by Lin Anderson
McNab cut him off. ‘I don’t discuss work with people outside the job.’
McColl, obviously taken aback by McNab’s sharp response, said, ‘Rhona has never spoken of any of the cases she’s worked on. I only know a little about the sin-eater case because of what I read in the newspapers.’
‘The newspapers are full of shite,’ McNab said. ‘I have to dump my bags, then I’d like to see the images taken at the locus.’
‘Of course.’
They were at the hotel now. McNab pushed open the door and was assailed by the warm fugginess of a bar, complete with laughter and chatter.
Jamie indicated that Rhona was already there, over by the fire. ‘That’s Donald she’s with, and Blaze of course.’
McNab wasn’t a dog lover, but this one, he had to admit, was a magnificent specimen, the intelligent eyes appraising him from afar even as he studied it.
Climbing the narrow stairs to the first floor, key in hand, McNab decided that it wasn’t so much the countryside he disliked, but the familiarity of its inhabitants with one another. Sanday had been the same, he recalled. Since, by the nature of his calling, he believed everyone guilty until proved innocent, this friendly intermingling between the police and the public was not something he approved of.
Unlocking his room door, he registered that he didn’t have a four-poster, but he did have a double. This thought brought Ellie to mind and he checked his mobile in the hope that there was some further correspondence from her.
There wasn’t.
There was, however, a text message from Ollie.
Call me, it’s about Harry.
McNab pulled up Ollie’s number and listened to it ringing out. Eventually Ollie’s breathless voice answered.
‘Detective Sergeant McNab?’
‘Fuck’s sake, Ollie. My name’s on the screen.’
There was a brief silence before Ollie said, ‘I’m about to send a short video from the CCTV footage I retrieved from the Death Star. Can you please take a look?’
‘Okay,’ McNab said cautiously.
He waited impatiently as the video took what seemed like an eternity to download, sensing that what he was about to see wasn’t something he would welcome.
Eventually it was ready to run. McNab pressed the play button and concentrated on the screen, his heart already skipping a beat.
It hadn’t been captured in the area near to the discharge lounge he’d visited. It was somewhere else entirely, but McNab recognized Harry right away from the footage. He emerged from the building and stood, hesitant, looking about him expectantly.
A black cab drew up alongside, but Harry didn’t approach it. Instead a woman appeared in a wheelchair and was helped into the vehicle by the driver. As this scene played out, Harry walked part way out of the picture.
McNab swore, thinking they were about to lose him altogether. But no. As the taxi drew away, it was replaced by the sudden arrival of a motorbike. A Harley-Davidson, the rider’s outfit sporting a blood-red splash. He murmured more expletives into the air, already aware of the significance of this.
He watched as a few words were exchanged, before Harry climbed on behind the figure McNab suspected, by the outfit, to be Ellie’s best mate, Izzy. Above them on the screen the recording gave McNab the time of the pick-up.
The timing was crucial. Replaying that morning’s coupling in his head, he realized it had to have been part of the plan. Ellie had encouraged him to have sex, to delay his arrival at the hospital, having already arranged that Izzy should collect Harry.
The question was how had she been in touch with Harry to arrange it? And why had she done this behind his back?
The first question was easy to answer. Ellie had made another visit to Harry to arrange it. Or they had been in touch another way. Harry hadn’t had a phone when he’d been admitted to hospital, but Ellie could have easily supplied him with a pay-as-you-go model.
The answer to the second question, McNab realized, was equally obvious. Ellie hadn’t trusted him to keep his word to deliver Harry to her flat. So she’d organized that delivery herself, just to be sure.
McNab thought back to his delaying tactics, his staying-out-late routine, the consumption of whisky, all to avoid facing Ellie.
He recalled the spoiled meal waiting for him when he’d eventually returned to the flat to discover Ellie wasn’t there. If he had gone home as promised, was her plan to tell him the truth?
McNab suspected that’s exactly what Ellie would have done.
But he hadn’t given her the chance.
59
Rhona passed Donald the photograph of the uniformed Private Peter Galbraith and watched as he studied it closely.
‘Yep,’ he eventually came back. ‘I’d say that was the guy in the toilet that night.’
‘You’re sure?’ Rhona said.
‘Pretty sure. He was high, and definitely not as smart-looking, but I would say it’s the same guy.’ Donald hesitated. ‘Would it help if I also took a look at Jamie’s shots of the mountain casualty? See if I think it might be the same bloke? I’ve helped recover quite a few bodies on the hills over the years, and I’m not squeamish.’
‘He’s right,’ Jamie intervened. ‘And he’s the only one to get up close to Galbraith that night in the bar.’
Rhona considered this. Had Donald been out with the team he would have already viewed the body, so she didn’t see there was a problem letting him take a look at it now.
‘Good idea,’ she said.
Jamie brought up an image on his mobile and passed the phone to Donald.
After a few moments, Donald responded. ‘The face is the problem,’ he said. ‘It’s unrecognizable. Height and build are similar, hair colour, but we could probably say that about two of the three guys currently standing at the bar.’
Donald was right, Rhona thought, glancing at a party of male climbers who’d just come in.
‘You don’t happen to have a close-up of the back of his neck?’ Donald said, prompted, it seemed, by a sudden thought. ‘Army personnel are allowed tattoos on the back of the neck, but not on the front where it’s visible in an official photograph. The guy in the toilet had a tattoo of the Scottish flag there. I remember because I fancied getting one done just like it.’
Jamie shook his head. ‘What about you, Rhona?’
There had been a number of tattoos on the body. Had there been a small flag on the nape of the neck or had post-mortem lividity hidden it? Rhona was already going through her own shots just to be sure. She had definitely photographed enough of the underside of the body to give evidence to its having been turned after death. But had she captured the nape of the neck well enough to identify a possible saltire?
‘Look,’ Rhona said. ‘There.’ She expanded the partial image to reveal part of the white cross on a blue background.
It wasn’t definitive evidence, they would need the DNA results for that, but it brought them closer to identifying the climbing casualty as that of Private Peter Galbraith.
As they took this in, Rhona spotted McNab’s arrival in the bar and waved him over. McNab’s scowl, Rhona noted, suggested he wasn’t keen on joining the party, but he came anyway.
Ignoring a pointed look that indicated he would prefer to speak to her alone, Rhona passed McNab her mobile.
‘Donald spotted the flag tattoo on his neck when he encountered him in the Gents,’ she said. ‘Which suggests the dead climber may well be your soldier.’
Her declaration was followed by an extended silence on McNab’s part, after which he said pointedly, ‘Can we speak alone, Dr MacLeod?’
Jamie and Donald glanced at one another. ‘We’ll let you two talk,’ Jamie said as they rose.
‘What’s going on?’ Rhona demanded as soon as the two men were out of earshot.
‘You’ve been off the job far too long, Dr MacLeod,’ McNab said. ‘Sharing evidence with the general public—’
Rhona cut him off right there. ‘I was not sharing evide
nce, I was gathering evidence.’
‘Who’s to say either of those men might not end up as a suspect?’
‘A suspect in what?’ Rhona said.
‘Your other friend Archie McKinnon and his mates all gave the exact same story to DS Clark regarding Paul Watson. Looks like the locals may not all be telling the truth.’
‘Donald has no reason to lie about the tattoo,’ Rhona countered.
‘Donald saw someone snorting cocaine in the Gents. Didn’t mention it to anyone until he got in tow with Chrissy, which might be considered a convenient coupling, particularly if you wanted to get close to the action?’
‘Chrissy would never discuss the case with him.’
‘It seems to me that everyone is openly discussing the case, at every opportunity. Like you, here in the pub with those two.’
There was an element of truth in what McNab was saying, but he was still wrong. ‘Things work differently in an island community,’ Rhona said. ‘I thought you’d learned that on Sanday.’
When McNab didn’t respond, Rhona continued, ‘I suggest you take Jamie to the police station after this and record what he says about the locus, which I had, if you recall, suggested you do in the first place. As for showing Donald the photograph of Private Galbraith, Sergeant MacDonald had already okayed that.’
When McNab still didn’t respond, she added, her ire up, ‘Maybe you’d like to interrogate the dog too, while you’re at it? After all, it was Blaze that led me to the scene in the woods in the first place.’
McNab had the grace to look momentarily abashed, but Rhona knew it wouldn’t last long, so she waved the two men back over. Once they were seated, she directed her next comment at Jamie. ‘The wound to the face most likely occurred when he was still alive. Any thought on how that wound might have happened?’
‘You mean with respect to the terrain?’
‘Exactly,’ Rhona said.
Jamie brought up a series of images to illustrate his explanation. ‘Okay. From where we found him, we think he may have been tackling the An Dorus twins, Sgurr a Mhadaidh and Sgurr a Ghreadaidh. The ascent of An Dorus is over steep scree and involves tricky scrambling. Considering the weather, he should have had an ice axe with him. We didn’t find one. After the scree there’s a steep and narrow gully. If it was icy that could have proved very tricky. If a mist comes down, An Dorus can seem unrecognizable from what you’ve seen on the way up. Pretty scary.’
Jamie continued, ‘He should also have been wearing a helmet. We searched for one, but if he lost it further up, it could have landed anywhere. Without protection you’re open to boulder falls. And remember what he looked like when we found him.’
He shared the image again.
The body lay on its front, two-thirds of it obscured by a mound of rock debris.
‘The scree was very loose. We struggled to reach him, and even more when trying to bring him down.’
McNab was staring at the image intently. ‘How far is this spot from a road?’
Jamie, with a glance at Rhona, brought up an Ordnance Survey map and showed McNab.
‘There was no vehicle abandoned at the usual parking place.’ Jamie pointed to the location. ‘So we’re assuming he walked in.’
‘You believe he was alive when he arrived at the scree slope?’ McNab said.
Jamie looked taken aback by the question. ‘How else could he have got there?’
By Jamie’s tone, Rhona wondered whether the two men had already had words before they’d got to the Isles. That might then account for McNab’s belligerence and Jamie’s response.
McNab had fallen silent after Jamie’s question, but Rhona could almost hear his thoughts, they were so loud.
‘You’re suggesting foul play?’ she said.
‘Everything that’s happened here in the last few days strikes me as foul,’ McNab said pointedly.
Rhona brought an end to the war of words. ‘We need to bring Lee up to date with this, plus there’s been a development on the Seven front,’ she said. ‘Courtesy of Archie McKinnon.’ She directed this at McNab. ‘Shall we head over there now?’
The way back across proved to be a sheet of black ice. Rhona’s boots coped, as did those of Donald and Jamie. McNab, however, was visibly struggling.
‘I can lend you grips,’ Jamie offered as McNab just saved himself from going his length for the second time.
It was kindly said but, Rhona thought, by McNab’s face, it only added insult to injury.
On entry to the station, it was clear that something had happened while they were at the Isles. The explanation seemed to be the sudden drop in temperature which had seen at least three cars leave the road round the island and all available police vehicles and personnel sent out to deal with the situation, including Lee.
‘The Sleat road is apparently one of the ones affected,’ Jamie told her. ‘Best if you don’t tackle it tonight.’
Rhona had no intention of doing so. ‘I’ll stay at yours again, if that’s all right?’
‘Of course,’ Jamie said. ‘I’m going to check in, see if the MRT’s required. I’ll be home later.’
Donald left with him, leaving Rhona and McNab alone.
‘I suggest we locate Chrissy, then get some food together,’ Rhona suggested.
By his expression, McNab liked that idea, but the sarcasm wasn’t over yet. ‘Won’t Chrissy be headed home with the bold Donald?’
‘Let’s find out,’ Rhona said.
60
‘At last,’ McNab said, toasting them with his pint of Skye Gold. ‘The team back together again.’
Chrissy glanced at Rhona, who, smiling a little, didn’t comment.
‘What are we eating then?’ Chrissy said. ‘I fancy the macaroni cheese.’
‘No contest,’ McNab said. ‘I’m having the steak pie.’
Rhona contemplated her favourite fish and chips, but instead when the waitress arrived plumped for haggis, neeps and tatties.
‘So,’ McNab tried again when she’d departed with their order. ‘Isn’t this good?’
‘Stop it,’ Rhona warned.
McNab made a face. ‘Stop what?’
‘Trying to persuade me. It’s never worked before and it won’t now.’
Chrissy must have kicked McNab under the table, because he gave a yelp.
Rhona now brought up the subject she’d intended discussing all along.
‘I think Seven is the key to a lot of this,’ she said. ‘And I suspect she was the one injured in the woods that night behind A.C.E Target Sports. The question is how, and more importantly, why.’
‘We can’t confirm that without her DNA,’ Chrissy reminded her. ‘Pity you didn’t collect some from the tent.’
‘Which wasn’t a crime scene and therefore inadmissible.’ Rhona stated what they were all aware of. ‘Blaze’s instinct in the plantation was to protect. He’d met her before at A.C.E and in the pub, but it wasn’t just familiarity, I think he knew she was frightened.’
She continued, ‘Jen Mackie found traces of cocaine in the soil sample from there that I sent. What if Lee’s original thought that a consignment of drugs had been buried there was correct? Could that have been why Watson was back on the island? To retrieve it?’
The food arrived at this point and they fell silent.
‘There was no link, as far as we know, between the beach body and the clearing,’ Chrissy reminded them after the waitress departed.
‘We haven’t had anything back yet on the soil samples I sent from Watson’s boots,’ Rhona said. ‘According to the soil map of Skye, the soil structure is different in the area of the clearing from that above Kilt Rock. The vegetation too. If we could place Watson in the area of the clearing—’
‘We could link the soldiers to the Snowman,’ McNab said, his eyes lighting up at such a prospect.
‘Have you heard anything back from Ollie about the dog tag?’ Rhona said, switching her train of thought.
McNab pulled out his mobile
and scrolled through his messages, selecting one of them to read.
‘Well?’ demanded Chrissy.
‘There’s nothing on the dog, but . . .’ McNab’s face betrayed his amazement at what he’d just viewed.
‘But what?’ Chrissy said impatiently.
‘It’s from Ellie. Harry McArthur’s asked her to contact me. He wants to come in and give a statement,’ McNab said quietly.
‘How did Ellie know where he was?’ Chrissy demanded.
‘I’ll explain later,’ Rhona promised her. ‘So,’ she said, focusing on McNab, ‘you’ll head back to Glasgow tomorrow for the post-mortem on what we believe is Private Galbraith’s body.’
‘And we find out why Harry gave you Galbraith’s service number in the first place,’ Chrissy said.
McNab didn’t respond, his demeanour suggesting he was still dumbfounded at the latest development.
‘Okay,’ Rhona roused McNab, ‘let’s bring Lee up to date.’
They discovered DS Clark in residence at the station, although DS MacDonald and the other officers were still out all over the island.
‘A couple of road accidents,’ Janice said. ‘It’s apparently like a skating rink out there.’
‘So I’ve noticed,’ McNab said.
‘Donald MacKay’s been by and given his statement about Private Galbraith and the saltire tattoo. Plus Jamie McColl has handed in his shots of the location of the dead climber and details about the terrain,’ Janice said. ‘Is there anything else?’
Rhona explained about her interview with Archie. ‘We’ll need that recorded too.’
‘So he thinks someone is following the girl?’ Janice said. ‘Should we be concerned by that?’
Rhona wasn’t sure and said so. ‘Something’s not right between the group, but it may have nothing to do with any of this.’
‘You don’t believe that?’
‘No,’ Rhona admitted, ‘but until we get any return on the various forensic evidence we’ve submitted, we can’t be sure of anything.’
McNab came in then. ‘I’m headed back tomorrow with the body. Harry has made contact and wants to give a statement.’