Perez paused before answering. ‘If we have enough evidence when we find his killer, they’ll be advised by their lawyer to plead guilty. Then none of this will have to come before a court.’
‘I hope you find him quickly,’ she said. ‘This digging around in other people’s business is an act of violence in itself. It’s disgusting. There are things that should remain private.’ She stood up. ‘Please don’t ask my mother these questions, Jimmy. Dad wouldn’t have talked to her about this and she would never have guessed what he was up to, even if the evidence was staring her in the face.’ She looked out across the school yard. It was too dark to see the fields beyond and the lighthouse on Raven’s Head was already flashing.
‘Did you guess?’ He stood up too now. He was looking straight down into Kathryn’s face, but he couldn’t read her.
‘I knew he was excited about something. Some new venture or woman, to make him feel alive and young again. He was ambitious, Jimmy, and he was terrified of getting old. But I never guessed the details.’ Her words turned bitter. ‘Sex and an opportunity to make money, all rolled into one. He wouldn’t have been able to resist that. He’d have seen it as a project made in heaven.’
‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘You shouldn’t have had to know.’ He could imagine how he’d feel, if Cassie was ever ashamed of something he’d done.
‘My dad was a flawed man. He did stuff that embarrassed me and made me angry, but nothing you tell me will make me love him any less.’ A pause. ‘Now I need to get back to my mother.’ She put the exercise books into a canvas bag and pulled her waterproof from a hook on the door.
They were standing in the school porch and she was locking the door behind them.
‘I’m sorry, Jimmy. I shouldn’t have had a go at you. You were only doing your job. I’m over-protective about my father and always have been. If there’s anything else I can do to help find his killer, do ask.’
‘Do you know the Hay family?’ He wasn’t sure where the question had come from.
‘Sure, they’re great supporters of the school. We took the kids into the polytunnels to see all the plants grow. Part of a biology project. Why?’
‘One of the boys, Andy, was seen having an argument with your father a couple of days before he died. Any idea what that was about?’
‘None at all. But Dad always liked a good argument. It was one of the reasons he enjoyed being on the council. His idea of sport. It probably didn’t mean anything. I knew Andy a bit at school. He was a gentle soul. He wouldn’t start a fight with anyone. Sounds like a rumour that’s come out of nothing.’ She touched his arm, a final gesture of reconciliation, and ran towards her car.
On the way back to Lerwick, Perez switched on the radio. Radio Scotland had an item about the weather. There was to be no break in the wind and the rain. Shetland got its own mention. There were fears, the newsreader said, about another landslide.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Sandy stood outside the office at the Anderson High School, waiting for the secretary to finish answering the phone. He’d never been one for school. He’d made good friends here, but he couldn’t remember much of what he’d been taught. Enough of it had stuck just long enough to enable him to join the police service, but he didn’t think he’d made use of any of the facts he’d forced into his head. He couldn’t see the point of all those years of boredom.
It was coming to the end of the school day. Behind the closed classroom doors there was muffled conversation. Occasionally a teacher would shout for order, but there was no power behind the voice and Sandy could tell that everyone was just waiting for the session to be over. The secretary replaced the phone and came to the desk. She must be nearing retirement, a small bird-like figure with short white hair and big glasses. Sandy thought she hadn’t changed much since he was a pupil.
‘Don’t I know you?’ She looked at him over her glasses.
‘Sandy Wilson.’ He was fourteen again, late for some class. Sheepish and defiant, all at the same time.
‘Of course, one of the wild Whalsay boys!’ She smiled, much as she had done then. ‘And what can I do for you, Sandy Wilson? I hear you’re respectable now. Keeping law and order in our beautiful islands. Who’d have thought it, eh?’
Sandy wasn’t sure how to respond to that and in the end he just gave her a quick smile. ‘I’d like to talk to someone about the Hay brothers. Andy and Michael.’
‘Well, Andy’s left now of course, but most of his teachers are still around. You’re probably best talking to Sally Martin. She taught him English and he was always one of her stars. Michael’s home teacher is Phil Jamieson. I know he’s in the staffroom now. Why don’t you chat to him first and I’ll ask Sally to come in when she’s finished teaching?’
Standing outside the staffroom, he still felt like an impostor, but he’d been here before as an adult. That time there’d been another murder in Ravenswick. It had been winter and Fran Hunter had found the body of a young schoolgirl lying in the snow. Sandy had come to the Anderson High to talk to her friends. After the interview he’d been taken into the staffroom and there’d been the same feeling of unease, of wandering into enemy territory. He tapped at the door. A male voice shouted for him to come in. There was a smell of old coffee and old building.
A middle-aged man was seated in a corner reading a newspaper. Otherwise the room was empty.
‘Mr Jamieson?’
‘Who wants to know?’ He might have been from Shetland originally, but his voice had been weathered by other places and the trace of accent had almost disappeared.
Sandy introduced himself.
‘And how can I help?’
‘I’m part of the team investigating the murders out at Tain. We’re making routine enquiries about all the people who live close to the crime scene. The Hays’ farm is one of the properties nearby.’
‘So you want to know all about Michael?’
Sandy nodded.
‘I can offer you a dreadful cup of coffee before the hordes arrive.’ Jamieson nodded towards a filter machine. ‘I warn you, it’s probably been standing there since break time.’
‘No, thanks.’
‘Wise choice.’ He nodded for Sandy to take a seat next to him. ‘I don’t know what to tell you about Michael. He’s one of those kids who never stand out. Well enough behaved so that he doesn’t irritate. Not particularly bright, but not so stupid that he needs extra help. Steady. Stable. Maybe a little bit boring, but in a school like this there are so many divas that that’s quite refreshing. His future is mapped out for him. He wants to join his father on the farm. His mother would like him to go away to Agricultural College first, to widen his horizons a bit, but Michael doesn’t see the point and neither does his father. He’s got a stubborn streak, so I think he’ll probably get his own way.’
‘He’s got a girlfriend,’ Sandy said.
‘Gemma.’ The teacher smiled. ‘Cast in the same mould. But a little bit more chatty. She did get her way, and left before Highers.’
‘So there were never any concerns about Michael? No sudden outbursts of temper?’
‘Nothing at all like that. What you see is what you get. I suppose the only time I ever saw him lose it was with Andy.’ He looked at Sandy to check the name meant something.
Sandy nodded. ‘The older brother.’
‘Hard to imagine two siblings so unalike. Andy was bright and so full of charm that you couldn’t help like him, even when he was back-chatting big-style.’