Page 19 of The High Island

‘Let’s say that the Pentland Firth between us has proved advantageous,’ Jo said. ‘At least I can go out on a date now without the whole of Caithness and my father knowing about it.’

‘What about the whole of Orkney?’ Erling said.

Jo shrugged. ‘They only know me asDSGreen. They know nothing of my past history with men or anything else,’ she said with a half-smile.

‘What they don’t know, they’ll make up. You do realize that?’ Erling told her.

‘I find I prefer that,’ Jo told him firmly. ‘For now, anyway.’

Reaching the police station, they found Hugh Mowat had alreadyarrived. Erling was in two minds whether to speak to him in an interview room or in his office. He decided on the latter, seeing as no crime had been committed, apart from one eighty-odd years ago, perhaps, before even the now eldest Mowat had been born.

Hugh Mowat, he registered on entry, was a man of considerable build. Easily over six foot tall, broad-shouldered with a ruddy complexion and a still decent head of hair. No longer wearing the dark suit, he was dressed today more like a farmer than a pall-bearer.

Plus he looked comfortable in himself and with being in a police station. Not the usual state of affairs, although Erling had learned through time that it was often the innocent who looked most uneasy when entering the place.

The usual greetings over, and seated now with his desk between them, Erling decided to begin with the question currently uppermost in his mind.

‘Young Kris Mowat seems to have gone missing and his girlfriend, Rachael, is getting worried about him. I wondered if you’d seen Kris since the funeral yesterday?’

Hugh looked taken aback by this surprise opening, but swiftly gathering himself, answered. ‘I didn’t see Kris at the funeral, but I heard he went to the wake at the Kirkwall Hotel,’ he said in a straightforward manner.

‘It appears no one informed Kris that his great-grandfather had died,’ Erling said. ‘He only found out about it when he landed at Kirkwall airport.’

‘But why was he in Orkney, then?’ Hugh said, sounding puzzled.

‘For a meeting with Ivor, his girlfriend says. Regarding family business.’

‘Family business? That old—’ Hugh halted there as though he might say too much.

‘That oldwhatexactly?’ Erling said, his tone light.

‘Ivor, as well you know, was a mischief maker of the first order. That’s how he kept us all in check.’ Hugh shrugged as though well used to whatever shenanigans Ivor Mowat had got up to in his role as patriarch of the Mowat clan. ‘Anyway, I’ll put the word out, see if we can locate young Kris. Assuming he’s still in Orkney, that is.’

Accepting this promise at face value, for the moment at least, Erling said, ‘Kris’s plan, according to Rachael, was for them both to remain here until the will is read out on Friday.’

The ruddy countenance got ruddier as Hugh shook his head in disbelief.

‘What nonsense has that auld bugger been up to now?’ he muttered as though to himself.

Erling gave him a moment before he raised the topic he’d actually called Hugh in to talk about.

‘I’d like to ask you some questions regarding the coffin found at the Mowat croft house,’ he began.

Hugh nodded. ‘The shock was as much mine as poor Ian’s when he unearthed it,’ he said, seemingly relieved at the change of topic.

‘I don’t doubt that,’ Erling said. ‘What I wanted to ask was were you aware of a story about a young woman called Stella, who visited the family croft during the war years? And who subsequently went missing?’

Hugh shook his head, both at the surprise question and its contents.

‘Assuming we’re talking about the Second World War, Ivor is –was,’ he corrected himself, ‘the only one left from that era.’

‘And he never told you stories of back then?’ Erling tried.

‘Oh, he was a teller of tales all right,’ Hugh responded. ‘Fact or fiction, you were never quite sure which. You’d be better to speak to the residents of the care home. No doubt he regaled them with his war stories and much else besides.’ He shook his head at thethought. ‘Anyway, are you thinking the lass in the coffin might be this Stella?’

‘We’re pursuing that as a possibility.’ Erling didn’t explain why.

‘And the peedie bairn?’ Hugh asked.