by Lin Anderson
He then spent some time checking for bugs, but found none in the usual places, although Mark had ordered Ava not to email or text him, so he’d obviously believed someone was interested in his various social media and mobile accounts.
Including the Met, McNab suspected.
After trying Mark’s mobile number one more time, to no avail, he then called Ava.
She answered almost immediately. McNab explained where he was and what he’d found.
‘If he returned here, after speaking to you, it was only to collect what he needed,’ McNab said. ‘So can you think of anywhere he might have gone, where he would feel safe enough to continue with his investigation?’
‘God, yes,’ she said as though just remembering. ‘There’s an Afghan cafe he visits, run by the family of Abu-Zar, who we met when we were working out of Kabul. Mark helped save the life of Firash, Abu-Zar’s young son, during our time there. He has a room there where he works sometimes. It’s not far from the flat. It’s called—’ She struggled to remember, then came up with a name, which she had to spell out for him. ‘You can’t phone there and ask for him. They’ll deny he exists. You’ll have to visit in person. Even then, they may not let you in.’
36
McNab had taken note of the cafe’s address, then ended the call without further comment, leaving Ava wondering if he intended to check whether Mark was actually at the Afghan cafe.
She knew she couldn’t force the issue. After all, he was a police officer, apparently in London to do something in that capacity. Exactly what, she had no idea. Although she had a strong suspicion it was connected with the investigation into the Orlova.
She contemplated whether she shouldn’t go back down to London herself. See if she could make contact with Mark again.
Mark told you to come back to Orkney and stay here, she reminded herself. He was adamant about that.
Plus she couldn’t leave the farm until Dougie came home.
Ava tried calling her brother’s mobile one more time, even though she’d left a dozen messages already. Maybe Dougie was ignoring her calls and texts in order to punish her? She realized she would be more than delighted if that were the reason. As long as he was okay.
Pocketing her phone, she went outside. The thick haar of last night had cleared, revealing a sky full of scudding clouds, both dark and light.
She’d gone out first thing to check on the cattle, and seeing them grazing the fresh grass had lifted her spirits a little.
The Orlova, sadly, was in view again, floating like a dark blot on the landscape. The ghost ship had switched from being an important investigation to a threat to herself, her family and her friends.
When her work had proved life-threatening in the past, she’d given no thought to her Orcadian family and what they might feel if anything bad happened to her. She’d blithely ignored the danger and did whatever she thought necessary for success.
But back then Mark was with you, a small voice said. His courage and conviction made her stronger.
Plus I never stopped hoping.
Ava now made for the boathouse, picturing herself opening the door to find the Fear Not inside and Dougie, having returned during the night, still asleep aboard, something he’d done on numerous occasions before. Why not this time? She began to run, hoping that what she wished for might yet come true.
The closer she got, the more the hope began to dissolve, and she knew before she reached for the door that there would be only emptiness within.
Staring into the darkness, Ava now pictured another future. One in which she’d also lost her brother. The thought almost overwhelmed her and she had to grip the door post to prevent herself from falling.
It was the sound of a vehicle coming down the farm track that roused her from her frightened trance.
From this distance she couldn’t tell who it was, although it definitely wasn’t a police car. So it probably wasn’t news of Dougie. Good or bad.
Steadying herself, Ava set out for the house.
‘Ava.’ Tommy Flett came striding to meet her. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t come over earlier. I’ve been off the island this past week. Erling’s just brought me up to date on what’s been happening.’
Erling’s father looked a lot like his son, she thought. Their voices too had a similar ring. Quietly spoken, Tommy’s Orkney accent was the richer. Ava had loved to listen to him and her father talking together in the kitchen, struggling sometimes to work out exactly what was being said, they’d used so many of the old words and expressions.
‘Come away in,’ Ava said. ‘I’ll make us tea – or coffee if you prefer?’
‘A mug of tea will do fine,’ Tommy said.
Once they were both seated with their tea, Tommy said, ‘Any news of Dougie?’
Ava shook her head.
‘Well, I wouldn’t worry. The boy’s had a lot to face recently and, frankly, he’s dealt with it remarkably well. Your mum and dad would be proud of you both.’ He met her eye. ‘Dougie will be back when he’s ready. He needs time alone. He’ll not come to any harm. The boy can handle his boat in all weathers. Plus he knows these waters like the back of his hand.’
Ava felt a wash of comfort at his words. After all, she reasoned, Tommy had been here more than she had as Dougie had grown into a man.
‘Now, I have a proposal to make and I hope you’ll think on it, for your sake and the boy’s.’
As his words flowed over Ava, it was as though a light had come on at the end of a long dark tunnel. Tommy was proposing that she keep the farm, with his help. He and Dougie would work it together. They could share labour to cut costs. He could rent some of the land if that helped.
‘Dougie loves the farming life. He’s a born farmer. I’ve seen it. He just needs a peedie hand to get over this patch. Then it can stay in your family, as your mum and dad would want.’
Tommy was looking at her, trying to judge her response.
‘You wouldn’t need to stay on here. You could come and go as before. I would keep in touch, speak to you about any decision that needed to be made.’
Ava found herself at a loss for words.
Realizing this, Tommy put his hand on hers. ‘Think on it, Ava. That’s all I ask. We can talk again when the boy gets back. See what he thinks.’
Ava watched his pickup climb the track to the main road. Was this a way to solve her problem? Dougie wanted her to stay, he’d made that plain enough, but maybe he would go for Tommy’s suggestion.
But then Dougie wasn’t here . . . and what if he never came home again?
37
When he’d eventually surfaced, he’d found Finn anxiously licking his face. Assuring the dog he was okay, Dougie had dragged himself into a sitting position and gingerly examined his head. It was then he’d seen her. She was sitting with her back against the wall, shining his head torch on him. At that point Finn had gone over and nuzzled her hand, indicating he at least liked her.
For some time following, the girl hadn’t spoken except to apologize for hitting him and to say that she had not killed those people in the arena.
Dougie believed her.
Eventually he’d opened his backpack and offered up some food. Passing the kitchens on the way down, he’d noted the smell of rotting food. No doubt she’d kept going on anything tinned she could find.
The bannocks loaded with Orkney cheese proved a hit, even to the point of her fetching the bottle of Polish vodka and two shot glasses.
After that, things had got a little easier, as she decided he wasn’t to be feared. Finn helped with that, of course, staying close and allowing himself to be petted.
They’d talked far into the night about how she’d come to be on board the Orlova.
Her English was excellent, just like the Polish people who worked in the fish processing in Stromness, and the frightened way she told her story had convinced Dougie of its truth.
She’d answered an advertisement for a job in Ibiza. As a language student, she was much
in demand, they’d explained, since their clientele came from the UK, Russia and beyond.
‘It was good at first. A bit wild, you understand? Special parties where women were brought in. I remember hearing gun shots, but I never found out what happened because when I started asking questions they moved me to a cruise ship.’
‘The Orlova?’
‘Not yet. It was on the Med. Smaller, very expensive. Guests arriving by helicopter. I was there to clean, make up beds, that sort of thing. There was gambling, partying, frightened women brought aboard who never left again. I wanted to give up the job, then discovered I couldn’t. If I tried to leave they would kill me.’
She’d filled their glasses again at that point, her hands trembling.
‘Then one day I was brought here to the Orlova. I had the feeling that the ones who were expendable ended up here. If we objected to what was happening here, then we would die.’
Fear had radiated from her body. Dougie had wanted to put his arms about her, tell her she was safe now, but knew he shouldn’t.
‘They came here to play games. All involved violence. Some death. We knew that, but never saw it happen. Our job was to clear up the mess they left behind. Just before the storm hit, something bad happened. I hid in here and didn’t come out until we got to this place.’
‘You’ve been on deck. You’ve seen the coastline?’
‘Only after I couldn’t hear anyone else on board.’
‘Why didn’t you talk to the police?’
‘I couldn’t take a chance. They would come looking for me.’
The terror on her face had brought fear to his own heart.
‘All my friends are dead,’ she’d said, as though admitting it for the first time. ‘They killed them and threw them overboard. They never thought the ship would be blown ashore. They never thought it would be found.’
Dougie’s head was reeling a little from the vodka, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to persuade her to give herself up, even to Erling.
But there could be something else she might consider.
He’d told Nadia about his sister. What she did for a living. About her investigation into Go Wild. That Nadia could trust her. She could stay hidden on the farm. No one would know she was there. She could tell her story to Ava. Ava would tell the world. The company would never know where the story had come from.
She’d agreed then to his plan and he’d come up on deck, keen to use his mobile before the charge ran out.
Late afternoon now, they would need to wait until it was dark enough to go ashore.
He sent a text to Ava saying simply that he was fine and would be home soon.
38
It was clear from the number of people gathered, and the display of evidence, that the fire death and the Orlova killings had become a joint investigation.
Rhona spotted DS Clark and the two detectives who’d examined the Orlova crime scene in the throng of attendees, plus the bespectacled Ollie from IT who McNab favoured. The one person she’d expected to see wasn’t there and conspicuous by his absence. Of course, McNab might yet turn up, good timekeeping not being his strong point.
News was that McNab had taken a late booking on the Caledonian Sleeper after a prolonged meeting with the boss the previous evening. Since Chrissy’s intelligence was rarely wrong, Rhona suspected he’d gone south with Bill’s blessing.
When DI Wilson appeared stage front, the din quickly diminished, leaving an expectant silence. He began with an acknowledgement that it was now believed that the Glasgow and Orkney cases were linked via a company called Go Wild. Something DS McNab and DS Clark had established. DS McNab was currently following up this link, hence his absence, and DS Clark would give them an update.
Janice appeared beside him.
‘We have not yet verified our fire victim as Londoner Olivia Newton Richardson, although credit cards in that name were discovered with the body,’ she said. ‘However, it has been established that Ms Richardson ran a holiday company, which has links with Go Wild. Go Wild has also been involved with the staging of illegal bare-knuckle fights in Glasgow and elsewhere. Something DS McNab encountered first-hand,’ she told them.
There was a ripple of laughter from those who’d obviously viewed McNab’s face.
She continued, ‘Since then, it has also been established that the MV Orlova, which was washed ashore on the west of Orkney during the recent Storm Birka, was operating as a cruise ship under the ownership of Go Wild. So we currently have four suspicious deaths associated with this company. We have not, as yet, identified any of the victims.’
When Bill gave her a nod, Rhona knew she was up soon.
‘Most of you will be familiar with the facts surrounding the fire death,’ Bill said, taking over from Janice. ‘Dr MacLeod and her team also examined the Orlova crime scenes and recently attended the autopsies on the three recovered bodies. DI Flett from Kirkwall, who took charge of the Orlova, joins us online while we look at the images from the ship and hear what was found there.’
Most of those in the room were new to the scenes now appearing on the screen. The arena and maze were shown from above in a short video, which also featured the sudden explosion of sound from the virtual audience, while Erling gave a brief résumé of the initial boarding of the ship to discover what looked like a mutual death by combat.
‘It became clear,’ Erling said, ‘that the arena games were being played out using a mix of the real and the virtual. The equipment controlling this is now with you in Glasgow.’
Rhona took over then to begin with the first locus, explaining what she and her assistant, Chrissy McInsh, had concluded from the computer room, now confirmed at post-mortem.
‘Although appearing initially to be a possible electrocution, the deceased was dead by suffocation before the fire, which was probably started in an attempt to destroy the equipment.
‘The other two deaths were from exsanguination following major injuries caused not by the small swords you can see at the scene, but by a longer, sharper blade, not yet located, and wielded by a third party. Evidence of cuts to the arms and legs by the smaller weapons suggest the couple did in fact initially fight to draw blood.
‘Near the bodies we found a pool of vomit. We cannot age vomit other than to say it’s fresh or that it’s dried out a bit, meaning it’s probably older. What we can do is compare the contents of the vomit with the stomach contents of the deceased.
‘The vomit contained evidence of a recent meal of beans and hot dog sausages. The last meal consumed by the victims consisted of steak with mushrooms and cut chips, eaten probably less than four hours before death, potentially less than two hours.’ Rhona paused before making her next comment, aware of the reaction it would bring. ‘We estimate the deaths to have happened approximately three to five days before we examined the bodies. However, we think the vomit may have happened after that, which could suggest someone was still alive on board after the deaths of the three victims.’
There was an outbreak of discussion about this as Erling came in. ‘You think someone might have been present on the ship during the storm?’
‘It’s possible, yes. As you saw, the fresh food was already rotting and the power was turned off on the freezers. Tinned food and alcohol were, however, still available.’
‘We searched the ship thoroughly after we boarded her,’ Erling said, ‘but if there was someone on board who was familiar with the layout, they could have escaped the search.’
‘Might they have come ashore once it was anchored in Houton Bay?’ Bill asked.
‘The sea stayed rough in the aftermath of Storm Birka, even in Scapa Flow. Plus the water’s currently around eight degrees,’ Erling said. ‘A seasoned swimmer might cope with rough seas and a low water temperature, but they’d have to find shelter quickly if they were to make it to shore.’
Bill came back in. ‘Let’s take another look at the Orlova and question the locals in case we’ve missed something.’
Nex
t up was Ollie with a map of all the countries he believed Go Wild might be working in and how they publicized their games.
‘There are an estimated 2.7 billion gamers across the globe. And embedding subliminal links to advertise real death games provided by companies such as Go Wild is a huge money-making exercise.’
He brought up a sample advert for such a gaming holiday, emphasizing the way in which participants might physically engage via virtual software to fight, maim or kill an opponent, supplied by Go Wild at a cost.
‘Their guarantee is that there will be no comeback, whatever the level you participate at. DS McNab got his injuries by stepping in to stop a fight he believed might result in death.’
There was a murmur from the crowd. Now McNab’s injuries didn’t seem so amusing.
‘Have we ID’d either of the fighters?’ a voice asked from the floor.
‘We’re working on it,’ DS Wilson told him.
As the crowd dispersed, Bill waved Rhona over.
‘We need to talk,’ he said, ushering her into his office and closing the door. ‘McNab told me about your meeting with Ava Clouston.’
‘He mentioned what she said about DI Cleverly?’ Rhona immediately asked.
She could tell by Bill’s expression that the name hadn’t come up in their conversation.
‘What about Cleverly?’ Bill asked.
Rhona couldn’t lie, not to Bill. ‘Ava said that Mark Sylvester, her colleague, wanted us warned that the detective the Met sent up wasn’t to be trusted.’
Bill gave a half-smile at that. ‘McNab managed to convey his concerns about some of the Met’s non-cooperation on this without pointing the finger at anyone in particular.’
‘He’s gone to London?’
‘Ah, I see the McInsh telegraph’s been at work,’ Bill said. ‘We’re keen to know what the hold-up on the fire victim’s ID is all about. The Met seem to be hampering that. I suspect it’s because there are a number of high-profile names on Go Wild’s books, so we need to tread carefully on this one. We have no intention of allowing this investigation to be taken out of our hands. Let me know if you receive any requests to share forensic evidence outwith Police Scotland.’ He added, ‘I’m assuming you’re in touch with Ava Clouston?’