Page 55 of The High Island

Catching his glance, Mackie said, ‘I could have done with a stronger drink than my home brew to read about that body at Lyrawa. I take it you don’t know if it is Kris Mowat as yet?’

‘Unconfirmed,’ Erling said, taking a seat opposite.

‘And I hear there were shenanigans at Eddie Balfour’s office this morning?’

Before Erling could ask how he’d learned of it so quickly, Mackie told him. ‘My home help Yvanna’s been here today. She got it from her sister in Kirkwall.’ He gave Erling a studied look. ‘I don’t think that’s why you’re here, though?’

‘No,’ Erling said. ‘It’s about Stella.’

He watched as his words made Mackie pull himself up straight in his chair.

‘You found out about Stella?’ he said in a voice both keen and yet filled with trepidation.

‘Did you ever meet Stella or maybe see a photo of her?’ Erling tried.

‘I never met her, but I did see a photo once,’ Mackie told him.

‘Anything you can tell me about what she looked like?’

‘Fairish hair. Ivor said she had blue eyes and a lovely smile. He was fair smitten with her,’ he added.

Aware that his mobile might not be the best way to let the old man view the images of a possible Stella, Erling had brought a tablet along.

Producing it now, he explained about the image that had been generated from the remains.

‘Like the one you had done for the body found at Skaill Bay last year?’ Mackie said.

‘Exactly,’ Erling said, moving alongside Mackie. ‘There’s nothing bad about the images and video, but . . .’ He hesitated there.

‘I want to see if it’s her, Stella, and I’ve lived a long time and seen plenty of bad things,’ Mackie said firmly.

Erling began with the image of mother and child.

‘The poor peedie bairn,’ Mackie muttered under his breath. ‘You found the two of them like that? The bairn cradled in her arm?’

‘We did,’ Erling said.

‘Would a murderer really lay them like that in the coffin?’ Mackie said, an obvious catch in his throat. ‘Arranging her to look down on her wee one?’

Erling didn’t respond, just flipped to the image of the woman staring straight out at them. At this, Mackie gave a small gasp of wonder and maybe recognition?

‘Might that be Ivor’s Stella?’ Erling said.

Mackie was studying this image intently, then he suddenly seemed to remember something. ‘Ivor said she was a Geordie. I didn’t know what that meant back then, so he told me it meant she came from Newcastle, which was in England. We looked it up on a map.’

‘You think this might be her?’ Erling tried again.

‘It might be’ – he shook his head – ‘but I canna tell for sure. Have you checked with Tommy? Your grandpa Sandy was a bigger pal of Ivor than me. He went over to Hoy all the time. Maybe he mentioned her to Tommy.’

Erling nodded at that. ‘I plan to. Do you want to see any more?’ he added.

‘Aye, go ahead. Just in case I spot something I recognize,’ Mackie said.

Erling ran the different images, finishing with the touching video of the mother and child.

This was followed by a moment’s silence before Mackie spoke again.

‘How can that lass rest? How canyourest, until she’s given back her name and buried in consecrated ground?’ Mackie said. ‘If thatisIvor’s Stella, and he found out she’d been buried there with her baby and forgotten by the family, that might account for some of what he was doing before he died. Looking for Betty’s wee boy and giving it all to him,’ he finished.