‘Fair enough,’ Crozier said. He had no intention of complying. Jessica Anderson was not going to feature in his life if he could help it.
‘Right. I’ll tell the others once you go.’ She started to think about what she was going to say to the team.
‘That’s your call,’ he said, and turned to the room. ‘Right, everybody, gather round. Final arrangements. There’s a hotel booked in Peterhead for to night, and we’ve arranged for a boat to take you across to Kulsay in the morning. There you’ll be met by a representative from the KDC to transport you and your equipment to the Manse. Any questions? No? There is just one other thing, but I’ll let Jane brief you on that. I’ll just wish you all good luck, and let’s hope we get a result.’
Once he’d left the room the others looked at Jane questioningly.
‘Well?’ John McKinley said.
Jane sighed. ‘Jessica Anderson is our paymaster. The KDC is funding the investigation.’ The comment was met with a stunned silence. ‘Seems like you all share my reservations.’ She kept her tone as light as possible. The role of a leader as far as she was concerned was to achieve the task, and to do that she needed to take the others along with her.
‘It’s not the best news I’ve heard today,’ McKinley said.
‘No, but that’s the way the land lies, so I suppose we’d better make the best of it. Has anybody got anything else?’
Carter looked at the others and then spoke. ‘From what I’ve learned from these files,’ he hefted the buff-colored folders in the air, ‘once we get onto the island we’ll have no time to worry about who is or isn’t funding the investigation. There is going to be some serious work to be done. I’ve had time recently — a well-earned rest for those who haven’t heard the reason — to check some details of recent investigations. There are things that link Kulsay with a much wider picture. I still need to finish digging into it but if what I suspect is happening, then autonomy of finances isn’t going to worry anyone.’
Nobody spoke. They were still taking in what Jane had told them, and wondering if it really mattered, once the job began. Now Carter was confirming that view but giving them even more to be concerned about.
Jane saw the anxious faces and decided action was the best cure. ‘Okay, we’ll meet in the car park in…’ She checked her watch. ‘Fifty minutes.’
Without a further word they rose from their seats and filed out of the room, until only Jane and McKinley remained. Jane gathered her papers and slipped them into her briefcase.
McKinley unfolded himself from his seat. ‘Tell me, Jane, is there any point in me coming along?’
Jane frowned. ‘I’m not sure what you mean.’ She knew exactly what he was going to say.
‘You didn’t tell me that Carter was on the team. Don’t you think I’m up to the task?’
‘That’s not the case at all, John. I have every faith in your abilities. Robert’s coming along because it was a precondition of the Minister that he be included.’
‘And you don’t believe in the Jonah principle?’
‘What do you mean?’ She genuinely didn’t understand the reference.
McKinley shrugged. ‘Some people are born unlucky, and some spread that bad luck to those around them…as Sian Davies found.’
Jane felt the blood rushing to her cheeks. ‘Look, John, let’s get one thing clear,’ she said. ‘Any problems you may have with Robert, you leave them here. If you can’t do that then tell me now, because it’s not too late to drop you from the team. I don’t want to do that because I think your contribution to this investigation will be vital, but I won’t stand by and watch the whole thing unravel because of personal resentments. Understood?’
‘Understood,’ he said with as easy smile. ‘And I’ll consider my knuckles well and truly rapped. But I figure we’ll all have to watch each other’s backs, and I hate to think that one of us will have his head so far up his own ass that he won’t be able to do that.’
‘I trust Robert,’ Jane said. ‘He won’t let us down.’
‘If you say so, Jane. You’re the boss,’ he said and left the room.
‘Yes,’ Jane said quietly to herself. ‘Yes, I am.’ She shook her head and suddenly wished she wasn’t.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The flight to Aberdeen was uneventful. A Land Cruiser had been hired to carry them and their equipment on to Peterhead. McKinley drove, glancing in his mirror occasionally at Carter who sat in the back, talking to no one, his head buried in more thick files, keeping his distance from the rest of the team for the moment.
They reached Peterhead a little after three in the afternoon, and set about finding the hotel. The directions they’d been given were inadequate and it was running close to four thirty before they finally found it.
The Cleeves Hotel stood well back from the road as if embarrassed to show itself. It was an ugly modern structure, built in the late 1980s but looked in dire need of renovation. Paint peeled from the window frames and the brickwork was stained with damp.
‘Looks like Crozier blew the bud get when he found this place,’ John McKinley said with a smile as they walked into the lobby.
‘It’s not as if he knew,’ Jane said, still anxious to avoid any reason for friction, but disliked the defensive echo in her words.
‘I just checked the tariff,’ Raj said as he joined them at the desk. ‘That must have given him a clue if nothing else. This must be one of the cheapest hotels in Scotland.’
‘It’s only for one night,’ Jane said. ‘Let’s make the best of it.’ She approached the reception desk.
A plump receptionist stared at her dead-eyed. ‘Yes?’
‘You have rooms booked, in the name of Talbot.’
The girl checked the screen on her computer. ‘Yes.’ She reached under the desk and produced a clutch of key cards. ‘You’re all on the second floor. Rooms 201 through 203. Lift’s at the end of the passageway.’
‘Can we book a meal?’ Jane said to the receptionist.
The girl took a while staring at her watch. ‘The kitchens don’t open until six.’
‘Good. Then we’ve got time to rest up first?’
‘Last serving is at nine, sharp,’ the plump girl said. She was wearing a name tag over her ample left breast. Fiona Whyte.
‘Well, thank you, Fiona,’ Jane said to her. ‘We’ll bear that in mind.’
The girl gave her a look as if to say, what ever.
Jane turned to the others and said quietly, ‘And they said good service was a thing of the past,’ and then, louder. ‘Kirby, you’re with me. Raj, here’s your key, you and Robert, and John, you’re on your own.’
‘It’s because I’m black isn’t it?’ he said with a grin.
‘No, it’s because you’re the biggest and the single room has a bigger bed.’
‘Fair enough. I snore as well.’
‘Good,’ Jane said, and went back to the desk. ‘We’ll book a meal for seven.’
Fiona Whyte sighed and tapped in something on the computer. ‘Table for five,’ she said. ‘Seven o’clock.’
‘Thank you again, Fiona,’ Jane said with a smile. ‘Does the bar stay open all day?’
Fiona shook her head. ‘Opens at five thirty,’ she said.
‘Right. Good.’ She rejoined the others. ‘We’ll meet in the bar at six,’ she said. ‘Everybody okay with that?’
There was a murmur of agreement.
‘Robert? You happy with that?’
‘Yeah, no problem,’ he said, picking up his bag and heading off down the corridor to the elevator. He knew he hadn’t contributed much to the team banter yet but there was a nagging premonition in his head, and the closer they had gotten to the hotel the stronger it had become. The problem was that he couldn’t pinpoint the source of his concern.