Page 9 of The High Island

‘Your grandfather might have too,’ Tommy said thoughtfully.

‘What about Hugh Mowat? What did he say after you two left the site?’ Erling asked.

‘He was shocked about the bodies being there. No doubt aboutthat,’ Tommy told him. ‘Then he registered how it meant that work couldn’t start on the new house, and that definitely pleased him.’

Which was what Erling had read from the situation too.

‘You know that was Ivor’s great-grandson Kris behind us at the funeral?’ Tommy said.

‘I do now,’ Erling told him.

‘Hugh and the other pall-bearers were mightily miffed about that.’

‘Do you know why?’ Erling asked, wondering if the rumour Jo had heard was true.

Tommy met his eye. ‘Possibly because young Kris had become Ivor’s favourite. And they’re afraid he’s here for the money.’

5

The house lay in darkness. He knew Rory wouldn’t be there, but he would have welcomed a guiding light on his route home.

Entering the deep darkness of the kitchen, he flicked on the light switch, his eyes complaining at the sudden change in circumstance.

The place was as he’d left it this morning. The remains of a hurried breakfast and obviously late departure. As he sat to pull off his boots, he noted a piece of paper lying on the floor behind the door.

Rising, he went to see what it was.

There was no envelope, although it had been folded three ways as if to be put in one.

Intrigued now, he opened it, wondering if it might be a message from one of his near neighbours.

The note was in capitals, written in what appeared to be a shaky hand, real or disguised.

THE LASS’S NAME IS STELLA

Erling stared at this, perplexed. ‘The lass’s name is Stella,’ he repeated out loud.

Which lass?

He didn’t doubt the whole of Orphir already knew where he’d spent the day and why. And what had been found buried next to the old Mowat croft. Which led to the distinct possibility that the note referred to the female body discovered on Hoy.

So who had put the note through his door claiming to know the first name of the victim? And why not report it to him officially?

Rory had suggested on a number of occasions that he have security cameras installed at Langwell to catch any uninvited guests.

‘After all, you’re a police officer,’ he’d said. ‘Who has pissed off a number of folk at various times.’

Which was true, of course, although Erling had been quick to remind him that policing a close-knit community such as this one required less of the ‘us and them’ approach that you often found in city policing.

At that point, Rory had reminded him, ‘You forget that I’m speaking as a former one of “them” in your “us and them” scenario.’

Rory had had a few run-ins with the law back in Liverpool before he’d turned his life around to become a professional scuba diver, now working out of the nearby Flotta oil terminal.

‘I’ll consider installing a security camera at the front door,’ Erling had finally conceded, although it hadn’t happened as yet.

Now, gazing at the note, he sort of wished it had. Although he suspected that news of a security camera being installed at Langwell would have swiftly done the rounds, and this note would never have been put through his letterbox in the first place.

Heading for the bedroom, he considered a quick shower, then decided against it. After all, there was no one waiting for him in the bed. So the morning would do just as well. The last thing he noted as he drifted off was the face of the moon now captured in the tiny window of the thick-walled cottage.