‘I wonder how true that is,’ Dunbar said. ‘You know how rumours spread.’ Again he gave Evans a look, and the younger detective just shook his head and looked away.
‘I wonder why he didn’t just move his wife down there?’ Harry said.
‘Maybe it was embarrassing for Murdo to admit his wife had mental health problems,’ Dunbar said. ‘It was all about appearances with the Wolf family. Like Oliver wanting his daughter to be married, even if it was to the Hunchback of Notre Dame.’
‘It would make sense for him not to do anything with this place if he was grieving,’ Alex said.
‘I wonder how long she’d been dead before he died?’ Evans said.
‘Didn’t old Deal say the wife died a few months before Murdo?’ Dunbar said.
‘I think so,’ Harry replied.
The windows were filthy and it was clear nobody had been here in a long time. They walked down the side of the hospital until they were at the back.
‘I think we should get back down, neighbour,’ Dunbar said.
‘Hold on a minute, Jimmy,’ Harry said.
‘What are you thinking, Harry?’
‘It was when we were up at the other house. I saw a plane coming in to land again. I followed the line of sight from the airport, then the line that Murdo, or his killer, might have taken. Being a small aircraft, it could have landed almost anywhere, if he could find a piece of flat land.’
‘That’s true, but we might never know where he landed.’
Harry turned to look at Dunbar. ‘Let’s think about what we know about that night. It was snowing like it was the Arctic, according to Thomas Deal. Yet Murdo took off in it. Because the airstrip had been cleared.’
‘Okay.’
‘It was bucketing down with snow and visibility was bad. The killer wouldn’t risk flying around trying to find somewhere to land in the heavy snow.’
‘Agreed.’
‘He had to know where to land in advance. It was somebody who knew this island like the back of his hand. Somebody who knew where a makeshift airstrip was.’
Harry swept one arm open and they all turned to look at the back lawn of the hospital. A long, flat area of grass.
‘Now it’s overgrown, but thirty-five years ago it would have been a well-kept lawn.’
Dunbar looked at Evans. ‘Go with Alex and get Muckle. And his big fuckin’ dug. Get him to come up here and bring some uniforms. I want this place searched.’
‘Got it, boss.’
The two sergeants ran back to the car and jumped in, then threw gravel as they sped away.
Harry watched the car until it disappeared. Then he looked at the road.
‘There’s something bothering me,’ he said, walking right round the back of the building.
‘What’s that, neighbour?’
‘That road we came up. The gates make the entrance narrow.’
‘They do.’
‘So where did the delivery trucks come in? And was that the ambulance entrance? I mean, this place wasn’t like Edinburgh on a Friday night, I’m sure, but remember the fairground was here and our landlady at the hotel, Nancy, told us that this island is jumping with tourists.’ Harry looked around. ‘This hospital needed to have the Accident and Emergency because of the sheer number of visitors. I’m sure it was pretty busy, just like I’m sure the new one is busy, especially in the summer.’
‘I’m following you,’ Dunbar said. ‘There has to be a service road. Big enough to take delivery trucks.’
‘Correct.’
They reached the back of the big house, where a large extension had been added. Although the road was overgrown, it could still be made out.
‘There it is.’
‘Which means they could bring big vehicles in here. Including a snow plough. The hospital was already closed on the day that Murdo was murdered, so maybe the killer came up here and ploughed it in preparation.’
Dunbar nodded. ‘Where would he have put the plane? I mean, he could have left it out in the open, but this killer is a planner. I don’t think he would have risked just leaving the plane in view. He would have hidden it.’
‘That’s what I would have done. Then he could have come back and flown it out.’
‘That would have been risky, neighbour. Even if he waited until spring, there was a chance of him being spotted. Not to mention popping up on radar. I know he flew in here under the radar, but that’s not to say he wouldn’t have been spotted by another plane. If I was him, I would have hidden it.’
‘Me too. Then I would have dismantled it, bit by bit.’
They looked around and started walking away from the hospital, further along what they now thought of as the airstrip. There was a small copse of trees at the end. The grass was overgrown around it, but the service road followed the edge of the airstrip and bent round the edge of the copse.
Then they saw them. The outlying buildings. Sheds. And a garage with a double door. It was old, made of wood, but it was in decent enough condition. The glass panels had been covered with wood from the inside. Hidden from view by the trees and vegetation; more aesthetic for the patients.
‘It’s locked,’ Harry said, trying the handle that would have opened one of the doors outwards. Dunbar looked round the side.
‘There’s a solid door there, but it’s locked tight.’
The building was large and looked like it could have stored a few double-decker buses, never mind gardening equipment and a snow plough.
‘There has to be a way in,’ Harry said.
‘Let me look round the other side.’ Dunbar walked away and disappeared from view, and just for a moment, Harry had an uneasy feeling. He followed in Dunbar’s footsteps and turned the corner.
Dunbar wasn’t there.
‘Jimmy?’
Then Dunbar poked his head out from a doorway. ‘Apparently, this door swings open and some bastard kicked it in.’ He rubbed his knee and made a face. ‘Where’s young Robbie when you need him?’
Harry walked up and couldn’t see
