Page 39 of The High Island

‘You’ll have seen drownings before?’ Jo said.

‘Too many,’ Erling told her. ‘They come with the territory.’ He halted the video and zoomed in. ‘This one’s not been in the water long. In fact, I wonder if it’s been fully submerged at all. He may have been deposited on the beach at low water and immersed only briefly when the tide came in.’

Erling chose the view that featured the left hand and arm, then zoomed in further.

‘The hands are burnt, maybe trying to put the fire out,’ he said. ‘But that might be a ring on the index finger. I don’t see a bracelet, though.’

‘We’ll have to wait for the post-mortem to check for tattoos,’ Jo said. ‘Especially any beneath the remains of the clothing.’

‘So we can’t say that this is Kris Mowat,’ Erling said.

‘No, but who else is it likely to be?’ Jo said. ‘A partially burntbody lying on a beach below the location of the large wildfire at the Mowat croft?’

Erling had the sudden and terrible image of a burning man running wildly down the hill to the bay, unable to reach the water in time to save his life.

18

News of the discovery of a male body on the sands of Lyrawa Bay would spread quickly. Acknowledging this, Erling asked Jo to call Rachael and give her the bare minimum of details, which is all they had themselves.

‘Explain that the body has been transported to the hospital in Kirkwall. And that we’ll keep her informed as to any further developments. If you don’t reach her, leave a message. Also check she’s still resident at the hotel,’ Erling said. ‘I’ll head for the mortuary.’

‘D’you want me to follow you there?’ Jo said.

‘No. You should have finished for the day. Head home after the phone call. There’s nothing more you can do. I’ll see you first thing tomorrow.’

Before he drove away, he called the hospital to warn them of his arrival, and to check if the body from Hoy had been delivered.

Establishing that it had arrived a short time ago, he was told that the mortuary staff were expecting him. The hospital, referred to locally as the Balfour, was a small, rural general hospital with forty-eight beds, close to the centre of Kirkwall. The modern building offered a range of medical services to islanders with both resident and visiting consultants.

It also had a mortuary with eight flexible bays, although post-mortem examinations to establish the reason for a death were conducted off-island, usually in Glasgow.

However, all he needed to know at this moment was whether there was a likelihood of the body being that of Kris Mowat.

Now at the Balfour, he parked, then made his way to themortuary, armed with Jo’s notes regarding Rachael’s description of Kris. If the body was tattooed, he now knew what to look for, and where.

He’d been at the mortuary a number of times since his return to Orkney as a detective. Often, as he’d mentioned to Jo, regarding bodies washed ashore on one of the seventy-odd islands that made up the archipelago. Most of the bodies had been in the sea a long time and were therefore unrecognizable.

Judging from Willie’s photographs and video, the victim’s time in the water as food for the fishes would not be the stumbling block to identification in this case. That would more likely be the burns.

In the few minutes it had taken him to get here from the station, his imaginings of a man on fire running for the water had further developed into an image of the victim being doused in petrol and set alight by a third party. Just as had been done to the red digger, which had started the hill blaze in the first place.

Might whoever had started the fire be responsible for the death of the man on the beach?

On entry, he foundAPTHannah Weir awaiting his arrival. It wasn’t the first time he’d dealt with Hannah at the mortuary, so after a brief greeting, she handed him a suit and then a mask.

‘And you’ll definitely need that,’ she advised.

Zipped up, mask firmly in place, he was now led to the refrigerator bay. As Hannah pulled open the appropriate drawer, the acrid smell of burnt flesh mixed with accelerant assailed him, despite the mask.

A sympathetic Hannah gave him a moment to get used to this before she spoke.

‘As you can see, I’ve removed what remained of the clothing. It’s bagged and ready to accompany the victim to Glasgow for the forensic examination,’ she told him.

‘Tell me what you’ve deduced from the body,’ Erling said.

‘It’s male, young, fit, with dark hair,’ she offered. ‘Circumcised. Height one hundred and seventy-eight centimetres. Weight seventy-one kilos. Healthy, before the fire damage. Eye colour probably blue.’

Erling made himself study the charred head with the remains of dark hair, then ran his gaze slowly over the shoulders, arms and hands. After which he moved to the less-affected lower parts of the body.