Water's Edge

by G R Jordan

  “Run to where,” said Macleod. “I don’t see any vehicles. And it’s miles from anywhere. Come on, let’s take a look inside.” The pair routed along the gravel track coming to the side of the house which sported an impressive double door. But it had been ravaged by disuse and one side was missing the wooden counterpart that stood on the other side. Macleod stepped through the gap and caught a stench of rotting timber and sodden carpets.

  As they made their way down a dark corridor devoid of light, Hope lit the way with her handheld torch. Although he saw nothing, Macleod swore he could hear rats, scratching away at the walls. Maybe his senses were just on edge. Hope pushed open a door at the end of the hall and light flooded their eyes. Entering and then looking around the room, Macleod saw the remnants of a great fireplace but the hearth was cracked and parts had fallen down. There was a sofa sitting near the fire but it had its insides split open and you could see the springs inside. There was the remains of an old fire on the floor and several beer cans.

  “I doubt that’s anyone we’re looking for,” said Hope.

  Macleod nodded. “You check out the remainder of this floor, I’ll work upstairs. And be careful. I’m not sure how safe this building is.”

  Hope nodded and he watched her walk away to a door at the opposite end of the room. He found himself watching her until she had left the room but then chided himself that this was not the time or place. Walking back to the hallway, he pulled his own pocket light and found the stairway up to the next level. As he climbed the stairs, he had to tread lightly to avoid the missing steps. As he danced his way up, something caught his eye and he noticed a tin of lip balm on the floor. It was in good condition and he saw no rusting on the tin. A few steps further up, he saw a mobile phone but the screen was smashed.

  As he arrived at the middle floor of the house he saw the landing spread out before him and various rooms seemed to lead off from it. However, the floor before him was missing its carpet and the wooden floor beneath was a mess. He dared not set foot on it and he believed neither would anyone else. Macleod continued up the stairs to the top level where again he found a small landing. Half of its carpet was missing and the floor looked as the middle floor but he saw a solid patch on one side and a door to somewhere beyond.

  Again stepping lightly, he made his way to the damp wood and pushed it open. There was an eerie creak and Macleod cautiously juked his head inside. The room was small and had a mattress inside, seemingly pulled from a bed in the corner. There were remnants of food which he noted needed collected by the scenes of crime team. But otherwise the room only held broken furniture and old lights. Stepping further into the room, Macleod could see where someone had laid on the mattress and he saw a small plastic container for pills. Picking up the item, he read the side label. Sleeping tablets. Someone’s going on a trip. Why else knock someone out? Why not just kill them here?

  Turning back to the door, Macleod felt his footing give way beneath him and he dropped straight down. His hands shot out and he was caught by his shoulders from dropping any further. The clatter of a floor falling onto the one below set Hope shouting.

  “Seoras, are you okay Seoras?”

  “No! I’m not.” Hearing the floor creak around him, Macleod fought the desire to struggle wildly, fearing it might trigger a further descent. But the floor was most definitely beginning to move. He heard footsteps bolting up the stairs and a few moments later Hope entered through the door of the room, puffing heavily. She gingerly moved towards him and gave him her hands which he seized gratefully. The whole floor groaned as he was pulled up and out. As he placed a foot on the timber, trying to stand up, it gave way and he desperately flung his arms around Hope’s neck, causing her to fall backwards. A large chunk of the timber beside them gave way and he landed on top of Hope who clung to him and tried to roll towards the wall.

  Macleod heard the crash as the floor fell away but he didn’t feel himself descend but rather, he could hear Hope’s heart beat fast as she gripped him tight to her bosom. Having fallen backwards, she had simply grabbed onto whatever part of him she could and they were now in an embarrassing heap. But they were safe, tight up against the wall.

  “Thank God no one’s here to take a picture,” giggled Hope. Macleod knew he should get up but there was the floor to consider that had dropped behind him.

  “Sorry, and thank you,” said Macleod. “I’d move but I can’t actually see where I should move to.” Macleod felt Hope adjust herself, probably looking around.

  “We’ll shuffle backwards toward the door, keeping our weight as flat as we can. Just put your arms out and we’ll move together. But stay close in to me, don’t get up until I say or we might lose the floor.”

  Macleod nodded and then realised where his head was. If there was a photo of this, it would be circulated around the station like wildfire. There would be many ready to rip on him and his morals and demeanour.

  Slowly, Hope began to shuffle backwards and Macleod followed her lead keeping himself close to her but pushing with his feet and hands. He looked up from his position and saw her bruised chin as she worked along the floor with him on top. As they reached the door he clambered over her onto the landing and then stood. Turning around, he helped Hope up, before embracing her.

  “Thank you. Sorry for the rather close quarters.” He saw her smile before she started down the stairs and he followed her all of the way out of the house. Once they were standing looking back to the y-boat, Hope dug out her mobile.

  “I’ll get Allinson onto the roads, stopping any rental vans around here.”

  “Good, but we should be doing that already,” said Macleod. “Do you think we could be seen from the top of the house? I mean be seen approaching the beach down the loch. That room we were in, it’s on the correct side to do that. I reckon they would have seen us arriving at the beach. Get a car to come here and pick us up. I am not walking back over there. Besides I don’t think we need to be back at the beach. They are running and we need to be on their tail. Tell Allinson we need to find Marie Smith’s friends or connections, anyone with boats.”

  “But does she know we know it’s her? She never found the rucksack and pictures. She doesn’t know we tracked the rental van. We could just alert her looking at her friends.”

  “Okay then. Find this van she’s got. And get me a car.”

  Macleod found a rock at the edge of the gravelled track and sat down on it. Before him, Hope was pacing as she spoke to Allinson and he tried to think about other things but her figure grabbed him. Up the stairs, during the fall, it reminded him of something. He remembered walking along an edge, not one with a sheer drop but rather a steep side of a hill. His wife was before him and she had stumbled and he had made a grab for her. They had tumbled together down the hill and when they had come to rest he was on top. They were bruised and battered but when he had gone to get up, she had not let him. And there in the open they had become intimate.

  He had been shocked by her abandon that day and he’d struggled afterwards to let himself go like that again. She had wanted him to but his reluctance, his fear of being caught, of exposure to people’s comments. He had hurt her by not letting their play develop, he had stymied her. One more frustration for her from the one person she had never expected it from.

  “Car’s coming, sir.”

  “It’s okay Hope, you can call me Seoras here. There’s no one coming for a bit. Sit down, ‘cause you look shattered.”

  “Well, you will go falling through floors.” She let go a little giggle, nervous and forced.

  “You’ve been on the murder team two years now, that correct?”

  “Yes, two years.”

  Macleod nodded. “Is this your first one with a live body to save? You seem nervous.”

  “Yes, so far they have started off dead and no more have been added. You don’t seem to be nervous.”

  “Inside, I’m churning. Inside I’m falling apart Hope. We need to get lucky and save a woman’s life. A
nd I’m stuck here awaiting a car. And all I can do is think of my wife and how this place killed her. Trust me, the professionalism only happens on the outside.”

  “Has it been long? I mean, since she left you.”

  “Yes, twenty years. But I still remember it. And you, you bring it all back.”

  “Me?”

  “Yes,” said Macleod. “It’s just moments. You’re like what she would have developed into. But this place held her free spirit down. I held it down. If I stare at times, I’m sorry, but you remind me of what I lost, what I destroyed. I should have been a bigger man and told them to stuff it all. Don’t change, Hope, don’t change for them, whoever them is. It’ll be the death of you.”

  He saw her puzzled look but she placed a sympathetic hand on his knee. “Car coming, Seoras. Bit off but it looks like one of ours.”

  “Thank you God for that.”

  “Yes sir. Thank God.”

  Chapter 26

  In the back of the car, Macleod sat reviewing the case in his own mind, checking in case they had missed anything. Hope was sitting in the front, occasionally talking to the constable driving but Macleod did not hear any of the conversation. He thought about Sara’s mother and the sort of woman she had been. Details were sketchy and probably partisan but it looked like she played around a bit. And she came a cropper because of it.

  And Sara had seemed the same, actually making money off sleeping with clients from her massage shop. But she had been doing what he did, investigating. In a different set of circumstances would Sara have been different. Who knows? But to have the determination to find her mother’s killer, as she saw it, was something extraordinary. I hope God sees it that way, Sara, but I don’t know.

  The radio in the car beeped into life and Macleod listened to the conversation now. A van found and not far from their current location.

  “Get me there, now constable.”

  The driver stepped on the pedal and the car roared along one of the main roads. After a few minutes, Macleod saw a police car, lights flashing at the side of the road. His own car pulled up alongside and he jumped out of the car.

  A female officer with a squat face moved towards him. “I checked the van in case anyone was in trouble, sir. But I have only opened the front driver’s door and the rear door, nothing else. I haven’t touched anything either with my bare hands.”

  “Good,” said Macleod, “much in it?”

  The woman indicated he should follow and led him to the rear of the van where one door hung open. Looking inside Macleod saw the blood on the floor. It was not a copious amount, more of a smattering. There were several attempts made to clean up by the wet wipes left in the van. This was looking very amateurish, like a panicked attempt. But where do you go from here? And how? If this was Marie Smith, she’d need an accomplice, someone either to manipulate like she had the poor man who had lost his life at Ness, or an outright player. He doubted the second.

  “Officer, get hold of Detective Allinson and tell him to find Iain Angus MacDonald right now. See where he is. Trace his car.”

  “Sir?” questioned Hope as the officer retired to relay instructions.

  “Look at this. Up until now it’s all been done rather well. No hint of panic but I reckon she got a shock when we found the beach and then the house. She never expected us to hone in like that. Why would she? We got lucky. Whatever she’s done with our young woman, she’s been trouble and there’s blood in the rental van. I don’t even think she knew we were onto anything until she saw us get to the beach. So what does she do?”

  “She tries to clean up the van with whatever she’s got,” said Hope. “There’s only wet wipes and there’s not enough, so she decides to move on, cut and run. But she needs another vehicle, needs someone she trusts, or at least can manipulate. Her son, he’s involved, so blame him.”

  “That’s what I think. But it also means she needs to get rid of our young woman now. She may even come back to torch this. And given her record I think Iain Angus might be in danger too. We need to find her fast. And it’ll be dark soon or as dark as it gets here in summer. She might hide up until then. We need to find her fast.”

  “If she’s going to hide until later she will get the car out of sight, surely. Iain Angus’ involved in the case if it’s him, or she’ll use someone else. You should get back to Stornoway and run things from the operations room, sir. It’ll be down to the feet on the ground and you’d be of better use there.”

  Macleod nodded and looked inside the van one more time. There was nothing but smeared blood, wiped down but not all mopped up. There must have been quite a bit to start with. A sickening feeling went through his stomach as he thought of what might have happened in the van. Walking to the front cab of the van, Macleod saw it was completely devoid of anything. He carefully opened the glove compartment with a covered hand and saw it only had the manufacturer’s manuals and notes in a smart leather wallet.

  She’ll come back for this, surely. She’ll realise she can’t leave it. She’ll have to clean it thoroughly at least. But she doesn’t know we know about the van. So her priority is to get rid of the body. If the girl’s a corpse. If not she’ll need to dispose of her. Come on Allinson, give me something.

  After catching a car back into Stornoway, Macleod made his way to the investigation room which fell silent as he entered. Hope flanked him as he began what he prayed would be a galvanising pep talk.

  “We have a life in our hands, possibly two. I believe our killer is in a panic but still unaware of just how much we know. We’ve had good presence on the roads and this will have spooked her. She’s probably in another vehicle, not her own, and possibly with an accomplice, maybe her son, but I’ll keep an open mind regarding that. So we need our road stops, looking for anything unusual, search vehicles if we have to. We need feet out checking outhouses, barns, anywhere you can hide a car. Relatives too. Check her relatives discreetly.”

  Hope stepped forward and indicated she wanted to talk. Nodding, Macleod stepped back and watched Hope take centre stage. As her hands went to her hips, pushing her blouse back, she cut an imposing figure.

  “I know we’d probably like more people than we have but there we go. Most of you are also like the boss and myself, pretty exhausted and more than a little weary from the last few days. However, let’s step it up again. Every detail, get it checked, get our foot soldiers on the move and searching. Everywhere Marie Smith might go, find it. This is Stornoway, this is your place. Show us you know it and its people. Find her!”

  There was a moment of silence and then people broke. Macleod clapped his hands and there was sudden silence again. “One big push, please. Thank you all for your efforts, one last big push.” As the din of the room began again, Hope drew Macleod aside.

  “Sorry, was that too much?”

  “A little. If we don’t get her we can’t have this lingering on them. There’s a large amount of luck in this and these guys may have to do this again one day. You can’t have any hang ups. The Lord knows I have mine and it’s a form of hell.”

  Hope nodded and smiled. “I’ll get on it too.”

  “Relatives, people we don’t know that Marie Smith might use. Maybe in an innocent way. Borrow their car. Park somewhere.”

  “Yes sir.”

  He hated this time. Macleod had deployed his troops and now he had to wait. Someone gave him a coffee which stopped his first course of action of making himself one. Then a call came in from his boss. After updating her, he came back into the investigation room and tried to look positive. But it was a struggle. After a while Allinson updated him on what they had covered so far. It was all good and useful but had produced no fruit. Outside the evening started to draw in.

  He watched Hope swooping around the room, gathering information from different officers. Her bruised face still spoilt her looks but she had a different beauty, a grace about her. And as she was talking to a male detective, he saw her face light up. She grabbed the airwave communicatio
ns and spoke to someone out in the field. Macleod could not make out her words but her shoulders tensed and her foot began to tap. He reached for his jacket.

  Hope raced over to him and then saw his jacket in hand.

  “Just take me there and tell me in the car,” said Macleod and followed her out of the door.

  Hope drove the car from the backyard out into the streets of Stornoway. It was a tight knot around the station with one way traffic flows and she remained quiet as she worked her way out to the main roads.

  “Out toward the little wind turbines we saw on the ferry, near the sewage plant,” spluttered Hope, “apparently a cousin on holiday, neighbour has seen movement recently.”

  “Holm direction,” said Macleod, quietly and with little enthusiasm. Right where I was the other day. Where you said goodbye.

  “The neighbour said it could only have been ten minutes since the car left.”

  “Where did it go? Right or left? Main road or up to the Iolaire monument?”

  “She didn’t say, I didn’t know there were two directions, thought it was a single road in to them.”

  As the car exited the main part of Stornoway and climbed slightly on the road out, Macleod thought about where they had roadblocks. On the board it had shown one at the school at Sandwick which was just beyond the junction they needed. Anything else was taking the road back to town, in amongst people and familiar faces. Or up to Holm. She’s trapped but if she has a body to get rid of, then the sea is the place.

  Hope had now climbed out of Stornoway and Macleod pointed to the junction for her turn. She flung the car round and went quickly down the single track road. There were two houses together and a new one just beyond them with a police car outside. Pulling the car up alongside, Hope wound down the window.

  “What’s the latest officer?”

  “Left fifteen minutes ago. I radioed all units in town and at the station. Blue Kia, hatchback. This house is a new build only here a year. Mr and Mrs Smith, currently on holiday in the Bahamas. Car registration starts with an SY but then most cars here do.”