‘Crozier raised the possibility that what happened here could be a case of mass suicide.’
‘No,’ Carter said. ‘He’s wrong. It’s nothing like that. These people didn’t choose what happened to them.’
‘Can you be sure? Another beer?’ She got two more bottles from the bar and waited for his reply.
‘Oh, yes, I’m sure. There’s something evil on this island, Jane. Something more evil than anything I’ve encountered before.’
‘Very reassuring considering some of the cases you’ve worked on.’
‘And I’ll tell you something else.’ He pulled two cigarettes from the pack on the table, lit them and handed one across to her. ‘It wants something from us.’
‘What?’
‘I wish I knew,’ he said. ‘Maybe we’ll get some answers to night. I’ll have a word with Kirby and tell her we want to eat early. The longer we have afterwards the better.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
‘I think you’re out of your wee mind, wanting to go over there again. When Fiona rang me I couldn’t believe it. Not after what happened the last time. You were lucky they didn’t arrest you.’ Cameron Whyte closed the engine housing on his boat and wiped his oily hands on a rag.
‘But will you take me across, Cameron? That’s the question.’ Bayliss leaned against the rail, glancing over his shoulder at the wavelets lapping against the hull. A few gulls were circling overhead, crying out to each other and ducking down to the water, searching for food.
‘Aye, I’ll take you. I’ll take you because Fiona asked me to, and that’s the only reason.’ Whyte threw the rag into a metal bucket and went back to the wheel house. Bayliss pushed himself away from the rail and followed him, avoiding the numerous lobster pots littering the deck. Cameron Whyte made a good living as a lobster fisherman. Restaurants as far away as London paid top dollar for the blue crustaceans Whyte and his crew pulled from the waters around this stretch of the coast.
‘When?’
‘When what?’
‘When can you take me?’
‘This evening, when I take the pots out.’ Whyte looked up at the sky, predicting to himself what the weather conditions would be later. He was generally right most of the time.
‘Not before?’ Eagerness roared out of every pore of Bayliss’s body, making him edgy and more than a little twitchy.
‘This evening.’ Whyte glared at Bayliss, then turned his eyes to the chart laid out on a table in front of him.
‘I was hoping to get onto the island sooner.’ He was almost bouncing with anticipation, a remote control figure with the hand controls on maximum.
Whyte looked round at him with amusement. ‘Then swim.’
Bayliss held the other man’s gaze for a long moment. Finally he relaxed and smiled. ‘This evening it is then. I’ll be back about five.’
‘Make it six.’
‘Right. Six it is. See you then.’
He swung himself from the boat and walked back along the quayside. It wasn’t the result he wanted, but there was nothing he could do about it. Besides, he’d waited this long for something else to happen on Kulsay; another few hours was neither here nor there.
Raj sat at the computer they’d set up in one of the sitting rooms, making sure the complex arrangement of cameras and microphones he and Kirby had installed so far were working and feeding their signals back. Wireless technology meant Kirby could place equipment in the most obscure locations and record what ever was happening there. It was a far cry from the early days in the Department when they’d had to lay countless yards of cable and double-check every connection. In those days they’d been dependent on main electricity, and a number of times investigations had been hampered by sudden power surges or brownouts. Now everything ran on long lasting rechargeable batteries, so no matter what state the power supply was in, the cameras and microphones continued to record, sending their images and sounds back to the hard drive of the computer.
‘How’s it going?’ Kirby appeared and set a mug of coffee on the desk. She pulled up a chair, peering at the screen.
‘Going well, so far,’ he said, picking up the mug and taking a long swill of the dark brown liquid. ‘Christ, you make good coffee,’ he said, wiping his lips with the sleeve of his shirt. ‘What’s your secret?’
‘Cardamom seeds,’ she said. ‘No secret; just a few in the pot. Gives it an edge, doesn’t it?’
‘Damned right.’ He took another long drink, the heat of the liquid not troubling him at all.
She pulled up a chair and sat down next to him, watching the changing images on the screen as he tested the cameras. ‘Where’s McKinley?’
‘Said he was going up to wire the attic.’
She nodded slowly. ‘I wonder if he’ll want coffee.’ She liked everybody, and enjoyed working with each of them, but McKinley was the most difficult to get to know so she guessed she liked working with him least. She couldn’t ever feel totally relaxed with him.
‘Couldn’t say,’ Raj said, shifting his attention back to the computer and tapping a few keys to bring up a menu.
‘What do
He shrugged. ‘That’s what we’re here to find out.’
‘But you must have some idea. You’ve been on so many of these investigations. You’ve seen so much.’
‘Too much, I think sometimes.’ He clicked the mouse and the screen went blank. ‘That’s downstairs done. Do you want to give me a hand with the rooms upstairs?’
She shook her head. ‘I’ve got food to prepare. Robert wants an early dinner to night. Apparently he’s holding a seance afterwards.’
Raj’s eyes narrowed. ‘Have you ever sat in on one of Carter’s seances?’
‘No. What are they like?’
‘Unlike any seance you’ve seen before. For a start four out of the five of us sitting there have some kind of psychic ability. It tends to make things interesting.’
‘No table rapping and trumpets?’
‘Hardly.’ It was difficult to explain to her how unorthodox Carter’s methods were compared with most people’s. The fact that he did things differently every time made explanation impossible because you couldn’t second-guess him.
‘I’m disappointed. I was hoping to get in touch with my late Uncle Horace.’ It was a lame joke that did nothing to assuage the mounting apprehension she was feeling.
Raj didn’t smile, which made her feel worse. ‘It’s no joking matter, believe me. You’ll need to protect yourself. If you’re not able to, then I suggest you have a word with Jane, or Carter himself, and give it a miss.’
Kirby bristled. ‘I’m not a child. I know how to protect myself.’
‘Then make sure you do so. I’ve seen things get pretty ugly in the past. Carter may be an asshole, but he’s an incredibly powerful medium. He sometimes gets some startling results. Did he say where he’s holding the seance?’
‘In the library.’ Why would Raj suddenly express doubts about her ability to see this through?
Raj reached out for the mouse and brought the screen to life. Seconds later he was looking at the library through the lens of the camera. Wall-to-wall books, a low-slung couch covered in faded gold brocade, and a table in the center of the room; round, five feet in diameter. ‘Ideal,’ he said. ‘I dare say he’ll want some special cameras set up in there. Infrared, even thermal imaging.’ There was an edge of excitement to his voice.
Kirby looked at him curiously. ‘You’re looking forward to it, despite what you just said.’
