Chapter Thirty -One
He watched Duncan walk away down the lane towards the market cross and his car. It was early and Perez wasn't ready to go home. Word of Tait's arrest would be all over the islands by now. The people would feel safe again, settle back into the knowledge that this had been a crazy aberration and violent crime only happened elsewhere. They'd sleep. Except for the families of the victims.
The Bruces were staying with relatives in Sandwick.
He supposed Euan Ross would be alone in the big house lose to the shore. Perez had sent a constable to inform him that Tait had been taken into custody, but thought now he should go himself. Ross had been bitter that Tait had been released after Catriona's disappearance. It seemed cowardly not to face him and answer his questions. The police owed him that much at least.
Driving past Hillhead, he remembered the raven. Should he kill it now and get it over with? The CSI must have finished with the place because the police tape had been removed and the house was in darkness. When he found the door locked he was relieved.
One of the team would have taken the key. They might even have found a home for the raven. He remembered that there was a woman in Dunrossness who cared for sick and injured birds. Maybe they'd taken it there. He'd have to check. He'd go back later.
Euan Ross was angry. His face was flushed and it showed in the violence with which he opened the door. Perez thought he had been waiting all day for someone to speak to him.
'Inspector,' he said. 'At last. I've lived here long enough to realize that there's little sense of urgency in Shetland, but I'd have thought it would have been courteous to respond to my request more quickly than this. It was your phone call which started it all off after all.'
He turned and walked away into the house, leaving Perez to shut the door behind him and follow.
They sat in the big room, with the glass wall, looking out towards Raven's Head. Euan hadn't turned on the central light. The space was lit by a couple of spots attached to the wal1. There were big areas of shadow. At some point over the winter he must have collected driftwood, because there was a chunk of pitch pine on the fire. The smell of it must be covering the last trace of Catherine's perfume.
For a moment Perez was confused. He couldn't think what the man was talking about. 'I'm sorry. No one told me that you'd asked to see me!
'What are you doing here then?'
'I thought you might have questions after the old man's arrest. I didn't want you to hear all the details from the press. They quite often get things wrong! He was going to add that he'd considered it would be courteous to visit, but stopped himself. This was a bereaved father. He was entitled to be angry and rude.
There was a moment of silence. Euan Ross struggled to regain his composure.
'They should have passed on your message,' Perez said quietly. 'Perhaps you could explain why you wanted to see me!
'You asked me to look for Catherine's camcorder! 'I did. You've found it then?'
Euan didn't answer directly. 'Do you have proof that Tait killed my daughter?'
'Not yet. There is evidence to connect him with the death of Catriona Bruce. At this point he's just been charged with the first murder. Of course we'll do all we can to get a conviction on both counts!
'I hadn't thought it mattered,' Euan said. 'But I don't think I could bear it if I never found out what happened to her. It isn't anything to do with revenge. It's just about not knowing! He paused. 'And some thing about justice for Catherine perhaps. Doing right by her at last!
'Can I see the camcorder, Mr Ross?'
But still he seemed reluctant to come to the point.
He said he would make tea. Inspector 'Perez had time for some tea, didn't he? He disappeared into the kitchen, leaving Perez looking out into the night. At last he came back with two mugs on a tray and immediately he started talking. They sat facing each other in armchairs close to the big window, but Euan didn't look at Perez. He had his face turned to the dark space outside.
'She wasn't an easy child. One of those babies who hardly seem to need sleep. Liz found it very difficult. I tried to take my turn, but I was working all the hours there were, marking, planning, out-of-school activities.
Generally making myself indispensable. I was ambitious in those days. It seems ridiculous now. Liz couldn't face having any more children. I said we'd get a placid one next time, but she wasn't willing to take the risk. It wasn't a big deal. We didn't argue about it. I adored Liz. I'd have gone along with anything she said. Now I wish we had considered it. When Catherine was a bit older perhaps. Not for me, but for Catherine. She missed out when Liz died and I went to pieces. It would have been company for her.'
Perez said nothing. He drank his tea and listened. He thought Ross had forgotten all about the/ camera.
He just needed to talk.
'_}
'Catherine was very like me,' Ross went on. 'Very driven. Perhaps because she was an only child she didn't find it easy to make friends of her own age. She was too honest, too direct. She didn't realize she might be hurting the other children's feelings. She loved projects. Even when she was very young she'd become completely absorbed in her work and rather competitive in it. It didn't always make her popular. She liked to win.' At last he turned and faced Perez. 'I'm not sure why I'm telling you this. It probably isn't relevant. I just want to talk about her. To tell the truth, as she would have done. She would have hated people to say sweet and misleading things about her, just because she's dead.'
'I'm interested. It helps.'
'When we first moved here she was very bored. She said she had nothing in common with any of the other young people. That wasn't true but she didn't make much of an effort. She came across as patronizing, full of herself.
I heard teachers talking in the staff room about her when they didn't realize I was listening.
They resented her attitude too. I was worried she'd become very lonely, a target for bullying. Of course much of it was my fault. I depended on her after Liz died. I didn't treat her as a child.'
'She became friendly with Sally, though:
'Yes, Sally was kind to her and Catherine really enjoyed her company. They were unlikely friends but they got on welclass="underline" He paused. 'The friendship with Sally was important, but it wasn't that which helped her make an effort to belong here. That was something quite different. She found a new project. . : He lapsed again into silence, the mug of tea untouched on the floor by the chair. He seemed so lost in thought that Perez realized he'd forgotten for a moment that he had a guest.
'What was the project, Mr Ross?'
'Film. And that's where the camcorder comes in.
I'd given it to her for her birthday. She loved film. It was her ambition to become the first great female British director. She was a natural observer, perhaps because she found it hard to engage with people of her own age. She was delighted by the present. At first she played around with it, working out, I suppose, how to use it, just how much it would do. I have a film of her. I took it on her birthday and we saved it on her computer.
I'm so glad I did that. It'll always be there. . : He seemed to realize that he was moving from the subject again. 'Then she began to take her filming more seriously. As I say, it was a project. She hoped to submit it as part of her university entrance application. The course she'd set her heart on was very hard to get in: