Page 30 of The High Island

Now handing Rachael her requested tea, and taking her own coffee to the table at the window, she sat down and waited.

The girl appeared to be marshalling herself. Jo could almost hearthe internal monologue that eventually led to the admission she’d already anticipated.

‘Kris didn’t act badly because I was pregnant. In fact, he was pleased,’ she said in a surprised tone, ‘until . . .’

‘You told him you were thinking about having an abortion,’ Jo finished for her.

‘How did you know?’ Rachael said.

‘As I said before, experience,’ Jo said, before urging her to continue.

Rachael gathered herself. ‘I don’t really know Kris. Not properly. He hadn’t told me much about this place or his mother, Betty, until we got here. Now I know that she left Hoy when she was only seventeen and pregnant with him. Or she was made to leave. When I went across to Hoy, I saw the grave on the hill for the other Betty. It made me sad. When I came back on the ferry, Kris was waiting for me on the jetty.’ She shook her head in remembrance of that image. ‘He looked so young standing there. Too young to be a father.’

Rachael was looking to her now. As though waiting for an explanation as to how Jo was familiar with such a decision herself. Something Jo was unwilling to divulge.

Instead, she said firmly, ‘Tell me everything you do know about Kris and Ivor and the rest of the Mowat family.’

‘Well,’ she began, ‘Kris was really shocked when we arrived in Kirkwall to discover that Ivor had died, and that his funeral was imminent. He went mad about it. Cursing the family for not getting in touch about his great-grandfather’s passing.’

‘But if Ivor was communicating with Kris in secret . . .’ Jo tried.

‘It wasn’t a secret,’ Rachael said. ‘Ivor told Kris he’d informed Hugh, his eldest, that he’d located Betty’s son and was bringing him back to Orkney.’

‘Did he tell Kris about selling the land at the old croft?’ Jo checked.

‘Yes. Kris said Ivor even laughed about it. Told Kris it was a poke in the eye for his sons. Show them who was still in charge . . .’ She halted there, hesitating about saying more.

‘What?’ Jo urged her on.

‘Kris also said the old man had told him that the new eco-house would never be built. That the old Mowat place was cursed.’

‘Ivor knew about the buried bodies?’

‘Kris thinks so,’ Rachael said. Then almost to herself she added, ‘Three generations of pregnant women, all deserted by their lovers. One buried on the hillside above the place. One driven away. And one buried with her child next to the house.’ She looked at Jo. ‘Does that not sound cursed to you?’

14

Erling listened with interest to Jo’s account of her meeting with Rachael, thinking that some of his own questions had now been answered.

‘She was happy to confide in you regarding the possibility of having a termination?’ he asked.

Jo nodded, her eyes not leaving her view of the windscreen.

Erling had registered that hisDSseemed a little rattled by her time with Kris’s girlfriend, and he wasn’t certain why. However, he had no intention of interrogating her about it. If Jo thought he should know the reason, she would tell him. Based on his reading ofDSGreen’s character, he was certain of that.

‘The question is do we declare Kris Mowat to be a missing person?’ he said. ‘Or wait to see if he turns up in Kirkwall tomorrow morning to hear the will being read?’

Now Jo did turn to face him. ‘We do it now,’ she said. ‘If he does appear tomorrow, I’ll be very relieved.’

Erling noted her expression. ‘You have a bad feeling about all of this?’ he said.

‘I do. When questioned further, Rachael told me that Kris thinks the Mowats got rid of Ivor, before he and his great-grandfather could meet. The way things have played out here could give credence to that,’ she added. ‘Especially now that Kris has disappeared.’

‘He was seen alive yesterday, crossing to Hoy,’ Erling said, playing devil’s advocate.

‘But if he doesn’t return?’ Jo said, meeting his eye.

‘Okay,’ Erling conceded. ‘We indicate our concern about Kris onsocial media with his photo and ask for folk to look out for him. That should hopefully get a result. If he doesn’t show up at the reading of the will, we’ll start a full-scale manhunt.’