That had been a smart gamble. I did like my privacy.
“Good. Bring the bottle then, will you?” I headed for the stairs, glancing back at him over my shoulder and meeting his startled gaze with a questioning look. Was there a problem? Apparently not. Mads could move pretty quickly when he wanted to.
Twenty-One
It was just after half-past nine when I woke up on Saturday morning, six hours after creeping quietly to bed. I hadn’t wanted to disturb any of the other guests staying at our hotel, and I especially hadn’t wanted to wake Shay up.
I smiled to myself as I got up and headed for the bathroom. Last night had done me a world of good, and I felt great. Annie and I had talked for hours, and neither of us had had any complaints about the highly enjoyable, leisurely finale to our evening either. Maybe she’d even take me up on my invitation and come over to Inverness for a fun little weekend break sometimes? I hoped so.
Once I’d showered, dressed and put the kettle on, I carefully eased the connecting door to Shay’s room open in case he was still sleeping. He wasn’t. The room was empty. I tapped on the bathroom door before opening it to find that empty too. He must have gotten fed up with waiting for me to wake up and gone out to get some breakfast.
I went back to my room and made myself a coffee before picking up my phone and buzzing him. No answer. He probably had it on silent again; I wished he’d stop doing that. I fired off a text to let him know I was nipping out too and asking him to call me when he saw it. A second quick coffee, and I was good to go.
It was yet another clear and lovely morning out there. Trish was at her desk when I got up to her office, but it looked like she was just settling in. An almost full, steaming travel mug was sitting by her elbow.
“Good morning,” she greeted me brightly. “This is our fifth nice day in a row! Just look at that sky. I think the weather’s trying for a record this week. Did you have a good time last night?”
“Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I didn’t stick around for the third set, though. The heat, the noise and the beer all got a bit much, and I needed to clear my head a bit.”
“Aye, it can get a bit muggy in there. I’m glad you enjoyed yourself, though. By the way, while I remember, you might want to let your cousin know that Anderson’s agreed to have Aaron Whitaker sent over to Inverness on Monday. He’ll be tagged and placed in a council flat until his trial date comes up.” I was pleased to hear it.
“I’ll let Shay know,” I promised, superfluous as that would be. He’d appreciate the fact that Trish had thought to mention it. “They told me downstairs that our samples all went out to the airport nice and early. You have a really good bunch of people here, Trish. I wanted to thank you for all your help before we left. I couldn’t have asked for a friendlier or more collaborative group of officers to work with.”
She smiled at me indulgently. “That’s very sweet of you, Conall, but I think we both know how much time and trouble you’ve saved us all on this one. I won’t say that I hope we need you again any time soon, but if another major case did come up, I’d move heaven and earth to persuade Anderson to let us borrow you again. And you’re always welcome to pop in and visit.”
“We plan to,” I assured her. “Next May or June, hopefully. My da’s very keen on the idea.”
“Oh? I’d love to meet the man who raised you two! You’ll let me know when you have a date set? I’d like to at least sit down with you all for a dinner.”
“We’d like that.”
She stood up to shake my hand on it, and I left her to her paperwork.
Shay hadn’t called in at our cafe that morning, I found when I went there to get a bite of breakfast. Still no reply to my text either. Maybe he’d gone to The Crown again, or decided to give somewhere else a try. Back at the hotel, feeling oddly uneasy, I looked at Shay’s bed, trying to figure out if it had been slept in or not. It looked neat enough, but he could have straightened it out when he got up. I didn’t know what he’d decided to wear last night, so I didn’t know if he’d changed clothes either. I had no idea what he’d packed, apart from the things I’d already seen him use, and those were all here. Did the fact that he hadn’t opened the curtains in there this morning mean anything?
I went back to my room and got my laptop up and running. Shay had installed a tracker for his mobile on there for me. I opened it up. No signal. So his phone wasn’t just silenced, it was turned off. My mild anxiety increased significantly. When did he ever turn his phone off?
I pulled up the contacts file we’d compiled for the group on the yacht, because now I really did want to know what time Shay had left there. There was no response from Nielsen’s phone, or any of the students’ mobile numbers. They were all currently unavailable too. I decided to go down and pay the Kværnen a visit. After all, it wasn’t impossible that things had gone so well that Shay had decided to stay the night.
The Kværnen wasn’t there. You couldn’t miss the absence of seventy-five feet
