Ann Cleeves - Thin Air

‘Tell us what happened this evening.’

‘It was their last night in Shetland,’ Caroline said, ‘and we wanted to mark it in some way. There was a charity dinner at the boat club. Food and music. We thought it would be better than letting them sit in here, brooding. And local people had wanted to express their sympathy, so we knew they’d be made welcome. That they’d be treated with proper sensitivity.’

‘You walked?’

‘We took the path along the cliff, yes. It’s not very far.’ Caroline shifted uneasily in her seat and Sandy thought the walking had been her idea. She’d be a great one for the benefits of exercise and fresh air.

‘Did you think that was safe in the fog?’ Willow kept the question polite, but Sandy could sense the hostility between them. It crackled like electricity. Two strong women, but otherwise different in every way. Willow would have been the rebel at school and Caroline the perfectly behaved head girl.

‘It wasn’t so bad when we set out. Besides, Lowrie has been playing on the cliffs here since he could walk. He wasn’t going to get lost.’ As if Willow was stupid for suggesting there might be any danger.

‘But Polly did lose her way?’

There was a silence. Caroline couldn’t seem to explain the fact that Polly was missing. ‘Polly ran off on her own after the meal,’ she said at last. ‘We couldn’t have expected that. Marcus thought it was some sort of panic attack. She was there watching the musicians and then she’d disappeared. Eleanor’s death has made her kind of flaky.’ Sandy thought the woman had already picked up some of the accent. She’d turn into one of those soothmoothers who became more Shetland than the Shetlanders. He imagined her as a member of the parish council, fighting on behalf of the other crofters. A pillar of the community.

‘You’re sure she went of her own volition?’ Willow asked.

‘Well, she wasn’t kidnapped in front of an audience of fifty people!’ Caroline’s voice was sharp. The prefect was reasserting her authority.

‘Did you see her leave the room?’

‘No.’ Caroline looked up at Willow. ‘None of us did. It was a bit of a scrum at the end. As soon as the music stopped everyone got up to leave at once. The weather was so bad then that people wanted to get home. Folk who hadn’t been able to make the hamefarin’ came to congratulate Lowrie and me on their way out, so we were among the last to go. Marcus met us at the cloakroom downstairs, but Polly’s jacket had already gone. We thought she’d be waiting outside, but there was no sign of her.’ Another silence, then an admission. ‘It was a bit spooky actually. As if she’d disappeared into thin air. Just like the night that Eleanor went missing.’

Perez had been looking out of the window during the conversation. Now he turned back into the room. For a moment Sandy thought he was going to make sense of all this, to tell them what lay behind the killings. Because Sandy thought that Jimmy had an idea. He’d been working it out in his head since Eleanor’s mother had phoned. Instead Perez said, ‘We should look for her.’ Just those words. Forceful, as if Polly wasn’t only a potential victim, but was essential to the solving of the case.

They all looked at the inspector, but nobody moved.

‘We should look for her.’ Perez said the same words, but they were even more urgent this time.

‘The boys went straight back out when we got here and there was no sign of her,’ Caroline said. ‘I waited in the house to call you.’ She paused. ‘They haven’t found her yet. I’ve just spoken to them. They walked together along the cliff path back towards the club in case we just missed her, but now they’ve split up. Lowrie’s taking the cliffs because he knows them best. The others will search inland.’ Another hesitation. ‘Marcus said he’d look at the lochan where Eleanor was found.’

Perez was on his feet and they were all looking at him. Now he was in charge. ‘We’ll check Meoness then, if your men are looking along the cliff path. Willow, will you do the beach between here and the hall? Sandy, you go to Voxter. Not along the road, but by the path that takes you past the planticrub where we found Eleanor’s phone. Check the fields and the ditches on either side of the path, in case Polly has tumbled. Then chat to George and Grusche and see if they noticed anything unusual this evening.’

Caroline interrupted quickly. ‘There’s no point in going to Voxter. I’ve only just spoken to George to explain why we’d be late back. He didn’t mention anything.’

‘Was Grusche there?’

‘I presume so. George didn’t say.’

‘Go all the same, Sandy.’ Perez’s voice was firm. Sandy thought how splendid it was to have the old Perez back. There’d been a time following Fran’s death when he’d thought he’d be lost to them forever. ‘Anything out of the ordinary, report back to me.’

None of them asked where Perez intended to search. They had the sense that he wouldn’t have told them anyway.

Outside, Sandy thought that the fog was lifting a little. They’d passed the darkest point of the night. He walked away from Sletts, first onto the road and then by the path that led above the beach towards Voxter. His mind wandered. A week ago the Malcolmsons would have been preparing for the hamefarin’, the house full of activity and the smell of baking. Friends and family would be turning out to help make bunting and decorate the hall. Caroline would be in her element directing proceedings. Then he wondered if he would ever marry, and that led him on to thoughts of Louisa.

The sky was definitely lighter now, but still he shone his torch and shouted Polly’s name. If she’d fallen she might see the pinprick of light in the gloom. He imagined finding her alive and well, and thought how pleased Jimmy would be then. At the planticrub he paused. But there was no sign of Polly here. No phone lying on the grass to be discovered. He looked down towards the sea. The sky was brighter still. A faint glimmering line along the horizon. There was a sharper point of light, which he assumed to be from Willow’s torch as she searched the beach. He walked on down the bank towards the Malcolmsons’ croft, shouting the woman’s name, thinking he must look like a madman, howling into the darkness.

He’d just left the crub when his phone rang. He answered without seeing who was calling. ‘Jimmy? Is that you? Any news?’

But it was a woman’s voice on the other end and it took him a moment to work out who was there. Mary Lomax.

‘Sandy, I’m really sorry.’ She seemed distraught, on the verge of tears.

‘What’s happened?’

‘David Gordon has done a runner. I didn’t realize until I heard the sound of the car starting. He must have come down the back stairs. I tried to run out to stop the car, but I was just too late.’

‘You should tell Jimmy Perez.’ Sandy didn’t know what else to say. He didn’t want to take responsibility for the missing man. And Jimmy had told him to check on Grusche and George, so that was what he intended to do.

The buildings at Voxter were darker shapes against the sky. Chickens stirred in the hen house as he passed. He stopped outside the house and looked in through the window. The light was still on in the kitchen. There was no sign of George in the chair, where Sandy had left him earlier in the evening, though a nearly empty bottle of whisky and a glass remained on the table. No sign of Grusche, either. Sandy thought if they had any sense they’d both be in their bed. Caroline had said she’d spoken to them when she’d phoned Voxter about the missing woman, but that might have been a while ago. Sandy wondered if George was outside helping in the search. He tapped on the window, but there was no response, so he walked round to the front door. He switched off his torch because there was light from the window and his eyes were accustomed to the dusk now. The door was unlocked and he went inside.