The Dark Isle

by Katherine Pathak

  “What about Sean Ballater? Do we think he may have known Mahtam?” Andy asked.

  “Can you speak to his wife again, Andy? See if the name rings a bell.”

  Andy nodded. “Sure, I’ll pay her a visit this afternoon.”

  “Alice and Tom, I need you to re-examine the Glasgow Division’s investigation into Mahtam’s disappearance in 2008. Find out who led it and what kind of effort they put into locating the lad. We must discover how that poor boy ended up here on Ghiant, hundreds of miles from home, tied to a chair and beaten to death.”

  Alice was already on her way to one of the desks. “We’ll get on it right now, sir.”

  Chapter 33

  The small ferry navigated the sheltered bay of Loch nan Ceall, arriving at the village of Arisaig at midday. Bill and Joy had travelled as foot passengers. This route from Nabb was a popular one with tourists. The boat lingered for a while, so the passengers could watch for the sleek, arched back of a whale, venturing near the surface of the loch. The couple walked down the gang plank onto a compact wooden pier, taking in the beauty of the place as they proceeded.

  The cottage that Joy’s aunt and uncle had moved to in May 1962 was along a narrow road nestled within woodland, a short walk from the main village. The address they were looking for turned out to comprise a single-storey stone building with a neat garden surrounding it.

  “The place seems tiny compared to Rushbrooke Farm,” Bill commented. “You mentioned the family received compensation from the government for their re-location?”

  “That’s what my mother told me. She never said how much. I don’t expect it was any kind of fortune, especially judging by the simplicity of this cottage.”

  They lingered for a while, until they saw movement behind the lace curtain hanging in one of the windows and decided to move off, before the current resident called the police. The couple strolled along a path that took them uphill, in the direction of the station.

  “Rob was offered a job at a sawmill positioned on the road north. My research indicated that it was used by the Forestry Commission, to control the woodland in this part of the highlands.” Bill pointed ahead, before referring back to his map.

  “The job was very labour-intensive,” Joy explained. “They didn’t have the machinery then that they do now for felling trees and chopping wood. But it was a steady salary. My cousins could attend the local school and made friends in the village. Aunty Catrin got a job at the bakery.”

  They walked for another half an hour before deciding to have lunch at one of the hotels on the waterfront. They sat at a table in the window, where they could see the yachts bobbing in the pretty bay.

  “I could imagine the Rushbrookes being very happy here. Ghiant is a remote place. The conditions would have been especially harsh in winter.”

  Joy sipped her lemonade. “Yes, I suppose I didn’t think about that when I was a young girl. The romanticism of the place clouded my judgement. This would have been a very pleasant area to raise a family.”

  Bill brought his laptop out of the rucksack, placing it on the table and powering it up. “As you informed me, Rob’s army friend was called Murdo Dunn. He was the manager of the sawmill from 1960 until his retirement in ’75. I’m sure it was to his advantage to encourage a hard-working, skilled farmer such as your uncle to come and work for him.”

  “Did you manage to find out anything about Murdo’s war record?”

  “I made a start. I had to verify his birth date first.” Bill tapped some instructions into a search engine and summoned up the site he wanted. “I’ll add his details to the genealogy site I subscribe to, it’s got a very detailed database.”

  Joy nodded patiently. She was used to her husband’s family research.

  Bill frowned. “I can’t find his details listed here.”

  “They may not hold every record, darling. We might have to go to the archive in Edinburgh to find out more about the man.”

  Bill grunted in frustration. “I can usually discover just about everything I need these days from the internet.”

  “Try a general search. Perhaps he’s been mentioned in a book or an article.”

  Bill looked up from the screen and glanced at his wife, impressed with her good thinking. “Yes, I’ll try that. Then I will make an appointment online at the archive. It looks like we may be heading home sooner rather than later.”

  Joy gazed out of the window, she wasn’t sure how to feel about this. Not when there were so many questions left unanswered about the island.

  The sandwiches arrived and they ate in silence. Bill was absorbed in the searches he was performing on the computer. Joy didn’t chastise him for continuing to work while they ate. She was just as keen to know what he might discover.

  Finally, Bill pulled the laptop shut. He sat back and folded his arms across his chest, an odd look on his face.

  “Come on then, what have you found?”

  “Murdo Dunn was mentioned in an article, several of them, in fact. There was a flurry of pieces written in the press in the late seventies and early eighties, when the documents from World War Two were first declassified. He’s mentioned in a few of those.”

  “Declassified?”

  Bill nodded. “It seems that Murdo Dunn was an officer in the secret services during the war. He was in SOE to be precise. I expect his own family never knew the details of his experiences in those years.”

  Joy shook her head in confusion. “But Dunn was an army colleague of Uncle Rob. How would their paths have crossed?”

  “Well, I can only conclude that Rob was a spy as well. That would explain why the war office gave him a fictitious service record.”

  “And Rob isn’t mentioned in any of these articles, along with his friend Murdo?”

  “No, he isn’t. I’ve checked very thoroughly.”

  “Then maybe this is a red-herring. Perhaps Rob wasn’t involved at all, otherwise the details would have come out after the secret records had been de-classified, wouldn’t they? We’d know about it by now.”

  Bill shrugged. “Possibly, but it is odd we can’t find any record of what your uncle did get up to.” He sighed. “Of course, not all of the records were de-classified.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’ve read about it. There are still plenty of UK and US operations and activities from the Second World War which remain protected under the Official Secrets Act.”

  “Why on earth have these documents not yet been released? Its over seventy years since the war.”

  Bill leant forward. “Because they relate to activities that consecutive governments have felt are too sensitive to become common knowledge. They will involve the murkiest and least ethical elements of warfare.”

  “Good Lord,” Joy put a hand to her neck. “I think you’d better order us both a large brandy, darling.”

  Chapter 34

  Phil Boag opened his front door, adopting an expression of mock surprise. “I’m starting to think you can’t stay away from me right now.”

  Dani grinned. “Thanks for agreeing to meet. I know you’re busy.”

  “That’s the thing with working from home,” Phil called over his shoulder as he led her through to the kitchen, “everyone thinks they can drop by whenever they like.”

  Dani’s expression became more serious. She shrugged out of her jacket and perched on a stool. “We’ve identified the second body we found on Ghiant.”

  “Oh, aye?” Phil brought over a pot of coffee and two mugs.

  “He was a student who went missing from GCU back in March 2008.”

  Phil frowned, a flash of recognition crossed his face. “An Asian lad?”

  “That’s right. Adnan Mahtam. You and Matt Currie handled the report of his disappearance.”

  “Shit. I’m sorry he wound up dead.”

  “Alice has read the reports, but I want to hear about the case from you.”

  “The parents came in to report their son missing. He was supposed to be s
taying with fellow students on campus but hadn’t turned up. To be honest, we didn’t take it too seriously to begin with. He’d only been gone a night. He was twenty years old and living the student lifestyle. We told his folks to wait for another few hours.”

  “Then Mr and Mrs Mahtam came back.”

  Phil looked sheepish. “Yeah, it was over twenty-four hours by then since he’d been meant to touch base at the friend’s place. I went to the uni and interviewed his tutors. We found out he was last seen at a lecture a couple of days before. I interviewed the family at their house in Sighthill. That’s when the sister mentioned that Adnan attended the Baird Street Mosque.”

  “And this set the alarm bells ringing.”

  “It was all we’d been living and breathing the previous few months. When I got back to the station, I passed on the information to Juliet.”

  “What did she say?”

  “Juliet instructed us to assume it could be connected to our anti-terrorism investigation. She suggested it was most likely Adnan was in training somewhere and hadn’t informed his parents. It happened quite often. We were on high alert for another attack.”

  “Did you follow the usual procedure in a missing persons investigation?”

  Phil crossed his arms protectively. “Yes, we did. Matt looked at the CCTV tapes from the campus. The boy wasn’t in any of them. I interviewed his friends and family, put a trace on his phone. His debit cards were never used. Every avenue drew a blank. But the idea he’d taken off to Pakistan never sat right with me. They usually left a note in those situations, some kind of justification for their actions.”

  “Did you view the CCTV tapes yourself?”

  Phil crinkled his face. “No, Matt did it. I wasn’t going to do the job twice.”

  “You took his word for it?”

  “Yes. Hang on, Dani, what’s going on here? Are the parents of this boy lodging a complaint?”

  Dani shook her head sadly. “They should have done so many years back, but no, they aren’t. This is more serious than that. What about Kerr Travis? Did he intervene in the investigation in any way?”

  Phil considered this carefully. “I don’t recall him getting involved at all.” He put down his cup with a clatter as a recollection returned. “In fact, Kerr wasn’t in the department that week the report came in. He was on some kind of terrorism awareness course. It was all about how terrorist groups were using social media to radicalise new recruits. That was a new thing back then.”

  Dani felt her blood run cold, a tingle crept along her arms to her fingertips. “How long did you keep looking for the boy?”

  “I was checking in with the family for a few weeks. The bank kept me informed if there was any movement in his account. There never was. I passed his information to all the misper agencies in Glasgow. Listen, Dani, I carried on with the investigation for longer than I was meant to. Juliet insisted Adnan would have been smuggled over to Pakistan. She even had his details placed on a UN watchlist in Afghanistan.”

  “But he wasn’t there. The boy never left Scotland. Someone must have bundled him into a vehicle and transported him to a remote island, where he was beaten to death and buried in the mud. This happened in Scotland, Phil. Not some oppressive, war-torn state.”

  Phil stood up. “It’s awful, I know. But I did everything I could at the time. I followed all the procedures.”

  Dani reached up and took his arm. “I know you did. I’m sorry. I just wonder if the others were as thorough. DC Currie was always a lazy sod. I expect if Juliet told him he didn’t need to view all those hours of CCTV tape, that she’d take care of it, he’d not have argued too much.”

  “But why the hell would Juliet do that? It was a low-level missing persons case. They surely had more important things to worry about?”

  “I don’t know yet precisely why she did it. But the possible reasons are almost too horrific to comprehend.”

  Chapter 35

  There’d been no movement at the property for a couple of hours. Dani had reclined the seat in her car and was listening to a local radio station, the windows securely shut against the chill.

  If Lorraine Travis was at home, she’d have surely clocked Dani’s presence outside by now. The estate was so quiet, any unusual vehicle on the road was bound to be noticed.

  It didn’t seem worth interviewing Kerr’s wife again. Dani didn’t think she knew anything about her husband’s activities, either now or a decade ago. She’d seen no sign of their grown-up children either.

  Dani closed her eyes for a moment. She was running through the information Phil had given her. After visiting his house, she’d gone straight to Pitt Street and looked up all the professional courses that ran in the March of 2008. She identified the one Kerr could have been attending. It took place in a hotel in Lanark from the 10th to the 14th. There were several seminars listed in the itinerary, spread across the four days.

  A heavy weight slammed against the car and made Dani open her eyes with a jerk. A face was pressed against the passenger window, enclosed in a dark hoodie. She sat up and release the locks. The man wrenched open the door and dropped into the seat beside her.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” He growled, pulling the hood back from his thick, dark hair.

  “I could ask you the same thing, Kerr.”

  “This is my house. I keep an eye on it from time to time.” Kerr’s face was little changed. He was still handsome, but the years had etched deeper lines around his eyes and mouth. “You being here could put my family in danger.”

  Dani shifted round. “That’s bullshit. Your family are perfectly safe for as long as your cover isn’t blown. I don’t even know what your assignment is.”

  Kerr stared out of the front windscreen. “It’s a long way from here.”

  “Then what are you really doing back in Paisley? Worried I’m about to find out something about you that might end your career? Put you in prison, maybe?”

  Kerr twisted in the seat, his expression a snarl. “You’re supposed to be finding the bastard that butchered Juliet, not digging around into our professional conduct. Whose side are you on?”

  Dani could feel her anger bubbling up. “What happened to the boy who was buried on Ghiant? You were out of Glasgow when he went missing. Juliet tried to stall the investigation into his disappearance. Did you really attend that conference in Lanark? It will be easy enough for me to check with the hotel, contact witnesses who took the course from other divisions.”

  Without warning, Kerr reached across her and pulled her close to his face. With his free hand, he jabbed a hard metal object into her side. Dani felt her stomach churn.

  “I strongly suggest you don’t,” He rasped into her ear. “Juliet was one of us. You need to find who killed her. That should be your priority. If you start investigating me, I’ll be taken off the undercover work and be as exposed as she was.”

  Dani breathed deeply, trying to calm herself down. “Put away the gun, Kerr. We’re sitting outside your house. Don’t do anything stupid.”

  The man yanked the gun away, stuffing it into the waistband of his trousers. He lessened his grip on her. “You’re right. It’s just that this is such a mess, Dani. Since you told me Juliet was murdered, I haven’t slept.”

  “Did Juliet contact you before she was killed? Did you know you were in danger?” Dani shuffled higher up in the seat. “Is that why you signed up for the undercover operations? To keep yourself safe?”

  Kerr’s mouth was set in a grim line. “I haven’t felt safe since that bomb exploded in Roydon Road. My whole life tilted on its axis that day. The things I saw, Dani. I could never have burdened you with them.”

  She leant in closer. “I thought I knew everything about you, Kerr. But to kidnap a young man, tie him up and then what? Beat him until he told you where his friends were making their bombs? But what if he didn’t have a clue? Was just an innocent young lad who worshipped his religion in the wrong place at the wrong time.” She examined his face
closely. “He couldn’t tell you anything, could he? So, you beat him in the stomach and chest until the lifeblood had seeped from his young body, and he couldn’t identify you to anyone else. Was that it?”

  Kerr brought his hands up to his face. “It wasn’t like that. The whole thing was a cock-up. The boys tried to escape. Two of them took the boat. We needed to get Adnan to tell us where they were planning to go.”

  Dani shook her head in disbelief. “You mean there were more of them? It wasn’t just Adnan Mahtam you took to the island?”

  “Of course there were others. Why do you think I’m running so scared? Why do you think Juliet is dead? We contacted one another every few months after she retired. She used to drive to meet me somewhere, depending on where my undercover work took me. The rest of the time we wrote, sending messages to a post office box in Central Station. In the final note I received, she said she was being watched. Her words sounded panicky. We knew they’d find us eventually, but we still weren’t prepared.”

  “What about Sean Ballater? What role did he play in all this? Because he’s dead too.”

  Kerr let his head loll forward. “Sean and Juliet were lovers, but their relationship was more about making someone pay for what we’d witnessed together. Sean married his mousy girlfriend and bought the farm up on Nabb. The fishing was a great cover. But he was really there to give us access to the island. Sean was the ferryman.”

  Dani felt the sadness wash over her. “You have to come in to Pitt Street with me and tell Chief Superintendent McNair all this. It’s the only way we can protect you.”

  He grunted. “I’ll go away for murder, Dani.”

  “Adnan’s parents deserve to know what happened to their son.”

  Kerr lifted his head. “That boy may have been ignorant of what those people were up to, but the others certainly weren’t. Adnan Mahtam associated with people who were happy to commit mass murder – to target children, for Christ’s sake.”

  “Since when does that carry a death sentence? Since when do we interview suspects using intimidation and violence? It makes the situation worse, Kerr. I can’t believe you don’t see that.”