Ann Cleeves - White Nights

‘We could check that for you. If you don’t want to look at the body again.’

But Kenny shook his head. If this did happen to be Lawrence, he wanted to identify him for himself. This was his brother.

Then, it seemed, it was time to look at the body. Kenny couldn’t tell why suddenly they decided the time was right. Nobody came in to tell them. He thought the delay had probably just been an excuse to get him talking.

The body was lying on a steel table. There was no one else in the room. Perez stood by the table and prepared to lift back a sheet so Kenny could see the face. The English policeman still hadn’t said anything, except for a few words of greeting when Perez had introduced him, but he’d followed them in and now stood at Kenny’s shoulder. Kenny wished he’d move back a bit to give him some space. Perez turned and Kenny nodded to show he was ready.

As soon as he saw the face he knew it wasn’t Lawrence. There was no likeness. He wondered how he could ever have doubted his first impression. He should never have listened to Aggie Williamson. He should never have got caught up in her panic. Lawrence had a full, deep forehead and a mouth which was wide, even when he wasn’t laughing. This man had delicate features, thin lips. It could have been a woman’s face, if it hadn’t been for the slight stubble on the chin, the hairy eyebrows. Kenny had a terrible desire to giggle. He pictured the corpse suddenly as one of those drag queens who appeared sometimes on the television, with a false bosom and a blond wig. He supposed it was the release of tension, the relief.

He realized he should say something.

‘No,’ he said. ‘That’s not Lawrence. Definitely not.’

‘We’ll just look for the birthmark, shall we? Just to make sure. You know how the mind plays tricks.’ And Perez folded the sheet back again, very neatly, like a nurse or a soldier preparing a bed for inspection. Now the shoulders and the top of the body were exposed. They must have taken off his clothes. The man’s chest was covered in fine grey hair. Kenny thought he’d been a self-conscious man. He’d shaved his head when his hair turned grey. Lawrence could be vain, right enough, but there was no birthmark on the shoulder. This wasn’t him.

‘No,’ he said. ‘I’ve not seen this man before in my life.’

‘Are you sure?’ Perez was poised, holding the sheet in both his hands. He was leaning across the body. ‘This couldn’t have been the man you saw running away from the Herring House the night of the party?’

Kenny thought about that. ‘Aye,’ he said. ‘It could have been. If he was dressed in black. He seems the right sort of height and build. But I couldn’t swear to it. He was a long way off.’

Then Perez replaced the sheet and they returned to the small room with the dusty silk flowers. Kenny had thought the meeting would be over now. It would be all right to go. He imagined Edith waiting for him at home. He’d wasted most of the afternoon, driving here and then sitting in this room, waiting.

But it seemed the Englishman had other ideas. ‘You don’t mind if I just follow up a couple of points?’ Kenny wasn’t sure if he was asking Jimmy Perez or him.

‘Will it take long?’

‘Not long at all.’

‘Could we go out then?’ He wanted to escape that strange, sweet smell. He needed some fresh air.

‘Of course we can go out. Let’s get you a drink somewhere. I expect you could do with one. I could use one myself. You’d think you’d get used to dead bodies in this business, but I never have.’

So Kenny found himself in the Lerwick Hotel, tucked in a corner in the bar. A couple of men were sitting at a table in the restaurant, drinking coffee after a late lunch. Businessmen of some kind, Kenny thought. Something to do with oil or tourism. They weren’t local. Otherwise the place was deserted.

Taylor came back from the bar with three whiskies and a jug of water. Kenny couldn’t remember ordering a drink, but perhaps he had. He was more shaken than he’d realized. Probably it was good not to go back to Edith straight away in this state. Taylor waited until his glass was nearly empty before he put his question.

‘Someone killed that man,’ he said. ‘They strangled him and then stuck a noose round his neck and hoisted him up on to the rafter. Do you know anyone who would have been capable of that?’

‘It wouldn’t have taken such a deal of strength.’ Kenny thought for the first time of the practicalities. ‘He was a slight man. Not a lot of weight to him. The rope to make the noose was there in the hut. Anyone could have done it.’

Taylor smiled. His head was like a skull just covered in skin. When he smiled all his teeth were suddenly visible. ‘I wasn’t thinking of that. Though you’re right of course. But I wasn’t thinking about who might be capable physically. I meant mentally. Who do you know who could do that? Follow the man, or lure him into the hut, kill him, set out the body so it looked like suicide. Who would be calm enough to do that? Who would have the nerve?’

Kenny felt sick. It had never occurred to him that the murder had been planned. There was violent crime in Shetland, but it was never premeditated. It was men fighting in bars when they were steaming drunk, falling out over some woman or some imagined insult.

‘I don’t know,’ he said.

‘Really?’ Taylor leaned forward, so Kenny could smell the whisky on his breath. ‘The way I understand it, you grew up with most of the people who live in that community. You know them better than anyone. Who could commit murder then lie about it the next day?’

‘I don’t know,’ Kenny said again. ‘If you live that close to people you don’t pry. You don’t try to get under their skin. You have to live alongside each other and everyone needs some space. Do you understand what I’m saying?’

‘Yeah,’ Taylor said. ‘I think I do.’

That was when he said he didn’t have any other questions. He thanked Kenny for his help and said he could go.

It wasn’t until Kenny was driving down the hill towards Biddista and he saw the light on the water that he realized what he intended to do. This evening, after he’d shared a meal with Edith, he was going to take his boat out and try to get some fish. It was a perfect evening for it. Then he was going to track down Lawrence.

He’d accepted his brother’s going too easily. He’d got into the habit of doing just what Lawrence told him. He’d left a message with Bella for Kenny.

‘Tell him I’m going away again.’

But things were different now. Bella was almost an old woman. Why shouldn’t he come home? And these days it was easier to find people. There was the internet. Edith knew all about the internet and she would help him. Driving up to the house, he felt excited at the prospect of seeing Lawrence again. He imagined meeting him from the boat. Lawrence would walk down the stairs in the terminal. He’d see Kenny there to meet him and he’d throw back his head and laugh.

Cassie was already in bed when Perez turned up at Fran’s house. He’d phoned earlier to ask if he could call. ‘It might be late. If you’d rather not be disturbed…’ She’d been surprised by the effect his voice had on her. A sensation that the floor had disappeared beneath her feet.

‘No,’ she’d said quickly. ‘It doesn’t matter how late you are. I never get to bed before eleven and this time of year it’s impossible to sleep anyway.’

She was sitting on a white wooden bench by the side of her front door looking out over Raven Head when he arrived. She’d had one glass of wine and was thinking she might help herself to another when she heard the car on the road. He pulled in to the verge and walked up the short path, then sat beside her. He looked very tired.