There was quite a different perspective on the town from the water. A monochrome vision like a black-and-white film. She could see the backs of the buildings on Harbour Street. The women in the fisheries were getting ready for the lunchtime rush, carrying white plastic buckets of prepared potatoes from an outhouse at the end of the yard. The guest house looked rather grand from here, the narrow windows symmetrical and the grey stonework as solid as a fortress. There was a small garden between the house and the shore. Beyond, the tower of St Bartholomew’s dominated. She felt like a voyeur, a peeping Tom looking at the world from a hiding place. Though they were hiding in full sight.
‘Why did you lie to me, Malcolm?’ They were outside the harbour wall now and there was a slight swell on the water. She’d always been a good sailor and was untroubled by it. ‘You said you hadn’t had any contact with Margaret recently.’
‘I haven’t!’ But he sounded like one of the young scallies she used to round up as a junior PC, all bluster and swearing.
‘Come on, Malcolm man. You were seen dropping her off at the Haven the day before she died.’
He didn’t reply immediately and the only sound was the rasp of the engine and gulls screaming.
‘Look, man, talk to me. This is about as unofficial as it gets, in a bloody boat in the North Sea.’ With me looking like the Michelin man in a bright-orange life jacket.
‘We were friends,’ he said. ‘I was probably the only real friend she had round here.’
‘Lovers?’
He shook his head sadly. ‘A long time ago. Not recently. Not many times even then.’ He paused. They were halfway across the stretch of water that separated the island from Mardle. ‘And we didn’t meet much as friends when I was still married. She knew what I felt about her and thought she’d get in the way. She said that it wouldn’t be fair to Deborah. She was kind enough when I was getting divorced, but she made it clear there was no chance of us getting together again.’
‘Is that what you wanted?’ They were close enough to the island for Vera to make out details. The warden’s house and the muck on the cliffs where the seabirds had nested. She tried to remember more details of the trip she’d taken there with Hector to steal birds’ eggs all those years ago, but all that came back was the sense of foreboding and the dreadful certainty that they’d be caught. ‘You wanted more than friendship, even now?’
‘I adored her from the first time we met,’ Kerr said. ‘I should never have married. When I lay next to my wife I was dreaming of Margaret.’
Vera wondered what that would be like and decided it was probably easier to adore a fantasy heroine than a real woman.
‘But you’d spent time together again recently?’
‘She’d just found out that she was ill,’ Kerr said. ‘She wanted to tell someone. Not Kate and the kids. She thought they’d get too upset.’
‘She told you that morning before you dropped her off at the Haven?’ Vera had to turn in her seat to see his face.
He nodded. ‘She asked if I fancied going for a walk. We went to the beach at North Mardle. It was freezing and we had the place to ourselves, apart from a couple of dog walkers miles off. Then the sun came out.’ Vera could see that in his head he was back on the beach in the winter sunshine walking beside the woman he’d known since he was a young man. Had he taken her hand? Put an arm around her shoulder?
‘She had cancer,’ Vera said.
‘I said I’d look after her. Whatever she needed.’ He was almost in tears. ‘She said she had to sort a few things out. Affairs to get straight. “I’ll need you to help me with that, Malcolm.”’ He smiled. ‘Of course I hated the thought of her being ill, but I loved her involving me, making me part of her life again. So we’d be together in a way, even if we didn’t have very long.’
‘Did she say what she needed to sort out?’
But Malcolm didn’t answer immediately. They’d reached a red buoy close to a rocky outcrop of the island. He cut the engine and tied the boat to a metal ring on the rock. The boat swung and he reached out to haul in the rope attached to the buoy. The water was very clear here and Vera watched the object slowly emerge. He lifted it, dripping, into the body of the boat. A weighted metal plate covered in sand. Vera’s attention shifted briefly from the investigation.
‘And what did you say is in there?’
‘A sediment monitoring plate. The Prof. needs it for his research. I said I’d bring it in, in case there’s a storm over the holiday.’ He slipped the knot from the ring and pushed the boat away from the rock. ‘He’s a good man, the Prof. I don’t mind doing him a favour when I can.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me you’d met Margaret when I talked to you yesterday?’ She was exasperated. ‘We could have saved all this carry-on – half my team having you down as a murderer.’
‘I was scared,’ he said.
‘You said you’d been in touch with Margaret since your divorce? Did you approach her?’
He shook his head. ‘She knew how I was fixed. It was up to her. She contacted me about Kate Dewar’s lad.’
The boat was moving back towards the shore. Spray blew into her face and she could taste the salt on her lips. ‘What about him?’
‘He was getting into bother. Skipping classes occasionally. Nothing serious. That house full of women, Margaret thought he could do with some male company. She asked if I could find any work for him around the yard.’
‘And you said yes?’
There was a pause. The strange, dark sky was pierced briefly by one arrow of bright sunlight. ‘If she’d asked me to swim naked three times round the island, I’d have said yes. I loved her.’
‘How do you get on with the boy?’ Vera wasn’t sure that kind of passion was healthy. It embarrassed her that Kerr was prepared to talk like that. As if he had no self-control or pride. Much safer to move on to a discussion about Kate’s son.
Kerr seemed to consider for a moment before answering. ‘I never have any bother with him. He’s just one of those lads who don’t like school. He’s kind of restless. You see him walking the streets at all hours. Too much energy for school work.’ He was bringing the boat round the harbour wall now and the sunlight had disappeared as suddenly as it had arrived. The water was calmer. ‘Ryan was a bit cocky when he started, but he settled down once he realized I wasn’t going to stand any messing. He wants to make something of himself, and I’m glad of the company.’ He paused as if that was a confession. ‘When I was his age I’d already been working full-time for a year.’
‘You never fancied staying on and getting an education?’ Because Vera thought that Kerr was more intelligent than he’d seemed to her at first. Margaret wouldn’t have taken up with a stupid man, even briefly.
‘Never got the chance.’ Even now this obviously rankled. ‘My Dad needed cheap labour in the family business.’
Vera turned back to face him. ‘Just like mine.’ They grinned.
With an easy move he had the boat next to the ladder in the wall. It occurred to her that he’d done this so many times that he’d manage it with pinpoint accuracy even with his eyes closed.
‘Your friend the professor said you were back in Mardle by three o’clock the afternoon Margaret died,’ Vera said. She took off the life jacket, but stayed sitting. ‘Where did you go when you got in from the water?’