And that was quite true, Perez thought. The sycamores were windblown and stunted, but they’d provided privacy for Tain’s resident. ‘We’ve got a name for her,’ he said.
‘What?’
‘We’ve managed to identify the dead woman. Her name’s Alison Teal.’
Hay showed no reaction.
‘Does the name mean anything to you? She was an actress. At one point in her career, at least.’
Hay shook his head as if the information was of no interest to him. Instead he nodded down at Rogerson’s body. ‘His daughter’s the teacher at the school. Someone should tell her, before news gets out. You know what this place is like. Jane won’t be on the phone gossiping. She’s not like that. But our lad’s at home and she might tell him. You know what kids are like with Facebook.’
‘You’re right,’ Perez said. ‘I’ll go to the school myself as soon as an officer turns up to control things here. And I’ll make sure someone gets to his house to tell Rogerson’s wife.’ He felt trapped here now and wanted to be away, to start asking questions, to think. He strained to hear the sound of a siren in the distance, footsteps on the grass above them. Nothing.
‘He led his wife a merry old dance,’ Hay said suddenly.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Everyone knew he had affairs. He didn’t even bother to be discreet. There was something kind of arrogant about that.’ Hay had turned back to the sea. ‘He was an arrogant man altogether, always flashing his money around.’
‘You didn’t like him?’
Hay shrugged again. ‘Like I said, I didn’t really know him.’
Now Perez did hear footsteps and the sound of voices. Jane appeared at the top of the bank with a young officer, who’d only recently joined the service. The man slid awkwardly down to join them. Perez gave him brief instructions about securing the site. ‘You let nobody on the beach, whoever they are. And you stay here, well away from the body.’ Then he scrambled back up the cliff and walked with the Hays back to the house.
Jane offered him coffee, but he asked if he could take a mug into his car to make a few phone calls. ‘The school breaks early for lunch. I’ll aim to arrive about then, so I don’t have to pull Kathryn out of her class and tell her what’s happened in front of the bairns. That should give the school a little while to get in some cover, so she can go home to be with her mother.’
In the kitchen Andy, the dark-haired boy with the piercings who worked in the bar at Mareel, was sitting at the table with a mug of tea. Perez nodded to him. ‘Did your mother tell you what’s happened?’ Just at the edge of his line of vision, Jane was hovering, protective.
‘Aye.’
‘Only we haven’t informed the relatives yet, so please keep the incident to yourself.’
The boy nodded but didn’t speak.
In the car Perez spoke to Sandy Wilson, who’d been on his way to show Rogerson’s photo to the assistant in the Brae Co-op. ‘Even more reason to do it now,’ Perez said.
‘You don’t need me in Ravenswick?’
‘Not yet.’ He paused. ‘When you’ve finished in Brae, go to see Simon Agnew. He’s the chap that set up Befriending Shetland, the counselling service in Lerwick. See if Alison Teal means more to him than Sandy Sechrest. It still seems a weird thing for the woman to do – turn up at the project’s office and then change her mind and wander away again after only a brief conversation. Maybe Agnew had met Alison before, in a professional capacity; she certainly had a troubled childhood.’ Perez remembered Fran’s description of Agnew. He’s just fun, Jimmy. But he’s done such valuable work with families and young people. For a moment Perez had hated the man he’d barely met. A second of pure jealousy. Because he himself would never be described as fun, and he hadn’t been sure that Fran considered his work had any value at all.
At the other end of the phone Sandy coughed, to show he was waiting for further instructions, and Perez continued, ‘Can you get Morag to tell Mavis Rogerson that her man’s dead? No details. Just unexpected death. And see if Mavis knew that Tom was back from Orkney. We need to check if he ever went, of course.’ Another pause. ‘Did you tell Willow what was going on?’
‘Yes. She said she’d stay in the office. Awaiting instructions.’
Perez could imagine her saying that. She’d have a laugh in her voice, mocking him for taking charge again. ‘I’ll speak to her now. I think it might be a good plan for her to come here to talk to the Hay family. I’m too close. We’re neighbours, and it would be useful to get another perspective on them. Two bodies in Ravenswick, both within a good stone’s throw of the Hays’ house. I can’t see that as just a coincidence.’
He got out of the car to take his mug back to the kitchen and in the porch bumped into Andy, who was stooping to put on a pair of Converse sneakers. The boy was tall and seemed pipe-cleaner-thin in skinny black jeans and black sweater.
‘Are you going to work?’
‘No, I’ve got a day off.’ The boy paused. ‘I was coming out to see you. Mum said I should talk to you. About something that happened with Mr Rogerson.’
‘Had you seen him recently? On your land?’
‘No.’
Perez looked at his watch. In a quarter of an hour the kids in the Ravenswick school would be queuing up for their lunch in the dining room that doubled as school hall and gym. When the bell went, he wanted to be there to talk to Kathryn. ‘It can wait then. Another officer will be here soon to talk to you all. You can explain to her what happened with Rogerson.’
The boy nodded and disappeared back into the kitchen. Perez had a minute of doubt and was about to call him back, but the door closed and the moment was gone.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Sandy drove to Brae. It was a fine day to be out of the office and he felt his spirits lift. He parked outside the shop and wondered again what Alison Teal could have been doing here, buying champagne and couscous. Why hadn’t she done her shopping in Lerwick, where she’d have more choice? They still hadn’t discovered how she’d arrived in Brae. Without a car, it would take two buses and nearly an hour to get here from Ravenswick. They’d shown her photo to all the bus drivers and to regular passengers at Lerwick’s bus station, but nobody had recognized her.
‘But we might not,’ one of the drivers had said. ‘The weather we’ve had over the past few weeks, all you see is a hood dripping with rain and a pair of eyes.’
Peter, the lad with the acne and the perfect visual memory, was still working at the till. Sandy waited until he had served a customer. ‘I need a few words.’
‘Here?’ He was hoping for another unscheduled coffee break.
‘Bit public here, isn’t it?’
‘You’d best talk to the boss, then.’ He gave a complicit grin.
The manager moaned about giving Peter time away from the till, but Sandy insisted. They took their coffee outside so that Peter could smoke, and leaned against the building, squinting against the bright sunlight. ‘We’ve got an ID for the dead woman,’ Sandy said. ‘She was called Alison Teal. An actress. Does that mean anything to you?’
Peter shook his head. Sandy thought he’d have been too young to have seen Teal on television, and costume drama probably wasn’t his thing anyway. He’d be into BBC Three toilet jokes and science fiction.
‘We’re still trying to track down the guy you saw in the Mareel bar with her. If I show you a photo, do you think you’d remember him?’
The lad shrugged. ‘I might do.’
Sandy pulled a photo of Tom Rogerson from his inside pocket. Perez had got it from The Shetland Times and it showed the solicitor shaking hands with a minor member of the royal family. ‘Do you recognize him?’