Page 13 of The High Island

‘And can you contact Hugh Mowat and check when the Mowatwill is due to be read out? And if Kris Mowat is still around.’ Then he remembered who else was likely to turn up. ‘Also, I told Mr Maitland to come into the station when he arrives in Kirkwall. If I’m not back by then, explain that we’ve a team on site and he can’t start work there until we’ve concluded our examination.’

Jo was definitely up for dealing with Mr Maitland, as evidenced by her smile at this part of his request.

‘Sure thing,’ she told him.

Erling headed for the shore road, rather than weaving his way through the town. The University of the Highlands and Islands building was at the top of Burnett Brae and had, on one side at least, a fine view out over the bay.

Despite his chat with Auld Mackie, he was nursing the hope that the grave they’d unearthed would prove to be outwith the time limit on a police investigation. But he still wanted and needed to know the truth about the woman and child they’d exhumed on Hoy.

Parked now, and heading for the Archaeology department, he steeled himself for what was to come.

Colin greeted him on entry, and despite trying to read the Prof’s expression, Erling found himself at a loss as to whether the initial examination of the remains had proved informative or not.

Once kitted up, he followed Colin into the inner sanctum, where he registered that the bodies of mother and child were now free of their joint coffin . . . and, shockingly, of one another.

Noting his expression, Colin immediately said, ‘It’s distressing to see them separated, I know. I felt that too. But they can be buried together again, once we discover the truth of their deaths.’

Erling nodded, still not ready to speak.

‘They are, as you know, mummified in parts, with no obvious signs as to how they died,’ Colin began. ‘No obvious bonebreakages. No head trauma. I suppose there is always the possibility that they died of natural causes. Although both at the same time would seem odd.’

‘When do you think this happened?’ Erling said.

‘Bodies buried in peat are well preserved, because of the chemical nature of the soil. The famous Betty Corrigall being such a case.’ Colin halted there. ‘But these two bodies are much more recent, as evidenced by fillings in the woman’s teeth and the remains of their clothing.’

‘How recent?’ Erling heard himself say.

‘In my estimation, the woman and child have lain there for eighty years or so,’ Colin said. ‘Both sets of clothing have mostly decomposed, which suggests they were made of natural fibres and not of later man-made materials. But that’s not all.’

He ushered Erling towards a table where he pointed to a tarnished locket, retrieved, he explained, from around the woman’s neck.

‘I found a tiny lock of hair inside, belonging, I suspect, to the child. And the name engraved on the back, visible under a microscope, says “William 18.3.42”.’

‘So the child was a boy born on the eighteenth of March 1942?’ Erling said.

‘It looks like it. And I think he was six months to a year old when he died,’ Colin confirmed.

‘So she came back to Hoy with a child maybe early in 1943?’ Erling muttered under his breath.

‘Shecame back?’ Colin repeated. ‘You think you may know who this woman is?’

Erling told him about the note he’d found at Langwell the previous night and his father’s suggestion that he speak to his elderly neighbour regarding its origin.

‘Auld Mackie was friendly with Ivor Mowat back in the day,’ he explained. ‘He told us a story about a young woman called Stella, stationed on Hoy during the war, who visited the Mowats when Ivor was twelve, and then disappeared. It appears she didn’t have a child at that time. But was possibly courting Ivor’s big brother Billy.’

The significance of the name Billy wasn’t lost on either of them.

‘I take it Ivor was the last of the brothers from that era?’

‘He was,’ Erling said. ‘But by the numbers at the funeral, his three older brothers also had offspring. I’m not certain when the family left the original croft house. Maybe they’d already gone by the time the bodies were buried there. Maybe the Stella that Ivor knew is not this woman at all, but someone with no connection to the Mowats.’

‘On that front,’ Colin said, ‘the age and sex of the victims will be properly established by the forensic pathologist, when the remains are transferred to Glasgow for the post-mortem. Plus they may provide an answer as to how they died.’ He halted there for a moment. ‘Of course, since we’re looking at something that happened eighty-odd years ago, this is more of an archaeological investigation than a forensic one. We’re unlikely to locate a live perpetrator even if she was murdered.’

‘I know,’ Erling said. ‘But I’d like to identify her, at least, and give her a proper burial. If the child’s father was in fact a Mowat, that might help.’

‘You’ll have to provide aDNAsample from a current Mowat for comparison, but yes, that could be done,’ Colin confirmed. Then added, ‘If this Stella was connected with the service personnel stationed on Hoy, that may also be a way of identifying her.’

Erling already intended pursuing that line of enquiry. As to acquiring aDNAsample from a current Mowat, he was planning to speak to Hugh regarding the body and what he might know, if anything, about a girl called Stella.