The Dark Isle

by Katherine Pathak

  Dani shook her head and tutted. “Evil bastards.”

  “An extremist group linked to fundamentalists in Afghanistan took responsibility. We arrested the two men who planted the bombs. They’d been caught on CCTV. They were both Glaswegian, born and bred.”

  “I remember. I was there for the investigation. It felt like those indoctrinated boys were just the tip of the iceberg.”

  “They’ve been in prison for eleven years now. They’ll never come out.”

  “And the victims will never forget.” Dani finished her coffee.

  Phil folded his arms across his chest. “I never saw what the others did. I was back at Cowcaddens Road, co-ordinating the operation and watching the events unfold on BBC Scotland. But Kerr Travis unburdened himself to me one evening in the pub. He had a young family too. There were several child casualties at the scene. Travis was in pieces, barely keeping things together.”

  “Did the officers receive counselling?”

  “Yes, they did. I sensed that the pain eased with time, didn’t you?”

  Dani nodded. “Aye, I did. But I still felt our team was never the same. Juliet led our investigations in a new way after 2006. She was tougher, less compassionate.”

  “I was relieved when you eventually got your promotion to DI. I never hesitated after you asked me to follow you to Pitt Street when a position came up.”

  Dani laid her hand on his arm. “It felt like we had to get away. Juliet had taught me everything, I owed her so much. But in those last few years, it was like she was losing control.”

  Phil’s eyes misted with sadness. “That’s exactly what it was like.”

  Chapter 12

  The party had set out just after dusk. It was the time of year in the Highlands when it never really got truly dark. That’s what Andy hoped, anyway.

  Ballater had towed his boat to a landing stage nestled amongst a natural cove of jagged rock on the northern tip of Nabb. Andy hadn’t known it existed. None of the locals they interviewed had mentioned it to the police. The structure was rickety and in disrepair, but still managed to do the job.

  Bill kept glancing nervously at his wife. They were both wrapped up in padded jackets and had woollen hats pulled down low over their ears to keep out the chill. A bulky bag was stuffed down between the older man’s feet; as if they were prepared for a natural disaster of some kind. Joy was staring resolutely ahead, in the direction of the dark silhouette of Ghiant, a narrow sliver on the horizon.

  The boat surged as the tiny outboard motor powered through the gentle waves. It was a calm evening. Andy was using binoculars to scan the water, checking that the police launch wasn’t still patrolling the area.

  The journey took just over half an hour. Andy was beginning to realise that bringing Juliet Lowther’s body here under the cover of dusk wouldn’t have been too difficult a job, particularly for someone who knew the area.

  Ballater jumped out of the stern and hauled the boat up the beach. Andy noticed the bulge of his muscles as he made the task look easy. The fisherman then lifted Joy clear of the boat and planted her gently on the shingle. Bill and Andy scrambled out after them.

  Ballater informed his passengers that he would be sheltering in the old post office, having a cigarette. That’s where they could find him when they were done.

  Andy lifted the flashlights out of his backpack and handed them to his companions as they strode up the shore to the road. “Only use them in an emergency. Someone on Nabb might see the lights and raise the alarm. This is a murder scene, remember? The local police have the place under surveillance.”

  Bill nodded. “Of course. The moon is full tonight. We should be able to see perfectly well.”

  “Do you want me to come with you?”

  Bill shook his head. “Can Joy and I have some time alone here?”

  “Okay, fine. But don’t wander too far from the road. And for Pete’s sake don’t get into any trouble.”

  “Don’t worry, Sergeant Calder, we’ll be perfectly okay. You really needn’t concern yourself about us.”

  Andy rolled his eyes, feeling he’d heard that one before from the Hutchisons and learnt to recognise its foreshadowing of disaster. But he was glad of the opportunity to have a recce of the place himself. He’d not had chance to see the spot where Lowther’s body was found. He usually would have by now in a murder investigation.

  The detective approached what he knew to be Rushbrooke Farm from the scene of crime photographs. He could tell the stone farmhouse had once been substantial. There was evidence of several outhouses positioned up the hillside. The largest of these he knew to be the place where Lowther’s body was dumped.

  Andy looked back towards the beach. It was maybe a quarter of a mile away. The slope was relatively gentle. Andy tried to scan the undergrowth, looking for signs of drag marks. He cursed the lack of light. It was impossible to make out a damn thing. He wasn’t going to risk switching on the torch. But he knew the teams that first examined the scene didn’t identify any. Which suggested the perp was strong enough to lift the body somehow. Or there was more than one person involved in the disposal.

  They hadn’t lifted any shoe-prints either. The weather leading up to the discovery of the body had been windy but fair. The lack of rain meant the ground was hard. There wasn’t much, evidence-wise, going in their favour.

  Andy briskly walked the area around the barn. There was a copse of trees at the brow of the hill, which gently rose behind the farm. He found it odd to be in a place without any street lights. He imagined that the inhabitants left the island before they became ubiquitous. Their absence meant that the sky seemed magnified above him, the stars as clear as he’d ever seen them.

  Glancing at his watch, Andy began making his way back to the road. When he reached the remains of the old post office, he saw a snake of smoke escaping through one of the window apertures, where the glass was long gone. Ballater was still there waiting for them.

  Andy looked up and down the street. The moonlight was illuminating it like a landing strip. There was no sign of Bill and Joy anywhere.

  Ballater stepped out of the doorway. “We need to get going soon. The wee boat will struggle if the tide is against us.”

  Andy felt his frustration bubbling up. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, finding Bill’s number and calling it. The ring tone clicked straight onto answerphone. His friend didn’t even have his mobile switched on.

  Reluctant to do so, although he wasn’t sure why, they were a long way from civilisation, Andy called out to the couple, striding up and down the main street as he did so, each cry becoming increasingly urgent. “Shit,” he muttered under his breath as there was no response of any kind.

  Ballater strode up to join him. “If we don’t head back now, we’ll all be here when the police boat arrives in the morning. I’m guessing you’ll be in deep shit with your boss and I’ll be arrested for contaminating a crime scene or some such bollocks. I’ll probably find myself back up there as murder suspect number one.”

  Andy glanced about him in desperation. The abandoned village was eerily still. There was no sign of human life. “For Christ’s sake, Bill!” He cried out one more time. “Where the bloody hell are you both!?”

  Chapter 13

  DI Peyton was looking more relaxed as he addressed the team. The dark blotches which had encircled his eyes for the previous few days had receded. The man had clearly enjoyed a decent night’s sleep.

  Which was more than could be said for Calder. He’d got back to the hotel before midnight and retired straight to his room, where he sat at the bay window and trained his binoculars on the Isle of Ghiant until the early hours of the morning, searching for signs of life.

  “Thanks to DCI Bevan’s detective work on the mainland, we now have a new lead. The team at Fort William have put out an ANPR check on the car that we now know was registered in Juliet Lowther’s name.”

  “A green Ford Focus,” Alice Mann clarified. “Do we bel
ieve this is the vehicle that brought our victim to the west coast?”

  “I’m hoping the camera records will show us whether that is the case. What threw us off the scent initially was the fact that Lowther clearly kept the car at a location separate from her residence. Nobody knew she drove it, including her brother.”

  “Why would she keep its existence a secret?” Andy asked, trying to focus on the situation in hand. “The car was legally taxed and insured. It wasn’t as if there was anyone in her life who would have much cared about her driving it.”

  Peyton furrowed his brow. “We must surmise that Lowther was up to something she wanted to conceal. Trips to meet people that she didn’t want becoming public knowledge.”

  “It was this secret existence that no doubt got her killed,” Alice added sagely.

  Peyton addressed Andy directly. “Tell me what happened between you and Sean Ballater.”

  The DS nearly jumped out of his seat. “I’m sorry, sir? What do you mean?”

  Alice shot him an odd glance.

  “What did he have to say for himself when you and Alice went back to re-interview?” Peyton clarified.

  “Oh, right. I think we both concluded that although Ballater is an untrustworthy type, willing to set pots in places he’s not supposed to, there’s no evidence of a body having been on his premises or in his boat.”

  “I concur with that, sir,” Alice added. “The general consensus amongst the fishing folk on Nabb is that this crime was committed by an outsider. I interviewed Ballater’s wife, she’s in the cottage most of the time by herself. She’s noticed a few more tourists wandering up the beach near their place in recent months, but no one whose behaviour stands out.”

  Peyton sighed. “Then we need to strike Ballater off our suspect list.” He turned to DC Tom Carrick. “Is it worth talking to the old lady again – remind me, what was her name?”

  “Mrs Hutchison,” Tom replied.

  “That’s right. We might be able to get more out of her about the island. To be honest, until the ANPR reports come in, we’re treading water here.”

  Before Carrick could answer, Andy cut in. “I believe they’ve already gone, sir. I saw the husband on the pier yesterday. They were going to complete their walking tour of the Cuillins. I said it was okay. We wouldn’t need them for anything else.”

  The young DC nodded. “That sounds about right. Mr Hutchison was obsessed with those hills. I don’t really think his wife had much more to say. I thought she was a bit batty. I’m not sure her testimony would get us anywhere, boss.”

  Peyton sighed. “Okay, fair enough. It was worth a try. In the meantime, we search Gordon for any signs of this green Focus. DI Mann and DS Calder, can you sign out one of the squad cars and take a drive round the island, see if this vehicle is parked up anywhere? Check out a few barns and garages if you have to.” He caught each officer’s eye. “It would be mightily embarrassing to find out Lowther’s car has been on Nabb this whole time.”

  Andy got to his feet. “Certainly, sir. We’ll do that immediately.”

  *

  Alice glanced across at her colleague, as he gripped the steering wheel and stared straight ahead at the narrow road which circumnavigated the island. “You look like shit.”

  Andy managed to crack a smile. “You don’t look much better yourself.”

  “Do you remember that expensive single malt we drank in the hotel bar the other night?”

  “Aye, it was a lovely drop.”

  “Well, I spent the following couple of hours throwing it up in the toilet of my en-suite.”

  Andy turned to look at her properly. Alice was thinner than ever, which he wouldn’t have thought possible. “Maybe you should go back to Glasgow, get the division medic to take a look at you. This case isn’t really our problem.”

  Alice smiled at his concern. “I already know what’s wrong with me. It didn’t require Dr Findlay and his casebook to work it out.”

  Andy nodded his head in dawning comprehension. “You’re pregnant.”

  “Yup.”

  “Not great timing?”

  “You could say that.” Alice chuckled without humour. “Fergus and I have only been an item for six months.”

  “What are you going to do?” Andy knew this was a topic where he needed to tread carefully. He wasn’t about to spill her secrets. He had enough of his own.

  She shrugged. “Tell Fergus first. He was an unwanted baby. The thought that his mother could’ve got rid of him rather than having him adopted is something that gives him sleepless nights.”

  “From what I know of Fergus, I reckon he’ll want this baby. The timing may not be great for you, but I sense he’s ready to settle down.”

  Alice distracted herself by scanning the roadsides and verges for signs of the car. “I think you’re probably right,” she finally replied. “I might have to put the brakes on my career for a while.”

  “Fergus is a lawyer, he’s got money. You can get childcare and come back. That wasn’t an option for me and Carol. Her job didn’t pay enough to make it worthwhile.”

  “Yeah, but Carol wanted to be at home with Amy, didn’t she? I can tell she’s a brilliant Mum.”

  Andy flushed with pride. “Aye, that’s certainly true. But Amy’s at school now. I’m always telling Carol she needs something else in her life.”

  Alice never thought she’d ever be having this kind of heart-to-heart with Andy Calder of all people. “Anyway, what got into you this morning in the briefing. You nearly fell off your chair when Peyton asked us about Ballater?”

  Andy shifted in his seat, avoiding her gaze. “I didn’t get much sleep last night, that’s all. I sat in the bar until late.”

  “You’d better lay off that single malt, then. It clearly doesn’t agree with you.”

  Andy raised his eyebrows playfully. “Well, I think that goes double for you now, DI Mann. It’s strictly orange juices for the next nine months.”

  Despite herself, Alice laughed. She’d been foolhardy enough to confide in Calder about her condition. She was going to have to accept some serious ribbing as a consequence.

  Chapter 14

  The ANPR checks had generated several matches. DI Peyton relayed the results to Dani first, as she’d been the one to find the lead.

  Peyton called her at her Scotstounhill flat. “There’s a camera on the A82 between Glencoe and Oban. Lowther’s car was picked up a few times on that stretch in the past couple of years.”

  Dani pictured the route in her mind’s eye. “If Juliet was driving south on a regular basis, then that’s the road she’d use, isn’t it?”

  “You think she was heading back to Glasgow?”

  “Juliet had lived in the city for a long time. She must have had associates there, friends even. It’s the only other place in Scotland that we know she had links to.”

  Peyton sighed. “If she’d taken the central route, through Glencoe itself, there are no cameras until Callender. It would be possible to weave through the back roads and not get picked up by ANPR.”

  “She may have taken that route more times than the checks suggest?” Dani thought about this. “What about her movements in the weeks leading up to her death?”

  Peyton was smiling on the other end of the line. He couldn’t help himself. “We’ve got a registration match showing the car entering Mallaig on the A830, at 1.03pm, just four days before her body was found.”

  Dani stood up straighter at this news. “Do we know if Juliet was driving?”

  Peyton felt a rush of excitement as he relayed the information. “We pulled the CCTV from the petrol stations on that route between Fort William and Mallaig. We got a clear shot of Lowther filling up the Focus at the Corpach Esso station. From what we could make out, she was alone at this point.”

  “Juliet got herself to the west coast. This is a real breakthrough. Have you checked the hotels and guesthouses in Mallaig? Did she get on a ferry there?”

  “We’re working on those a
venues now, Ma’am. I also have some local officers checking the town for the car. It may have been her last port of call.”

  “Yes, possibly. Well done, Grant, this is excellent work.”

  “Thank you, Ma’am. But it was you who gave us the lead.”

  Dani ignored the show of gratitude. She knew the real graft lay in following it up. “I’m still interviewing Juliet’s old police colleagues here in Glasgow. I’ve got nothing solid so far, but I feel like it’s important. Do you want me back on Nabb?”

  “No, Ma’am, I’d prefer it if you continued to dig into Lowther’s past. Andy and Alice are doing me proud here. I’m grateful to still have them to be honest.”

  “You’ve got them for as long as you want.” Dani breathed in deeply. “We need to be seen to have put in our best efforts on this, Grant. I’m beginning to feel that Juliet’s death is part of something big.”

  Peyton gulped. His excitement turning to nausea. “Okay, well, I’ll keep you updated Ma’am. And thanks again.”

  The line was already dead.

  *

  Dani paced into the kitchen, reaching for the pot of coffee stewing on the worktop. James was seated at the table by the patio doors, poring over a thick wedge of papers.

  He glanced up. “That sounded promising?”

  “Yes, Peyton has finally got a sighting for Juliet in the days leading up to her death. His officers can now perform the enquiries we should’ve got done days ago.”

  “Does this mean you’ll be going back to the island?” James tried to sound relaxed about the prospect.

  Dani moved beside him and rested her hand on his shoulder. “I’m of better use here, tapping up Juliet’s ex-colleagues and keeping the department running smoothly.”

  James couldn’t hide his relief. “Good. I like you being at home. Although I know I shouldn’t say that.”