Ann Cleeves - White Nights

Perez nodded. Kenny took a bottle of Highland Park from a cupboard built next to the chimney and poured out two glasses. They sat looking at each other.

‘I tried to stop Edith jumping,’ Kenny said. ‘In the end she just slipped away from my grasp.’ He shut his eyes. Perez thought the picture of Edith, stepping over the cliff-edge into space, would never leave him.

‘When did you find out that Edith and Lawrence were having an affair? Did you know at the time?’

‘No,’ Kenny said. ‘It never crossed my mind. Not while I was on Fair Isle. I was too wrapped up in my own business there. How did you know? Did Edith tell you?’

‘You know Edith would never do that, Kenny. It’s been her secret. She had too much to lose.’

‘I never thought she would be the sort of woman Lawrence would go for,’ Kenny said. ‘She was quiet, homely then. Not a beauty. Not pretty in the way that made her stand out. But maybe that was what he took a fancy to. The quietness. The determination. He could have had showy Bella, but he decided in the end that wasn’t what he wanted.’

‘He didn’t want Edith just because she belonged to you, Kenny? I wondered if it was about that? A jealousy thing between brothers. Rivalry.’

‘No,’ Kenny said. ‘I don’t think it was that. Lawrence didn’t want to hurt me. He couldn’t help himself.’

‘How do you know that?’

‘I don’t know it. Not for sure. It’s what I think – what I want to think, I suppose.’ Outside the sun had dropped further, was chopped in half by the horizon, the outline broken by some twisted threads of purple cloud. The light was softer, less lurid. ‘How did you find out about the pair of them if Edith didn’t tell you?’

‘I worked it out from what people said.’ Perez took a sip of the whisky. ‘Edith mentioned something herself. She told me that Lawrence was like Roddy, had to have a woman in his life. I knew he was spending all his spare time in Biddista that summer. He wasn’t seeing Aggie or Bella, so it must have been Edith. Then Aggie said something similar tonight. “I always felt sorry for Kenny, having to play second fiddle.”’

‘Did the whole valley know?’ Kenny was angry.

‘Not the details,’ Perez said. ‘But that Lawrence liked Edith, most of them would know that. It was just you and Bella in the dark, and I think Bella suspected something. It was just her pride stopped her seeing it.’ He paused. ‘And how about you, Kenny? How did you find out?’

‘I worked it out in the end, a bit like you. I went to see the writer, Wilding. He remembered something of what went on. All those parties. Lawrence must have talked to him. He always did get sentimental when he was drunk. You’re right: Wilding tried to tell Bella at the time that Lawrence had no interest in her, but she didn’t want to hear it.’

‘Jeremy Booth must have known too.’ Perez took another sip from the whisky. Later he would need all this in a statement. Now he just wanted things straight in his own mind.

‘Booth was on the hill when Lawrence went into the Pit,’ Kenny said. ‘He saw what happened.’

‘What did happen that day, Kenny? Did Edith tell you?’

‘It was the middle of summer, a steaming hot night. Airless. The evening of the grand party at the Manse. Lawrence asked Edith to meet him on the hill while the rest of them were dressing up in their fancy clothes and their masks. Edith must have been flattered by him, don’t you think? Is that why she fell for him? Lawrence, the man all the women fancied, wanting her. He said he needed to talk to her. Anyway she left my father minding the children and went out to see him. Lawrence said he’d told Bella that he could never love her, never marry her, never make a family with her. “I’ve said I’m going away on my travels, I’m leaving Shetland.” He asked Edith to go with him. “Just bring the children. We’ll go to Sumburgh tonight and get the first plane south.” That was Lawrence for you. No sense of the practicalities, of where they might stay.’

‘But Edith wouldn’t go with him?’

Kenny looked up at Perez. It was as if he’d forgotten he was there.

‘No, she wouldn’t go. She enjoyed being with him; maybe she even fancied herself in love with him; but she was married to me. By then they’d walked to the top of the hill and were standing right by the Pit. Lawrence tried to take her in his arms. Edith told me she was worried that if he touched her she might be tempted to give in and go with him.’ For the first time Kenny let a trace of bitterness into his voice. ‘He always did have that effect on women.’

‘Tell me what happened, Kenny.’

‘Edith pushed him away and he slipped into the Pit. Hit his head on the rocks at the bottom. She climbed down after and could tell he was dead. She pulled him into the tunnel so nobody could see the body from the top. She always was a strong woman. She could keep up with me in the work on the croft.’ He paused. ‘The rats and the birds and the tide will have done the rest.’

They sat for a moment in silence.

‘Did Jeremy Booth confront Edith that night about Lawrence?’

Kenny shook his head.

‘She saw Booth when she climbed back up after hiding the body. He was at the bottom of the hill looking up at her. She hoped he hadn’t seen the scuffle between her and Lawrence. The next day he disappeared. She must have thought it was all over.’

‘That she’d got away with it?’

‘Aye. But she never did really. Every summer she lay awake. I thought it was the white nights, but it was dreams of Lawrence.’ He set down his glass. ‘She should have talked to me. What did she think? That I’d hate her for it?’

‘When did Booth get in touch with her?’

‘A couple of weeks ago, by email. It went to her address at work, but she picked it up here. She was always working in the evenings on that computer of hers. He’d seen that television documentary about Roddy and Bella and Biddista. It mentioned that Edith worked in the care centre and made us out to be much more wealthy than we really are. He needed money, he said. To give to his daughter. To make up for all the years they’d never had.’ He looked at Perez. ‘What about my daughter? What will I tell her?’

Perez shook his head to show that he had no answer.

‘Then Booth turned up at Edith’s work. Imagine how shocked she was! She’d thought he was in England, but he was standing there, claiming to be an old friend of Willy’s, looking quite different. He was chatting away to the old man when she found him. “You know what happened, don’t you, Willy?” Booth was saying. “You guessed at least.” But Willy wouldn’t talk to him.’

‘Willy said an Englishman had been asking him questions,’ Perez said. ‘At first I thought he meant Wilding. When I realized it was Booth, I wondered why Edith hadn’t mentioned him visiting. What happened next?’

‘Booth said he was going to come out to Biddista for the opening night of the exhibition. He’d put on a bit of a show, have some fun, kill two birds with one stone. Bella had always been a snooty cow. She’d invited him into her home then treated him like dirt. It wouldn’t hurt her to know what rejection felt like. He just enjoyed making mischief, I think. The mask, the dressing up, he’d have loved all that. Edith didn’t ask what he intended to do. She just wanted him to go away without a fuss. He said he’d pick up the money from her at the same time. He’d meet her in the hut on the jetty.’ Kenny got to his feet and poured more whisky into Perez’s glass and then into his own.

‘Why didn’t Edith just pay him?’ Perez asked gently.

Kenny gave a little shrug. ‘She said she didn’t trust him. He might come back for more. And she resented it. We’ve always worked hard for what we have. That’s what she said, but I could tell her nerves were shot. All those sleepless nights. She wasn’t thinking straight.’ He held on to his glass with both hands, but still they were shaking. It was taking an effort to keep his voice even. ‘She told me how she waited for him in the hut in the dark. He’d picked up his bag from the beach and had put that stupid mask over his head. Playing the fool again. Wanting to startle her, maybe. Perhaps she wouldn’t have strangled him if she’d been able to see his face – he didn’t look human with that thing on – but I’m not so sure. Edith was always determined once she’d made up her mind. She surprised him in the dark, strangled him from behind. She made it look like suicide and was back in the garden by the time I came down from the hill.’ He paused and looked sadly at Perez. ‘I didn’t have any idea what had happened. We’d been married all that time and I didn’t guess a thing.’