Page 114 of The High Island

For a moment, Erling thought it might even be Lyrawa Bay, before reminding himself of just how many such bays peppered the Hoy coastline.

TheITSupport officer was looking to him, awaiting his orders as to which app they should open first.

‘Let’s take a look at her most recent text messages,’ Erling told him.

As the messages scrolled up the overhead screen, there was a sudden hush among the officers present. It was, Erling thought, like entering the mind of the sixteen-year-old girl, who had no idea that her life was about to end.

There was the message from Helen saying she’d see her soon. One from Ragnar about meeting her from the ferry. Her reply to that was a thumbs-up emoji.

The final message had been to Helen. It simply said,Where are you?

‘That was sent after I saw her outside, sir,’DSGowan said.

‘We have a witness who saw her inside around that time, heading, he thought, for the ladies,’ Erling said.

‘There’s a fire exit near the ladies,’DCGunn offered.

‘If the Scouser did inject her,’ Gowan said, ‘that’s maybe when she headed out the back.’

The image of Eilidh taken from the window of the hotel appeared on the screen. Enlarged now, and with the existence of the mobile now known, the blue pouch holding it became identifiable against her body.

‘She must have tried to get to her mobile when she stepped onto the walkway,’ Gunn said. ‘Maybe she came round enough to try to make an emergency call, got the bag off, but dropped it.’

The scene as described byDCGunn was replaying in everyone’s mind. The finale of which was her tipping into the water.

‘If she was injected with coke, contaminated or otherwise, she likely had a cocaine-induced psychosis,’DSGowan announced. ‘I’ve seen that in action, and that’s what it looks like.’

When it appeared as though he might be about to continue in this mode, Erling halted him. ‘We’ll wait for the post-mortem before we decide what she had either taken or been given. Thank you, Sergeant.’ He now asked if Gowan had sent theCCTVfootage as requested toDIMcNab in Glasgow.

‘Just about to, sir,’ Gowan said in a tone Erling didn’t like and that reminded him of their tussle prior to his Saturday-night outing.

‘Do it now, Sergeant,’ Erling ordered, dismissing him, the underlying murmur from the rest of the team seeming to signal their approval.

Bringing in outsiders was never easy, Erling acknowledged, especially those who had no idea how island policing worked. The closeness of the community to its police force. The care that was required.DSMcNab had found that out on more than oneoccasion, and he was both a man and a detective that Erling had a lot of time for.

Something he could not say of Gowan, particularly in light of what he thought was only a partial explanation as to whyDSGreen was noticeably uncomfortable in the officer’s company.

Consoling himself with the thought that Gowan wouldn’t be required much longer, he told the day shift that it was time they knocked off.

‘Hopefully we’ll have some of theDNAresults back tomorrow,’ he added. ‘And well done on today.’

Although he’d decided there would be a full search of Cava first thing, he chose not to announce this. What they’d discovered in Ivor’s notebook was better known only to a few.

When he opened the door to his office, he was surprised to discover Jo rising swiftly to her feet, her expression both startled and wary.

‘Sorry to disturb you, Sergeant. I wanted to check if you’d discovered anything more of significance in the notebook?’

‘There’s nothing more regarding Kris or Cava,’ she said, relaxing a little. ‘It’s about Stella,’ she added.

He could tell by her manner that whatever it was had had a strong effect on her.

‘Show me,’ he said.

Moving aside for him to take back his chair, she indicated that the translation was currently on the screen.

He read what she’d written in silence, marvelling again at the transformation of Ivor’s dense script into something readable. A text that revealed the story of Stella, her baby and the whole sorry tale of lives lived in wartime. Separation and sadness. Love and abandonment. Ivor as a child in an adult world. A woman who’dfelt she had no choice in her predicament other than to kill both herself and her baby.

Erling couldn’t imagine the horror of the young Ivor as he’d realized that the news he’d given Stella about his brother William had had such a devastating result.