'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?
‘‘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.
