‘You’re not going to tell me?’
‘It’s better if we discuss it tomorrow.’
‘What if I say no?’
‘We’ll arrest you and interview you formally. Shall we say nine o’clock? No point putting it off.’
Finn looked at Sky News. They were back with the first woman at the airfield, talking to some expert, the two of them gesticulating, something technical about flight trajectories. The expert had his hand pointing towards earth like an arrow.
‘I’ll see you tomorrow,’ Finn said.
25
The police station was a brick of a thing with tiny windows, squatting next to the Peedie Sea, a bleak stretch of pond flanked by scrubby grass in the middle of Kirkwall. The pond was separated from the harbour and marina by a thin causeway, which also served as the main northwest road out of town. The surface of the Peedie Sea was ruffled by constant wind, the sun throwing strands out from behind broken clouds fizzing across the sky.
‘Are you ready?’ Ingrid said.
She’d driven him despite his protestations that he could manage fine. He hadn’t seen Maddie this morning, couldn’t think of an excuse to get away, Ingrid watching him over breakfast. He didn’t have much appetite, the morphine for his rib taking the edge off and fuzzing his head. At least that helped him to stay calm over this.
He edged out of the car, his body aching all over despite the painkillers.
Ingrid got out too.
‘You can stay here,’ Finn said.
‘I’m coming in.’
Finn breathed out and stretched but didn’t speak.
They went to reception and were told to wait by a busty middle-aged woman who threw Ingrid a look of sympathy. Finn wondered what Maddie was doing right now. He’d texted her when he woke up saying he would pop over, then again an hour later when it was clear he wouldn’t be able to. She was flirty, saying she was thinking about him, needed to see him. He thought about her body on top of his, the slight ripples across her belly from the movement, the feeling of him being inside her.
The receptionist got a call.
‘You can go through now,’ she said, buzzing the security door.
They both got up.
‘Just the boy, Ingrid,’ the woman said, apology in her voice.
‘Come on, Anita.’
The woman held up the phone receiver and shrugged. ‘Orders from above.’
Ingrid put a hand on Finn’s arm. ‘Are you sure you don’t need a solicitor?’
‘It’s just a chat, no need to worry.’
‘I’ll wait in the car.’
He pushed at the door, keen to get away from the look on her face, disappointment that she couldn’t hide. He’d let her down. He was the only family she had left and he was dragging her into the dirt, so soon after what happened with Sally, bringing shame on them both. It was worse for her, of course. He could eventually leave the islands, but Ingrid was Orcadian through and through, this would haunt her until she died.
Linklater met him through the door. She looked fresh-faced and bright-eyed, like she’d had a better night’s sleep than Finn.
‘Through here,’ she said.
It was like another waiting room, three plastic chairs and a low, round coffee table. Blank grey walls, cheap ceiling tiles, square window looking over the Peedie Sea.
‘So what’s this about?’ Finn said.
Linklater held up her phone with the recording app. ‘You mind?’
‘I’ve seen the TV shows, don’t you have an old cassette thing that beeps? And doesn’t there have to be two of you?’
Linklater smiled. ‘That’s for admissible evidence, formal interviews. I told you, this is just to keep me straight.’
Finn nodded.
She switched the app on, placed the phone on the table between them, then smoothed down her trousers, her hands resting on her knees. ‘We’ve had some developments, as I mentioned last night.’
‘Have you found Maddie?’
Linklater gave him a look. ‘We haven’t, but we will.’
‘Do you think she’s still alive?’
‘Oh, yes.’
‘What makes you so sure?’
‘If she died in the crash we would’ve found her body by now.’
‘Maybe she was injured, confused, maybe she walked off and died further away.’
‘You know the conditions that night,’ Linklater said. ‘She couldn’t have gone far, not without help.’
This was directed at Finn.
‘I wouldn’t know about that,’ he said. ‘I was in hospital.’
‘Of course.’ Linklater shifted her weight in the chair. ‘So we spoke to Claire Buchan yesterday.’
‘Who?’
‘You don’t know her?’
‘No.’
‘Madeleine’s best friend. We asked if she’d heard from Madeleine since the crash, and she said no. We also told her about Kevin Pierce’s death. Naturally she was shocked.’
‘What’s this got to do with me?’
Linklater stared at him. ‘I’m getting to that. She was shocked, said she couldn’t imagine Madeleine doing such a thing. But she did hint that things had been difficult between Kevin and Madeleine for a while. Apparently, he was a bully.’
‘So you think Maddie did it?’
‘We’re just gathering information, collecting evidence. That’s what we do.’
‘I still don’t know why you dragged me in for this.’
Linklater smiled. ‘The thing is, we also had a wee chat with some of Claire’s neighbours. She lives in Stromness, in Hellihole Road. Do you know it?’
Finn shook his head.
‘One of her neighbours had something interesting to say. Can you think what it might be?’
‘Surprise me.’
‘Someone fitting your description was round there yesterday, chatting to Mrs Buchan at her front door. They seemed to be having an argument. The person only left when Claire’s husband turned up and warned him off.’
Finn breathed out through his nose and laid his hands out in front of him.
‘OK, I was there. I know how it looks but I went to see her for the same reason you did, to find out if she’d heard from Maddie.’
Linklater shook her head. ‘How did you know about her? How did you know Claire was Madeleine’s best friend?’
‘It’s not hard to find stuff out. You told me Maddie lived in Stromness so I went there. I walked into the hotel bar and asked, the same in the harbour cafe. They were all talking about the crash and Maddie. Some old dear told me about Claire, where she lived. I went and asked the same thing you did. That’s it.’
‘That’s ludicrous.’
‘It’s what happened.’
‘You know we’ll check your story.’
‘Go ahead.’
‘You don’t want to change it?’
Finn shook his head.
‘What exactly did you and Mrs Buchan say to each other?’
‘I asked if she’d heard from Maddie since the crash.’
‘Did you mention Kevin Pierce?’
Finn thought about that. ‘No.’
‘You don’t sound too sure.’
‘I’m sure.’
‘And what did you say to Lenny?’
‘Who’s Lenny?’
‘The husband.’
‘Nothing. He just told me to leave.’
‘So you left.’
‘Yeah.’
Linklater sat back in her chair. ‘I hope you realise what an almighty mess you’re in.’
‘OK, I admit going round there was stupid,’ Finn said. ‘But it was an innocent mistake.’
‘We’ll check your story and when it doesn’t pan out you’re going to have a lot more explaining to do. Just to warn you. And between now and the next time we meet, I’d advise you to stay at home, OK?’
‘Sure.’
‘Leave the police work to us,’ Linklater said. ‘And maybe spend some time finding a solicitor. You’re g
oing to need one.’
‘Are we finished?’
Linklater sighed. ‘No. We’ve spoken to Sean Bayliss.’
‘He’s out of his coma?’
‘We got his account of events on the plane. He admits fighting with you, but claims he only retaliated after you hit him first.’
Finn shifted in his seat. ‘I told you, that’s not how it was. He was harassing Maddie, I was trying to help.’
‘By starting a fight on an aeroplane.’
‘By trying to get him away from her.’
‘Charlotte Woodside confirms Mr Bayliss’s version of events.’
‘She didn’t see the whole thing, she was busy up front.’
‘It’s very likely you’ll be charged with assault and causing a disruption on an aircraft to the risk of fellow passengers.’
‘That’s ridiculous.’
‘Count yourself lucky, it could be seven counts of culpable manslaughter.’
‘I was trying to help.’
Linklater narrowed her eyes. ‘Well, without Madeleine’s version of events, we can only go with what we have. If we find her alive, maybe she can back up your story. But as it is . . .’
She let that hang between them.
Finn’s chest rose and fell, his lungs like rocks. He thought about the blood he’d coughed up last night. ‘Are we finished?’
Linklater reached over and switched the recording app off. ‘For now. But you’ll be hearing from me again.’
Finn stood up and felt light-headed. He opened the door.
‘Finn?’ Linklater said, concerned. ‘I don’t know what kind of hold she has over you, but I hope she’s worth it.’
26
Finn was surprised there were no police or hospital security. It had taken him less than ten minutes to walk up the hill from the police station to the Balfour. When he left the station, Ingrid was in the Skoda with her head in a paperback and he made a decision, turned left round the side of the building, left again along the bank of the Peedie Sea where she couldn’t see him. He came out at the supermarket car park and followed the road round, collar turned up partly against the wind, partly to hide his face.
And now here he was next to Sean Bayliss’s bed. He’d just walked into the hospital and checked the signs, looked in every ward as if he knew what he was doing, a confident stride covering the shakiness in his legs. It felt like he was trespassing somehow. Was there a law against going to see someone in hospital? Maybe there was, if you were about to be charged with assault against them.
He found Sean after ten minutes of sticking his head in each door as he went past. No stern matron warning him off, just overworked nurses scurrying about trying to hold the place together.
Sean looked contented. He was sleeping, propped up on pillows, a clean white bandage around one ear and the side of his head. Finn tried to remember what he looked like in the wreckage but all he could picture was the other guy on the floor with the metal sticking out from his spine. One of Sean’s friends. Three of his best friends dead, how did that feel? Or maybe they weren’t his friends at all, maybe just colleagues, bonding over a trip home. Perhaps they all hated Sean, the show-off of the group, the macho alpha male, the one who would go up to women and harass them with impunity. Or maybe they loved him for that, for daring to do what they couldn’t, for entertaining them with his sexist shit.
Finn stood over Sean, watched his chest rise and fall.
‘Hey,’ he said.
Sean snuffled and turned his head, shifted under the sheets a little.
‘Hey,’ Finn said, louder this time.
Sean’s eyes fluttered open, unfocused for a moment, then he recognised Finn. He pushed himself up on his elbows, away from Finn, who was so close to the bed he was touching the sheet wrapped around the side of the mattress, his leg pressing against the metal support underneath.
‘What the hell do you want?’ Sean said.
‘Just to talk.’
‘I’ve got nothing to say to you.’
‘You had plenty to say about me to the police.’
Sean looked past Finn at the entrance to the ward. There were three other beds in the room, none of them occupied though two had signs of patients, flowers on one bedside, the remains of a meal on a tray at the other.
‘I have a button,’ Sean said, lifting a small box from the side of the covers. ‘If I press it, a nurse comes running.’
‘Go ahead,’ Finn said. ‘I don’t give a shit.’
Sean hesitated. ‘I just told the cops what I remembered.’
Finn narrowed his eyes. ‘You seemed to miss out the bit where you assaulted Maddie.’
‘I never touched that stupid cow,’ Sean said. ‘I was just talking to her.’
Finn looked around. ‘There’s no need to lie when it’s just the two of us. I know what happened. I saw you. You had hold of her arm.’
‘So what? She wanted me to touch her, she was flirting.’
‘It wasn’t flirting and you know it.’
‘Some women like a bit of rough, what can I say?’
Finn pictured himself burying his fist into the guy’s guts, scraping the metal splint on his hand down Sean’s face. He stood there at the side of the bed squeezing his good fist.
‘You’re a fucking arsehole,’ he said.
Sean smiled. ‘I’m the fucking arsehole who’s going to put you in prison.’
Finn shook his head. ‘I’m not the one going to prison, you are.’
The smile faded from Sean’s face. ‘It’s you and that psycho bitch that caused all this.’ He lifted a hand to the bandages at his head. ‘Three of my mates are dead and I was in a coma all because you and that cow couldn’t take a joke. I was only messing with the pair of you, for fuck’s sake. But you got your macho bollocks on and had to defend her honour or whatever. Idiot.’
‘People like you can’t be allowed to get away with how you behave.’
‘Who do you think you are, telling me what I can’t do?’ Sean said, voice raised. ‘You acted like a baby and got everyone on that plane killed. You don’t get to tell me anything.’
‘I didn’t kill anyone.’ Finn’s voice was raised as well now, tinny in his ears.
‘I’m going to make sure you pay for what you did to my mates.’
Finn grabbed Sean’s shoulder tight and shook him. ‘I didn’t kill anyone.’
Sean pushed his hand away and backhanded Finn across the cheek, raising blood to the surface, tears to his eyes. Finn grabbed Sean’s wrist and pushed, then raised his hand to hit him.
‘What the hell is going on here?’
A female voice behind him. Finn dropped his hands to his sides as Sean beamed.
‘It’s OK, nurse, he’s just leaving.’
Finn didn’t turn, kept staring at Sean, looking for something in his eyes.
‘Are you the other man from the plane?’ the nurse said.
Finn turned. She was forty and slim, pretty eyes and flat shoes.
‘That’s him,’ Sean said.
‘You can’t be in here,’ the nurse said. ‘You have to leave immediately.’
‘That’s what I was telling him,’ Sean said.
Finn was unable to speak. The nurse took him by the elbow and guided him towards the door.
‘I can’t imagine what you think you’re doing here,’ she said.
‘Threatening me, that’s what he’s doing,’ Sean shouted after them.
Finn could hear the laughter in Sean’s voice, goading him.
The nurse got him out of the ward and stopped at the first set of doors. She turned to him. ‘Why did you come here?’
Finn shook his head and pushed through the doors.
27
Cromwell Road was on a rise to the northeast of Kirkwall, views over the marina and beyond that to the harbour. A ferry chugged out into the choppy surface of the sea, heading north to one of the smaller islands, churning water and diving terns in its wake. The sun was low in the sky, a smattering
of high clouds throwing drizzle into the air, a faint whisper of a rainbow over the bay. Finn turned to look at the house. Standard rough-cladding Orkney place, with blue trim around the doors and windows to try to make it stand out. He checked the number against the information on his phone, walked up the short path and rang the doorbell, stepping back to look at the windows.
A short, solid man in his fifties opened the door. Wavy white hair swept back, blood colouring his cheeks and nose. A drinker. He wore paint-spattered overalls and a checked shirt underneath.
‘Is Charlotte home?’ Finn said.
The man frowned. ‘Who’s asking?’
‘I’m a friend of hers.’
‘No, you’re not.’ The man squinted into the light of the huge sky behind Finn, then his eyes widened. ‘You’re the laddie from the plane.’
‘Is she here?’
‘You stay away from my Charlotte. You’ve done enough damage.’
Finn closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.
‘It was an accident,’ he said. ‘Fog and turbulence. I had nothing to do with it.’
The man stepped forward and pulled the door behind him. ‘Do you have any idea what our girl has been through?’
Finn wanted to say something but he didn’t.
‘She’s been crying her eyes out ever since,’ the man continued. ‘Hasn’t left the house. God knows if she’ll be able to go back to work.’
‘I just need to speak to her.’
The man shook his head. ‘No chance. You’ve got to be kidding.’
‘Dad?’
Finn recognised her voice. The door opened and the man looked flustered for a moment, reached for the door handle too late.
‘Nothing to worry about, love,’ he said. ‘He’s leaving.’
She wore a baggy Aberdeen Uni hoodie and black leggings. Her hair was up in a loose bun and her hands were thrust into the pouch pocket of the hoodie. Her features seemed more raw than on the plane, but her eyes were calm and she didn’t show surprise at the sight of Finn on her front step.
‘It’s OK, Dad,’ she said, widening the door.
‘No it bloody isn’t,’ her dad said.
She was taller than him by a few inches and had a natural authority. She didn’t look like someone suffering from shock, but then what did Finn know about that? She put a hand on her dad’s shoulder and smiled.
Crash Land Page 12