Ann Cleeves - White Nights

‘Where did Roddy come into it? He was only a boy when Lawrence died.’

‘He saw Edith walking back from the jetty the night Booth died. He was watching from the Herring House window.’

‘Of course he was. I remember seeing him.’

‘Sounds like Roddy didn’t think anything of it until she put it about that she’d never left Skoles. It must have been troubling him. He came to the care centre to visit Willy and passed a comment that got her scared. “What were you doing out on the shore, Edith? Who did you meet that night?” She told him some story, but she could tell he wasn’t taken in.’

Perhaps, Perez thought, a memory had come back to him, of something he’d seen when he was a boy, like it did to Bella. ‘So she killed him too.’

‘Yes,’ Kenny said. ‘She killed him too. Poor lad. Whatever I thought about him, he didn’t deserve that. Edith always said he reminded him of Lawrence. She persuaded him to meet her up by the Pit and she killed him in just the same way. She told the care centre she was out doing home visits.’

‘I know,’ Perez said. ‘I checked.’

Kenny set down the whisky, put his head in his hands as he had on the hill, and began to weep again.

This time they talked in Perez’s place, which always felt more like a boat than a house to Taylor, with the water lapping against the outside wall and the gulls on the roof. Perez was making coffee and Taylor was shouting through to him from the living room, where he was lying on the floor. It was his back, he said. He had recurring problems with his back. An old sports injury. Sometimes this was the only way he could get comfortable.

‘I should have worked it out,’ Taylor yelled. He sounded furious with himself. ‘There was a photograph of Edith and Lawrence in Booth’s house. West Yorkshire emailed it through to me. The pair of them looked very cosy. If I’d realized they were having an affair I’d have got there before you did. I left the search of Booth’s house to the local boys. Of course the picture didn’t mean anything to them.’

Perez came in carrying a tray. A cafetiere, mugs and a packet of chocolate biscuits.

‘You wouldn’t have thought she had it in her, would you?’ Taylor said, lowering his voice a little. ‘She wasn’t a big woman.’ He sat up, stretched, took a mug from the tray.

‘Strong, though. She still helped Kenny on the croft, and she’d be used to lifting in the care centre. Booth wasn’t expecting the attack. Once she had the wire round his neck he didn’t struggle for long. Faking the suicide was easier.’

‘She must have thought she’d got away with Lawrence’s death. Even if the bones were found after all these years, no one would think of murder.’

‘People thought Lawrence had disappeared because of a broken heart,’ Perez said. ‘He’d told Bella he was leaving. It suited her if everyone thought she was the reason he left. She’s a proud woman. Kenny was on Fair Isle at the time, so there was no one here to follow it up, to check that Lawrence really did get on that ferry. By the time he got back the story was set in stone and he believed it: Lawrence had left because Bella refused to marry him.’

But there were people in Biddista who knew it hadn’t happened like that, Perez thought. Suspected at least. A place like that, it was impossible to keep a relationship secret. They’d just kept their suspicions to themselves. It wasn’t a conspiracy, because it had never been discussed. Lawrence disappeared and nobody asked any questions. They really didn’t want to know. In Shetland sometimes it was the only way to survive. Perez thought Willy might have guessed what had happened, but he’d have wanted to protect Kenny. He’d given Booth a lift to the ferry the night after the murder.

‘What brought Booth up here after all these years?’ Taylor was still sitting on the floor, his legs stretched out in front of him.

‘Greed,’ Perez said. ‘He’d just found his daughter again and he wanted to make up for lost time. Or give her a big present to make her love him. His business was limping along just as it had always done, but there was no spare cash. He was struggling just to survive. Then he saw the TV documentary, which apparently made Kenny and Edith out to be great landowners, and everything came together.’

‘Why didn’t he try blackmail at the time of Lawrence’s death?’

‘What would be the point? The Thomsons were struggling for money themselves. They’ve only become comfortable in the last few years. After the first time he was here Booth probably wanted to forget about the whole visit. Bella does a mean line in put-downs and he had a history of running away. Besides, I think Willy might have scared him off. He was a big man in those days and made sure he saw Booth on to the boat south.’

‘But Booth came back and Edith decided she wasn’t going to pay up.’

‘She grew up without anything,’ Perez said. ‘She wasn’t going to hand over cash she’d worked so hard for to a blackmailer. She was used to controlling events and keeping secrets. She thought she would get away with it.’ He was sitting on the windowsill, looking out at the water.

‘And the amnesia? What was all that about?’

‘The scene at the party was Booth’s idea of a practical joke to spite Bella. He wasn’t expecting to be taken to one side by a cop and I told him straight away what I did for a living. He certainly didn’t want to explain why he was in Biddista. The amnesia was an excuse not to answer my questions.’

‘Where did Wilding come into things?’

‘He didn’t. He was too wrapped up in his fairy stories and his new house to think about anything else. He talked to Willy, but about old Shetland folk tales. Material for his new series of books. Nothing more.’

Taylor stood up and set his mug back on the tray. He was frowning. ‘You did it again,’ he said. ‘Got there before me.’

‘It’s my place,’ Perez said. ‘I wouldn’t know where to start in Inverness.’

Taylor seemed about to speak again, but he only smiled.

Two days later Perez took Taylor to Sumburgh. Fran came along for the ride. She’d gone to buy coffee, leaving the two men standing in the lounge, when Taylor’s flight was called. He picked up his bag and moved towards the queue, then turned back.

‘I wasn’t going to tell you,’ he said suddenly. ‘But I’m changing jobs. I’ve been head-hunted.’ Taylor smiled his wolf-like grin. ‘Imagine that, eh? I’m going back to Liverpool to head up their Major Crimes Unit. I wasn’t going to take it. Too close to home, too many bad memories. But I never want to work in this place again. This weather, this light. Another case and I’d be as daft as the rest of you.’

He smiled again to show it was a joke, of a sort, then walked through the door. Through the long window they saw him cross the tarmac, but he didn’t look back or wave.

‘How do you fancy a bit of a walk?’ They were in Perez’s car on the way north. He’d been wondering how to ask her and the question sounded awkward, a bit abrupt.

‘Sure.’

‘I was thinking we could maybe call in to Biddista.’

‘Why would you want to do that?’ Fran said. ‘It’s over. Not your responsibility.’

‘It feels that it is.’

‘Do you really think they’ll want to see you?’

‘They’ll have questions,’ he said.

‘It’s a sort of arrogance, believing yourself indispensable.’ But she said it kindly and he assumed that meant she would go with him. He was grateful. He wouldn’t have wanted to do it alone.

They parked on the road by the Herring House and stood looking out on the beach for a while before going inside. There were no other customers in the café, but Martin and his mother sat at a table chatting quietly. Aggie saw them come in and stopped talking mid-sentence. Perez nodded to them.