leave the island.’

Perez was wondering what could have scared the girl so much that she’d run away. I should have persuaded her to talk to me on the phone , he thought. I should have dropped everything and come to Whalsay immediately. She had three hours to wait between leaving Paul Berglund and seeing me. What happened that she couldn’t bear to wait three hours?

‘I’ll talk to the rest of the crew,’ Billy said. He sat on the windowsill of Perez’s room at the front of the hotel and looked out to the trawlers moored in the harbour. Further out to sea a buoy was flashing. ‘Will it wait till the morning now? I wouldn’t want to bother them if it’s not desperate. Some of them are working the early shift tomorrow.’

She’s an adult , Perez thought. Twenty-three. An intelligent young woman. ‘No,’ he said. ‘It’ll wait until the morning.’

He expected Billy to make an excuse and leave, but the man sat there drinking the last of the instant coffee made using the kettle in the room. When Perez offered him another one he accepted. Perez was glad of the company. At least with Billy here he could keep Hattie’s disappearance in some sort of perspective. When the crewman left, his imagination would run wild.

‘You know what I’d do if I wanted to leave the island without anyone seeing me?’ Billy set his mug on the floor beside him. ‘I’d get a lift in a car. Specially in the small ferry, most folk just stay in their cars on the way across. We don’t notice the passengers when we’re taking the money. You register there’s someone sitting there, but you never really look at them. There were a few of those today.’

‘Who might have given her a lift?’ Perez was talking almost to himself. ‘And where would she go once she got to Laxo?’

‘Depends what time she got there,’ Billy said. ‘Sometimes there’s a bus to Lerwick connects with the ferry.’

Perez thought perhaps he’d seen the bus when he was driving north out of town. Was it possible that their paths had crossed? Perhaps Hattie had been sitting in the bus, hunched in the seat, staring out of the window. If she didn’t turn up in the morning he’d have to talk to the bus driver. He wondered if someone in Whalsay had a photo of her. Either Sophie or Berglund would surely have a picture. He didn’t want to have to call Gwen James again. All this is an overreaction. Hattie might be an adult but she’s immature, overwrought. She’s upset because Sophie couldn’t face working with her any more. She’s like a kid in the playground, burying her head in her hands and hoping the bullies will go away.