Page 94 of The High Island

‘Yes, but I’ll need to say cheerio to Mackie first.’

When she re-entered the sitting room, she found Mackie had perked up and was ready to carry on.

‘I did some more while you dozed,’ she explained. ‘And the car’s come for me, so I’ll need to get back to the station.’

‘You find anything else of interest?’ he said, alert now.

Jo didn’t see the harm in telling him. After all, he knew everything else. ‘Ivor warned Kris about the family. Told him to lie low when he arrived here in Orkney.’

‘And Kris arrived to find Ivor already dead . . .’ Mackie tailed off with a shake of his head.

‘You know you mustn’t tell anyone about what we read today,’ she stressed. ‘Not Yvanna. Not anyone.DIFlett is trusting you to follow his orders.’

‘I know,’ Mackie said firmly and mimed zipping his lips for emphasis. ‘You’ll be back tomorrow?’ he added hopefully.

‘Not sure. But I’ll call you anyway,’ Jo promised.

She’d already packed the journal inside its evidence bag, and told Mackie he could keep his crime scene gloves as a memento. Wishing him goodbye, she repeated her promise to phone him tomorrow.

Emerging from the cottage, she noted thatDCGunn had already reversed out of the drive.

Slipping into the passenger seat, she waited until he’d set off before asking about the newsflash on the body in the harbour.

Tom Gunn’s expression worried her before he even spoke.

‘A lass from the nightclub went down to the harbour in a terrible state. Drink or drugs, most probably both, and fell or jumped in.’

Whatever she’d been expecting, it wasn’t that.

‘Do we know who she was?’ Jo immediately asked.

‘Not officially, but the story is Hugh Mowat appeared at the station, thinking it might be his granddaughter, Eilidh.’ He shook his head in dismay or disbelief. ‘The lass was only sixteen. The boss took him to the Balfour to view the body.’

‘And we don’t know if it is her?’

‘No. There’s to be a meeting when we get back. Then we’ll get the whole story.’

They lapsed into silence then, despite Jo being desperate to know how the drugs team had got on. EspeciallyDSGowan. Even as she thought this, she realized they were bound to meet face to face now, despite her best efforts, and, she suspected, the boss’s efforts too, to keep them apart.

In that moment, with Hoy in view, she wanted to be back with Ethan Howie, sailing towards Cava on theAngel Heart.

46

Erling had made up his mind to await the arrival of his second-in-command before revealing what had happened at the Balfour. He’d sent the car for Jo for that reason. Whatever lay between Jo and Gowan, hisDSwould put the job first and act accordingly. Of that he was certain. As for Gowan, he hadn’t made up his mind on that score as yet.

He had his own misgivings about the Caithness officer, who had apparently volunteered to come to Orkney, probably because of Jo’s presence here, he thought. He now knew this had made her uncomfortable. Even to the extent that she’d declared she didn’t knowDSGowan, which turned out to be a lie. And hisDSwas not prone to lying. That he did know. If asked, he would have described her as straight-talking and honest.

So Jo had lied about knowingDSGowan for a reason. And Erling was beginning to think that reason might involve fear.

WatchingDCGunn arrive with his passenger, Erling resolved to speak to Jo alone in his office before the strategy meeting. He would ask about Mackie and the journal first. Find out what hadbeen learned from the tightly written and – to him at least – indecipherable scribbles.

His hope was that Ivor’s secret thoughts might go some way to explaining what had been happening on Hoy and here on Mainland, regarding Kris Mowat, his partner Rachael and much else besides.

The duty officer had been told to sendDSGreen directly to his office, and to informDCGunn to join the others upstairs.

The soft knock on the door announced her arrival.

‘Come on in, Detective Sergeant,’ he ordered, in a voice he hoped was firm but welcoming.