‘Then who?’
There’d been a silence and Polly had thought again that she’d glimpsed a white figure moving along the edge of the tide. A figure with a strange silhouette, hair peaked at the front like a bird’s crest.
‘With Cilla. My mother.’
And that was when something had broken inside Polly. Because Cilla was old and snooty, and always treated Polly as if Eleanor was doing her the hugest favour in the world by befriending her. How could Marcus have anything in common with a woman like that?
Eleanor continued to speak and seemed comforted because she no longer had to keep a secret. She’d probably convinced herself that she was really doing Polly a favour. ‘They met in Jordan when he was leading a group and she was on a field trip. Lust at first sight. For her at least. I saw them at an exhibition together and she introduced me. When you showed me his photo I recognized him at once.’ And Eleanor had paused and taken a swig of wine straight from the bottle and seemed to have no understanding of the effect she was having on Polly. Or seemed not to care. Then she looked up. ‘I did try to stop it, Pol. I tracked Marcus down through his website. I did tell him to stop it.’
On the cliff, lost in the fog now, Polly closed her eyes to blink away the memory of that conversation. She’d decided then that it couldn’t be true, that Eleanor was just stirring up trouble to create a drama. Of course Marcus wouldn’t make love to a woman nearly twice his age. Of course he wouldn’t betray her. Her phone rang, the shrill noise startling her and bringing her back to the present.
When she’d finished the conversation Polly felt sane again. There was no singing, just the distant sucking of waves on the shore at the bottom of the cliff. A faint murmuring that might be the call of seabirds. Then a child’s laughter.
Chapter Forty-One
When Willow, Perez and Sandy arrived at Sletts, Caroline was the only person there. The men were still out looking for Polly. It was properly dark now, past midnight, and the fog was as thick as ever. Caroline was sitting in the window of the cottage looking out for them. Sandy thought that she would have organized the search, and the men would have done as they were told. She was like some of his school teachers who never shouted, but scared the kids shitless all the same and always got the respect they felt they deserved.
In the car he’d wanted to ask questions. About the phone call from Eleanor’s mother and the men who’d met Eleanor at Mareel, and what Jimmy made of it all. But he’d kept quiet. On their way out Willow had said he should stay in Springfield House in case David Gordon did something daft. She said that the man had wandered away once and she wouldn’t put it past him to just walk into the sea and drown. But Jimmy had told her they’d need as many people as possible to search for the Englishwoman and they could get Mary Lomax in as a babysitter, so Sandy had been allowed along. But he knew he was there on sufferance, so he just sat quietly while Willow did the driving, and he kept his questions to himself.
In Sletts, Willow took charge. She and Caroline were two strong women together. Jimmy and Sandy let them get on with it.
‘You’ll have tried to phone Polly?’
Caroline nodded. ‘Of course, but we’re getting no answer. She made one call to Marcus while we were waiting to collect our coats, but then his phone cut out. You know what the reception’s like here.’
‘What did she say?’ Willow asked.
‘Marcus couldn’t really make any sense of it. Something mad about looking for Peerie Lizzie. There was such a noise all around us in the boat club. He tried to call her straight back, but he couldn’t get through.’
‘Tell us what happened this evening.’
‘It was their last night in Shetland,’ Caroline said, ‘and we wanted to mark it in some way. There was a charity dinner at the boat club. Food and music. We thought it would be better than letting them sit in here, brooding. And local people had wanted to express their sympathy, so we knew they’d be made welcome. That they’d be treated with proper sensitivity.’
‘You walked?’
‘We took the path along the cliff, yes. It’s not very far.’ Caroline shifted uneasily in her seat and Sandy thought the walking had been her idea. She’d be a great one for the benefits of exercise and fresh air.
‘Did you think that was safe in the fog?’ Willow kept the question polite, but Sandy could sense the hostility between them. It crackled like electricity. Two strong women, but otherwise different in every way. Willow would have been the rebel at school and Caroline the perfectly behaved head girl.
‘It wasn’t so bad when we set out. Besides, Lowrie has been playing on the cliffs here since he could walk. He wasn’t going to get lost.’ As if Willow was stupid for suggesting there might be any danger.
‘But Polly did lose her way?’
There was a silence. Caroline couldn’t seem to explain the fact that Polly was missing. ‘Polly ran off on her own after the meal,’ she said at last. ‘We couldn’t have expected that. Marcus thought it was some sort of panic attack. She was there watching the musicians and then she’d disappeared. Eleanor’s death has made her kind of flaky.’ Sandy thought the woman had already picked up some of the accent. She’d turn into one of those soothmoothers who became more Shetland than the Shetlanders. He imagined her as a member of the parish council, fighting on behalf of the other crofters. A pillar of the community.
‘You’re sure she went of her own volition?’ Willow asked.
‘Well, she wasn’t kidnapped in front of an audience of fifty people!’ Caroline’s voice was sharp. The prefect was reasserting her authority.
‘Did you see her leave the room?’
‘No.’ Caroline looked up at Willow. ‘None of us did. It was a bit of a scrum at the end. As soon as the music stopped everyone got up to leave at once. The weather was so bad then that people wanted to get home. Folk who hadn’t been able to make the hamefarin’ came to congratulate Lowrie and me on their way out, so we were among the last to go. Marcus met us at the cloakroom downstairs, but Polly’s jacket had already gone. We thought she’d be waiting outside, but there was no sign of her.’ Another silence, then an admission. ‘It was a bit spooky actually. As if she’d disappeared into thin air. Just like the night that Eleanor went missing.’
Perez had been looking out of the window during the conversation. Now he turned back into the room. For a moment Sandy thought he was going to make sense of all this, to tell them what lay behind the killings. Because Sandy thought that Jimmy had an idea. He’d been working it out in his head since Eleanor’s mother had phoned. Instead Perez said, ‘We should look for her.’ Just those words. Forceful, as if Polly wasn’t only a potential victim, but was essential to the solving of the case.
They all looked at the inspector, but nobody moved.
‘We should look for her.’ Perez said the same words, but they were even more urgent this time.
‘The boys went straight back out when we got here and there was no sign of her,’ Caroline said. ‘I waited in the house to call you.’ She paused. ‘They haven’t found her yet. I’ve just spoken to them. They walked together along the cliff path back towards the club in case we just missed her, but now they’ve split up. Lowrie’s taking the cliffs because he knows them best. The others will search inland.’ Another hesitation. ‘Marcus said he’d look at the lochan where Eleanor was found.’
Perez was on his feet and they were all looking at him. Now he was in charge. ‘We’ll check Meoness then, if your men are looking along the cliff path. Willow, will you do the beach between here and the hall? Sandy, you go to Voxter. Not along the road, but by the path that takes you past the planticrub where we found Eleanor’s phone. Check the fields and the ditches on either side of the path, in case Polly has tumbled. Then chat to George and Grusche and see if they noticed anything unusual this evening.’