Ann Cleeves - Dead Water

‘It’s not just Jen Belshaw that’s providing the alibi.’ Sandy was fighting back. ‘It’s a minibus full of pissed women, in fancy dress and all tied to each other. Honestly, I don’t see how Evie Watt could have moved that car on Friday night, even if she was sober.’

He sounded so self-righteous, and the picture he painted was so silly, that the mood in the room lightened again and Willow started to giggle.

‘Jimmy, will you go and see Jen Belshaw first thing?’ she said. ‘She looked up at them. ‘Let’s call it a day now, shall we? Have an early night.’

They left the building together. The rain had stopped and the sky was lighter.

When Perez called into his neighbour’s house to collect Cassie, the table was laid for supper and he was expected to stay for a meal.

‘Really,’ he said. ‘There’s no need. I have food in the house.’

But Cassie had helped to prepare the pudding and he could tell that she would be disappointed if they left immediately. And the casserole smelled very good, and Maggie and David were good company. They were careful not to talk about the case while the children were in the room, but later, when the girls were watching television and the adults were drinking coffee, Maggie mentioned it.

‘It must be hard, Jimmy. Another murder investigation. So soon.’

He didn’t answer directly. ‘Did you know Jerry Markham when he was a boy?’ he asked. ‘You’d have been almost neighbours.’ Maggie had grown up in Ravenswick. She’d have been older than Jerry, but not by so much.

‘He was a classic only child,’ Maggie said. ‘Spoilt rotten. By his mother at least.’ Then: ‘Oh, I’m sorry Jimmy, I didn’t mean that Cassie’s spoilt because she’s on her own. She’s a lovely girl.’

He waved his hand to show that no offence had been taken. He wished folk would be less sensitive around him.

‘Was he malicious, do you think?’

‘No, just thoughtless. One of those kids who love being the centre of attention, who try just a little bit too hard. I always thought that he was very young for his age. Maria had never really let him grow up. Even when he was in his twenties, he seemed to me like a little boy pretending to be an adult.’

Perez thought that helped him to bring Jerry Markham back into focus and to understand him better again.

By the time he had Cassie in bed, and her school clothes in the washing machine and her gym bag prepared for the next day, it was already late. Perez sat and watched the news on the television. Other tragedies. It was only when he was ready for bed himself that he checked his answer machine. One message. It was a surprise to hear the Fiscal’s voice. She sounded calm. Calmer certainly than when he’d called to tell her that there’d been another murder. ‘Something rather odd has happened, Jimmy, and I’d like to discuss it with you. I wonder if you’d give me a ring. When it’s convenient. It’s not urgent.’

He looked at his watch. It was too late to phone her tonight. He’d try her in the morning.

Sandy thought it was like old times, he and Jimmy Perez out on the island together heading up to Aith, and Jimmy almost back to his old self. Perez didn’t say much in the car on the way north, but then he’d never been exactly chatty. And at least he didn’t sit in the passenger seat, crouched and brooding, looking as if he might hit you every time you asked him a question. It had been a bit like that until recently.

When they got to the Fiscal’s house, Perez told him to slow down.

But when Sandy asked if he should stop, Perez said to carry on. ‘There’s no sign of her,’ he said. ‘Her car’s not there. She left a message on my answer phone at home last night. I tried to call her this morning, but there was no reply. She must have been on her way to work.’

Sandy couldn’t see that it would be important. ‘She has your work mobile number. She would contact you on that if it was urgent.’

‘Aye, maybe.’ Perez seemed about to say something else, but no words came out. Sandy thought Willow would want to talk to Rhona Laing about the Fiscal’s connection to Richard Grey and she wouldn’t be best pleased if Perez interfered.

When they got to the school the children were in assembly, singing a hymn that Sandy remembered from when he was a boy. It took him straight back to the school in Whalsay, he and his cousin Ronnie sitting at the back of the hall causing mischief. In the Aith kitchen two women, dressed in white overalls and white caps, were preparing lunch. One was peeling carrots by the sink and the other was rolling out pastry on a workbench. This was Jen Belshaw. She looked very different from when he’d interviewed her in Vatnagarth and she’d been dressed in old-fashioned clothes.

‘You can’t come in here,’ she said. ‘Health and safety.’ She was a big woman, not fat, but soft and round. ‘We don’t know what germs you might be carrying.’ Though she was telling them off, it sounded as if she was laughing at the notion too.

‘Any chance we could have a few words?’ Perez stood in the doorway to talk to her and Sandy couldn’t really see past. ‘It’s about the murders.’

Jen Belshaw said something to her colleague and washed her hands in a little basin in the corner. ‘We’ll go through to the staffroom,’ she said. ‘There’ll be nobody in there at the minute. I might even make you a coffee.’ She led them into a pleasant room, easy chairs around the wall, a coffee table in the centre, and switched on a filter machine. ‘So how can I help? Andy said you were round at the house asking about John.’

‘Who was looking after your kids on Friday night?’ Perez asked. Sandy thought that was a strange place to start.

‘They stayed at my mother’s. Except Neil, who was playing football in Brae with Andy. Why?’ She wasn’t hostile, but she looked at Perez as if he were a bit mad.

‘And you were out with Evie?’

‘Aye, the hen party. A charity pub-crawl. Typical Evie. She couldn’t just get pissed and make a fool of herself, like everyone else. She had to save the world at the same time.’

‘Could you talk me through the evening?’ Perez said. ‘It’s not that I’m accusing anyone, but you might have been witnesses.’

Jen poured coffee. She seemed in no rush to get back to the kitchen. Sandy thought she was one of those competent women who could knock up a good meal in about ten minutes, and who was never flustered.

‘The bus picked us all up in our homes,’ she said. ‘Evie first, and then the rest of us. We started drinking in the Busta House hotel in Brae. We thought we’d better start there because it’s kind of grand and, though Veronica had said it was OK, we didn’t want to seem rowdy in front of their guests. So we just had the one drink, rattling the collecting bucket round the bar, and most of us were still quite sober.’

Perez nodded. ‘And you were all dressed up in pairs?’

‘Aye! Crazy!’

‘How was Evie?’

And it seemed to Sandy that this was the important question and that the others had been to get Jen relaxed and ready to answer.

There was a pause.

‘Was Evie quite herself?’ Perez persisted. ‘Only I heard that she got very drunk, and I wouldn’t have thought that was in character.’

‘It was a pub-crawl,’ the woman said. ‘Of course she got drunk!’

‘But she organized it.’ Perez’s voice was reasonable. ‘I’d have thought she’d have paced it so that she didn’t overdo things. Or had someone thought it would be funny to spike her drinks?’

And that was when Jen started talking, the words spilling out despite herself, as if they’d been building up for days and now some kind of dam had burst. A mixture of relief to be sharing the worry, and guilt that she was betraying her friend. ‘I don’t know what came over her. I think she’d been drinking in the afternoon. I asked if she’d been out with her mates at the office, but she said not. She was wild. I’d never seen her like that before, and I’ve known her for years. She was drinking vodka and she never usually touches spirits. The others thought it was funny. Evie’s usually the one telling us to slow down. But I didn’t like it. I stopped drinking after a bit, so that I could look after her.’