‘Ah, this time I was in Shetland with quite different expectations. I wanted peace and an escape from my girlfriend. At least an escape from my obsession with my girlfriend. I met Helen soon after my stay at the Manse. She’s very different from Bella. Frail, rather shy. Though she haunted me too.’
‘You don’t look very haunted.’ It was an unprofessional comment but Wilding, with confidence and his precise, arrogant words, sitting on the wall with a chocolate biscuit in one hand and his coffee in the other, seemed incapable of such sensibility.
‘I’ve had to toughen up, inspector. I’ve learned it’s the only way to survive.’
‘Why Biddista? You could have gone anywhere in Shetland.’
‘I think I explained that before. I did still love the paintings. Bella’s work got better, much stronger, as she got older, and I renewed my contact with her by email. I hoped of course that she’d recognize my name but she didn’t. When I said I wanted a break in Shetland, she offered me the house in Biddista to rent.’
They sat for a moment in silence.
Perez spoke first. ‘You went to visit Willy in the care home. Did you talk about that summer?’
‘Of course not, inspector. Willy can’t remember what happened last week. I enjoy hearing his stories, that’s all.’
‘What happened that night fifteen years ago? The night the photograph was taken?’
‘Really, inspector, can it have any relevance to your present investigation?’
‘I think it can. It might tell us why Jeremy Booth came back.’
‘We all drank too much and made fools of ourselves.’ He paused. ‘At one point Bella was weeping. I’d never seen her lose control in that way before. The tears were rolling down her cheeks, her face was all red and blotchy. She was ugly. It was horrible. It was that image I think that persuaded me to leave with the others. I didn’t want to know that she was human.’
‘Why was she crying?’
‘I don’t know. Someone said something to offend her, perhaps. She could take offence very quickly.’
‘Was there a row? An argument?’
‘No. We were all too drunk and stoned to fight.’ He paused. ‘We didn’t see her the next day. She stayed in bed. We joked that she must have a massive hangover, but really I think she was embarrassed that we’d seen her like that. We went without saying goodbye.’
‘Nobody thought to check that she wasn’t ill?’
‘The boy, Roddy, was there. I suppose he’d stayed all night, gone to bed before the festivities started. Or perhaps his parents dropped him off in the middle of the morning. I don’t remember. He spent a lot of time in the Manse that summer. He was quite young then, but a bright little thing. We sent him into Bella’s bedroom to see how she was. How cowardly we all were! We couldn’t face her. He came back to the kitchen where we were all sitting. “Auntie says, ‘Piss off the lot of you!’” It was so much the sort of thing that Bella would have said that we went with a clear conscience. We always did what she told us.’
‘Booth left with you too?’
‘Not exactly the same time. Willy gave him a lift to Lerwick in his van. I’d been in Willy’s van before. There were no real seats in the back. I remember the bruises. I decided to leave Biddista in style and ordered a taxi from Lerwick.’
‘We’ve found another body in the Pit o’ Biddista.’
Wilding turned sharply. ‘I heard you’d found bones. Couldn’t they have been there for generations?’
‘You have no idea who it could be?’
‘Of course not!’
‘And you’re quite sure you didn’t recognize Booth when he made the scene at the Herring House?’
‘Would you remember someone you’d seen briefly fifteen years ago? And he’d changed so much.’
‘Did he get in touch with you? You’re pretty famous now and you’ve written about the move to Shetland on your website. An email perhaps. I’ll be in Shetland, can we meet to talk about old times? We know he intended to catch up with friends when he was here.’
‘Not me, inspector.’
Perez thought Wilding would stick to whatever story he’d created. Perhaps he even believed it. Perhaps it was true. He stood up. ‘Thank you for your time, Mr Wilding. If you remember anything, please get in touch.’
‘Of course.’ Wilding was playing the good-natured host once more. He took Perez’s mug, walked with him back to the car. There he stood for a moment and gave a malicious grin. ‘I’ve asked Fran Hunter to manage the interior design of the house for me. I can’t think of anyone better, can you?’
‘No,’ Perez said. ‘I don’t think I can.’
Chapter Thirty-nine
Kenny heard the news about the bones in the Pit o’ Biddista on Radio Scotland while he was washing up the breakfast dishes. Edith had already left for work. Now the gathering of the people on the cliff the night before made sense to him, and since hearing the radio report he’d been waiting in the house all day for the police to turn up. Because the bones must belong to Lawrence, mustn’t they? That would explain his sudden disappearance. Lawrence might have told Bella that he was leaving the islands, but something had happened before he could get on the ferry or the plane. Not an accident. Lawrence had grown up on the cliffs, had been more sure-footed than any of them. Nor suicide. Kenny knew Lawrence too well to believe that. But an act of violence. That would explain his absence, the years without a letter or a phone call.
Kenny was almost pleased that the body had been found. Thinking that a few bones, like the carcase of a sheep in a ditch, was all that was left of his brother made him feel ill, but still it was a kind of relief. What had hurt most since Lawrence had disappeared was thinking he hadn’t cared enough about him to keep in touch. He’d pictured Lawrence in a strange town, a strange country even, with a new family. A blonde wife, because Lawrence liked blondes, two sons. He’d be older, his hair grey but still thick and curly. They’d be sat together at the supper table, laughing at one of Lawrence’s silly jokes, not thinking at all about the family back in Shetland. But if Lawrence had died without leaving the islands there had been no perfect family, no laughter.
By ten o’clock he’d still not heard from the detectives working the case. Kenny phoned the police station in Lerwick and asked to speak to Jimmy Perez. A young woman said he was out. Could another officer help? Kenny tried to imagine talking to someone else about Lawrence, that big Englishman for example, but the idea horrified him. He asked the young woman to tell Inspector Perez to call him back as soon as possible. He gave her his phone number in Skoles and his mobile number, made sure she repeated them.
‘It’s urgent,’ he said. ‘Tell him it’s urgent.’
By midday there was still no word from Perez. Kenny had gone out briefly to finish singling the second field of neeps, only because he knew there was mobile reception there, and he could see the road right to the end of the valley. He thought Perez might drive out to talk to him, rather than phone. If they’d found out that the bones belonged to Lawrence they would want to tell him in person. Kenny couldn’t quite explain the excitement he was feeling. It was different from when he’d asked to see the body of the hanged man. He’d known deep down that person wasn’t Lawrence and, even if it had been, he would still have to live with the thought of his brother abandoning him. This time he thought there really might be an end to the waiting and to the feeling he’d been rejected for all these years.
He went to the house, intending to phone the police station again, but instead he found himself phoning Edith at the care centre. She answered with her calm, businesslike work voice.