by Ann Cleeves
Euan Ross was angry. His face was flushed and it showed in the violence with which he opened the door. Perez thought he had been waiting all day for someone to speak to him.
'Inspector,' he said. 'At last. I've lived here long enough to realize that there's little sense of urgency in Shetland, but I'd have thought it would have been courteous to respond to my request more quickly than this. It was your phone call which started it all off after all.'
He turned and walked away into the house, leaving Perez to shut the door behind him and follow.
They sat in the big room, with the glass wall, looking out towards Raven's Head. Euan hadn't turned on the central light. The space was lit by a couple of spots attached to the wal1. There were big areas of shadow. At some point over the winter he must have collected driftwood, because there was a chunk of pitch pine on the fire. The smell of it must be covering the last trace of Catherine's perfume.
For a moment Perez was confused. He couldn't think what the man was talking about. 'I'm sorry. No one told me that you'd asked to see me!
'What are you doing here then?'
'I thought you might have questions after the old man's arrest. I didn't want you to hear all the details from the press. They quite often get things wrong! He was going to add that he'd considered it would be courteous to visit, but stopped himself. This was a bereaved father. He was entitled to be angry and rude.
There was a moment of silence. Euan Ross struggled to regain his composure.
'They should have passed on your message,' Perez said quietly. 'Perhaps you could explain why you wanted to see me!
'You asked me to look for Catherine's camcorder! 'I did. You've found it then?'
Euan didn't answer directly. 'Do you have proof that Tait killed my daughter?'
'Not yet. There is evidence to connect him with the death of Catriona Bruce. At this point he's just been charged with the first murder. Of course we'll do all we can to get a conviction on both counts!
'I hadn't thought it mattered,' Euan said. 'But I don't think I could bear it if I never found out what happened to her. It isn't anything to do with revenge. It's just about not knowing! He paused. 'And some thing about justice for Catherine perhaps. Doing right by her at last!
'Can I see the camcorder, Mr Ross?'
But still he seemed reluctant to come to the point.
He said he would make tea. Inspector 'Perez had time for some tea, didn't he? He disappeared into the kitchen, leaving Perez looking out into the night. At last he came back with two mugs on a tray and immediately he started talking. They sat facing each other in armchairs close to the big window, but Euan didn't look at Perez. He had his face turned to the dark space outside.
'She wasn't an easy child. One of those babies who hardly seem to need sleep. Liz found it very difficult. I tried to take my turn, but I was working all the hours there were, marking, planning, out-of-school activities.
Generally making myself indispensable. I was ambitious in those days. It seems ridiculous now. Liz couldn't face having any more children. I said we'd get a placid one next time, but she wasn't willing to take the risk. It wasn't a big deal. We didn't argue about it. I adored Liz. I'd have gone along with anything she said. Now I wish we had considered it. When Catherine was a bit older perhaps. Not for me, but for Catherine. She missed out when Liz died and I went to pieces. It would have been company for her.'
Perez said nothing. He drank his tea and listened. He thought Ross had forgotten all about the/ camera.
He just needed to talk.
'_}
'Catherine was very like me,' Ross went on. 'Very driven. Perhaps because she was an only child she didn't find it easy to make friends of her own age. She was too honest, too direct. She didn't realize she might be hurting the other children's feelings. She loved projects. Even when she was very young she'd become completely absorbed in her work and rather competitive in it. It didn't always make her popular. She liked to win.' At last he turned and faced Perez. 'I'm not sure why I'm telling you this. It probably isn't relevant. I just want to talk about her. To tell the truth, as she would have done. She would have hated people to say sweet and misleading things about her, just because she's dead.'
'I'm interested. It helps.'
'When we first moved here she was very bored. She said she had nothing in common with any of the other young people. That wasn't true but she didn't make much of an effort. She came across as patronizing, full of herself.
I heard teachers talking in the staff room about her when they didn't realize I was listening.
They resented her attitude too. I was worried she'd become very lonely, a target for bullying. Of course much of it was my fault. I depended on her after Liz died. I didn't treat her as a child.'
'She became friendly with Sally, though:
'Yes, Sally was kind to her and Catherine really enjoyed her company. They were unlikely friends but they got on well: He paused. 'The friendship with Sally was important, but it wasn't that which helped her make an effort to belong here. That was something quite different. She found a new project. . : He lapsed again into silence, the mug of tea untouched on the floor by the chair. He seemed so lost in thought that Perez realized he'd forgotten for a moment that he had a guest.
'What was the project, Mr Ross?'
'Film. And that's where the camcorder comes in.
I'd given it to her for her birthday. She loved film. It was her ambition to become the first great female British director. She was a natural observer, perhaps because she found it hard to engage with people of her own age. She was delighted by the present. At first she played around with it, working out, I suppose, how to use it, just how much it would do. I have a film of her. I took it on her birthday and we saved it on her computer.
I'm so glad I did that. It'll always be there. . : He seemed to realize that he was moving from the subject again. 'Then she began to take her filming more seriously. As I say, it was a project. She hoped to submit it as part of her university entrance application. The course she'd set her heart on was very hard to get in:
'What was her film about?'
'Shetland. The place and its people! 'A documentary?'
'Of a kind, I suppose. She said she wanted to subvert the stereotype. It wouldn't be about the beautiful landscape, the harsh way of life. At least that would provide the backdrop. But she wanted to show that people are the same wherever they live. At least, I think that was it. She did talk about it. I didn't always give her my full attention!
'Did she have a chance to finish the film?'
'I think so. Almost at least. She was editing it in the weeks before Christmas. Sometimes I'd hear her talking in her room and think Sally was in there with her, but it would turn out to be her, doing the voice-over!
'So you'll have that too. Something else to remember her by!
'No! That was what I wanted to tell you. You asked me to look for the camcorder but I couldn't find it. It's , disappeared. But the Shetland disk is missing too. It's been stolen!
'Are you sure?'
'Catherine was an obsessive, Inspector. In the weeks leading up to her death this film was the most important thing in her life. She'd put hundreds of hours of work into it. Nobody was allowed into her bedroom. I explained when you were here before that privacy was very important to her. It was the one room Mrs Jamieson didn't clean, yet it was always tidy. She kept the disks in a rack by her computer. The Shetland film is definitely missing!
'Perhaps it's still on her computer! 'I've checked. It isn't on the hard drive! 'Has the house been broken into?'
'No, but the murderer wouldn't need to break in. If Catherine had her keys on her, the murderer could have taken them. Perhaps that's why they were never found!
'Have you had a sense that anyone has been in the house?'
'Oh, Inspector, I've seen ghosts wherever I've looked. But it's never occurred to me that a real person could have been here!
'Would you show me her room?
<
br /> ‘‘Of course!
The room had been searched the day Catherine's body was discovered, but not by Perez. It looked, he thought, more like an office than a bedroom. It had a pale laminate floor, a work station and PC, a small filing cabinet. The single bed was covered with a black cotton throw. The wardrobes were fitted and matched the computer desk. Everything was clean and uncluttered. There was one picture on the wall, a large framed print of a fifties French movie poster.
Black and white.
'She designed the room herself: Euan said. 'It was where she felt most comfortable. When she was younger she didn't really enjoy human contact. She never liked to be cuddled as most children do. We did wonder, Liz and I, if she might be slightly autistic. I don't think she can have been, or if she was, she managed it very well. But she needed to be alone for long periods before she could go out and face the world again!
'What did she keep in the filing cabinet?'
'School work mostly. Look for yourself!
Perez pulled out one drawer. The files were labelled according to subject. It was very different from his own jumbled desk at work.
'You talked about her reading a voice-over: he said.
'I wondered if there might be a script:
'Of course!' Euan was more animated than he'd been all day. 'The thief might not have thought of that. I'll look, shall I?'
'Shall I help?'
'No, Inspector. If you don't mind this is something
I'd rather take care of alone!
In the hall they stood for a moment. Perez put on his coat and prepared to go out. Euan reached out awkwardly and shook his hand 'Thank you for taking me seriously, Inspector. Since Fran Hunter found her body, I've been searching for an explanation for Catherine's death. The discovery of Catriona's body on the hill provided one of a sort. Not a very satisfactory one. A madman who enjoys inflicting violence on young girls. It's not something I can make sense of. Too random. Too arbitrary. It seems to me that the missing film could provide another explanation. If Catherine had filmed something which the murderer would rather keep hidden, that might provide a motive. But perhaps I'm deluding myself. Perhaps I'm going mad too!
He opened the door and held it wide for Perez to pass through. Walking down the path to his car, Perez remembered a conversation he'd had with Magnus early on in the investigation. Magnus had said Catherine had taken his photo on the day she'd come to tea. The day after the party at the Haa. Perhaps it wasn't a photo. Perhaps she'd wanted Magnus to be in her film.
Chapter Thirty-Two
When Jimmy Perez got to the police station the next day, he saw most of the Inverness boys had gone but Taylor was still there. Perez could hear him as he walked up the stairs. He'd taken over a desk in the Incident Room and was sitting at it, the chair tilted back, his legs outstretched, shouting into the phone. He was the only person in the room, which had an empty, leftover feel about it, like the Northlink ferry once the passengers had disembarked.
There were scraps of rubbish on the floor, used polystyrene cups on the desks. It was mid-morning and outside the sun was trying to get through. 'Two gulls perched on a nearby roof were screaming at each other.
Perez stood, waiting, until Taylor replaced the receiver.
'They want me to sign off the case and go back to Inverness. I can't. I'm not satisfied Tait killed Catherine, certainly not sure we'll get a conviction. There's nothing forensic to link him with her. They weren't even killed in the same way!
'Circumstantial though. 'Two girls murdered in the same place. . !
'I've told them I'm staying. If they push it I'll take a few days' leave! He looked up, grinned. 'I've always wanted to be here for Up Helly Aa!
'It's a show for the tourists,' Perez said. 'An excuse to get drunk:
'It's an excuse not to go south just yet:
Perez wondered again if Taylor had anyone to go home to. Maybe after a couple of beers he'd pluck up the courage to ask. 'There is something else. . : He began explaining about his visit to Euan's house, the missing film and immediately he sensed Taylor’s scepticism. 'It could be a motive,' Perez said, wondering why it mattered to him so much. 'Perhaps the girl filmed something she wasn't supposed to see:
'Is the guy sure it's not there?' Taylor rocked forward so the chair was firm on the ground. 'I mean he must be upset. It'd be easy to overlook:
Perez shrugged. 'He seemed pretty positive. The camcorder's gone too. Magnus said Catherine took a picture of him the day before her body was found. Perhaps he talked to her about Catriona. It might be worth getting her computer south to the experts. See if there's some way of retrieving the deleted material: There was a silence then Taylor looked up suddenly from his desk. 'What do you think? Do you think Tait killed them both?'
Perez wanted to say it didn't matter what he thought. All that mattered was getting a conviction. But Taylor was still looking at him. 'I don't know,' he said at last. 'Really, I don't know: He could tell he'd disappointed Taylor with his answer and went on, feeling for the right words, 'I think I understand Catherine better now. After talking to her father. She was lonely. She saw life through film. That was how she survived here. That was how she got her pleasure, her kicks:
'A female voyeur?'
'An observer, a commentator! Perez paused, remembering what Duncan had said of her. 'A director!
'Doesn't a director make things happen? That's being more than an observer, surely!
'Perhaps she tried to make things happen. Perhaps that's why she was killed!
Celia Isbister lived in the house her husband Michael had built once he started making money. It was on the edge of Lerwick, with a view of the town and down to the sea. At the time of the wedding, gossip had it that he was a lucky man. He was marrying money. Certainly she'd carried with her an air of affluence. She'd been sent south to an expensive school. There was a big house on Unst. But the school had been paid for by a rich aunt and when their parents died, the big house went to her elder brother. There was nothing else to share out but debt.
If Michael had been disappointed by his new wife's poverty he hadn't blamed her for it. He'd carried through his life an astonishment that she'd ever agreed to marry him and took on the task of making himself worthy of her. He developed a transport and haulage business. When the oil came, his lorries carried cement and pipes and beer to the terminal at Sullom Voe and his taxis collected executives from Sumburgh Airport. If he knew of Celia's affair with Duncan - and surely he must have known - he never challenged her about it. She always stood at his side at civic functions. When he introduced her to visitors, to the ministers and civil servants who came occasionally from London and Edinburgh, he glowed with pride.
Celia had let Michael have his own way with the house. Perhaps it was a penance. Certainly, it couldn't have been to her taste. It was a sprawling ranch-style bungalow with an open-plan lounge. She only drew the line at gold taps for the ensuite bathrooms. Jimmy Perez wondered again what Robert had made of his parents' marriage. He moved in both their worlds. He was the youngest man on the Up Helly Aa committee and he went to the parties at the Haa. He must know that Celia's affair with Duncan was public knowledge. In Shetland information about other people's lives was assimilated subconsciously, a form of osmosis. For as long as Perez could remember people had been expecting Celia to leave Michael and to move into the Haa with Duncan Hunter.
But she still lived in the bungalow with her husband and Robert. Running these facts in his head, Perez thought he was stupid to believe that Catherine had been killed because she'd filmed some secret. So little in Shetland was secret. It was simply unacknowledged. There was something Victorian in this need to put on a good show.
He'd phoned beforehand to check that Celia would be in. She'd said she would be, all day. She didn't ask what he wanted from her. Perhaps she assumed he was there to speak on Duncan's behalf.
Celia was on her own in the bungalow.
'Michael not about?' Perez asked. He'd have liked to talk to
Michael too.
She shook her head. 'He's in Brussels. Some European conference on fringe communities. Followed by a meeting in Barcelona on endangered dialect. He went on the third and won't be back until just before Up Helly Aa!
"She led Perez into the kitchen and started making coffee without asking first if he wanted any. He thought she seemed pale, distracted. She was a handsome woman, approaching fifty, with fine cheekbones, a generous mouth.
He understood what Duncan found attractive about her, caught himself watching her as she stretched to reach mugs from a high shelf.
' I don't suppose this is a social call: she said.
Of course not. I never called on you, even when Duncan was still my friend. You were a secret everyone knew about, but we couldn't acknowledge you.
'But it can't be about the dead girl. That's all over, isn't it?'
'Still a few loose ends to tie up. Is Robert around?'
She looked at him carefully, then shook her head.
'He's out on Wandering Spirit. A long trip beyond Faroe. I'm not sure when he'll be back!
Was that too much information? 'He was friendly with Catherine Ross, wasn't he?'
Celia bent to take milk from the fridge. She was wearing jeans, a black sweater. 'He never mentioned her!
'He was with her the night before she was killed. At Duncan's party!
'Was he? I didn't notice. I had other things on my mind!
'Does Robert have a girlfriend at the moment?'
She laughed briefly. 'Robert always has a girlfriend.
At least one. He can't stand being on his own. And he's a good-looking man!
'So who's he hanging around with at the moment?'
'How would I know? He never brings his women home!
Perez pulled out a chair from the kitchen table, sat down. 'What had Duncan done that night to upset you?'
The question shocked her. She considered it bad manners. But she decided to answer it anyway. Perhaps she felt the need to explain. She wanted him to understand.