Chapter Forty
Back in the house, Kenny sat in his chair in the kitchen and dozed. He wasn’t used to eating such a big meal at lunchtime. The telephone woke him with a start. He rushed into the hall, thinking it would be Jimmy Perez, but it was Edith. He looked at his watch and saw that it was three o’clock.
‘Are you OK, Kenny? Is there any news?’
He felt guilty then. He should have phoned her. She’d have been worrying about him all afternoon.
‘No news,’ he said. ‘But I’m fine.’ He didn’t tell her about the big fried meal Aggie had cooked for him. He’d enjoyed the meal so much that it seemed like a guilty secret. He knew Aggie wouldn’t tell anyone about it.
‘Do you still want to come over?’
‘Yes,’ he said. He didn’t feel panicky any more, but the lunch with Aggie had given him a taste for company.
When he walked into the care centre through the big double doors and saw the people sitting in the sunny room, dozing or chatting, he thought maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to end his days here. He would be with people he knew, people he’d grown up with. He waved to Willy, who sat a little apart from the others, staring out of the window. Willy waved back at him with a great silly grin, and Kenny gestured with his hand to show that he’d come back to chat to him later.
Edith came out into the hall to greet him. He thought what a nuisance he must be to her, more like a child at times than her man.
‘Come into the office,’ she said. ‘I’ve asked Sandra to make us some tea.’
He sat in the easy chair on the other side of her desk. He thought this was where people would sit when there was a problem with a relative she was looking after. Maybe even if a client had died. He supposed she would arrange for tea to be brought then. She would pour it out for them, from the china teapot which sat there on its tray. She thinks the bones belong to Lawrence too, he thought. She’s treating me like a grieving relative.
‘I wish Perez would phone and let me know what’s going on,’ he said.
She reached out and squeezed his hand. ‘Maybe he doesn’t want to talk to you until he has information. It can’t be easy identifying a body from a few scraps of bone.’
Kenny considered this. Sometimes he watched police shows on the television. In those shows test results seemed to come back within hours. But those programmes weren’t set in Shetland. Perhaps there was no one here competent to do the tests. The samples would have to be sent south and that would take time.
He sipped from the cup, which seemed very fragile in his big hand. There was a plate with little square biscuits covered in sugar. He took one and dipped it into the tea. It tasted of coconut.
‘Do you remember anything of that time Lawrence disappeared?’ he asked.
She poured tea for herself. ‘I’ve been trying to think ever since you phoned. Bella had a heap of people in the Manse. Sometimes Willy took them out fishing. They’d come back and build a fire on the beach to cook the fish. They all drank too much. Lawrence spent quite a lot of time with them. You know how he liked a party.’
Kenny nodded.
‘I was so busy then,’ she said. ‘With the children and your father and trying to keep things tidy on the croft. You were in Fair Isle. It wasn’t easy.’
‘I shouldn’t have gone,’ he said. ‘I see that now.’
She gave a little laugh. ‘We needed the money. Don’t you remember all the plans we had? And it was worth the work, wasn’t it? We have a lovely home now.’
Kenny thought he would give up the lovely home to have been in Biddista when Lawrence disappeared. He’d gone to Fair Isle with Edith’s encouragement. She’d wanted their children to have the things her parents had never been able to afford for her.
‘I just think you have to wait,’ Edith said. ‘Perez will get in touch with you as soon as he knows anything. After all these years you can wait a few hours.’
He knew she was right, but he couldn’t face going back to the croft and just sitting there, hoping the phone would ring.
‘I’ll have a talk to Willy, see if I can cheer him up.’
‘You do that. But he’s quite confused today. A bit agitated. Don’t be upset if he doesn’t know you.’
‘Has Wilding been in to see him again?’
She frowned and he remembered how Wilding’s visit to the centre had upset her. ‘Not here, but he could have visited him at the sheltered housing over the weekend.’
‘Do you think I should call in on Wilding, ask him what he wants from the old man?’
‘I’m overreacting, I expect. It’s probably nothing. Just a writer’s curiosity. I’d like to know what he’s up to, but I wouldn’t want you going to see him on your own. Not with everything that’s happened since he arrived. Wait until Martin can go with you.’
‘Wilding’s a weak sort of man. I can’t see him killing anyone.’
‘I’m not sure,’ she said. ‘Don’t you think it’s the weak ones who are most violent?’
There was a knock at the door. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I’ll have to go. There’s a meeting. Something I can’t cancel. My boss has come up from Lerwick.’
He leaned across her desk and gave her a peck on the cheek. ‘I’ll see you at home.’
Kenny sat beside Willy in the lounge. The staff were bringing round cups of tea on a trolley, stopping beside each person in turn. Willy already had his, but it sat untouched on the table beside him. His chin was on his chest and his eyes were half closed. It was very warm in the room and Kenny could see why some users of the centre spent all day dozing. He could feel himself nodding off too. He patted Willy’s hand just to wake him, though he didn’t seem properly asleep, just daydreaming. He was surprised at how cold the hand felt.
‘Hi Willy. It’s Kenny. You mind me from Biddista? You taught me everything I know about boats.’
The old man turned very slowly, opened his eyes and smiled.
‘Of course I mind you, man.’
‘I’ve just come to see how you’re feeling.’
‘Not so well. Things are such a muddle in my head these days. Don’t get old, man. There’s no pleasure in it.’
‘We had grand times, didn’t we, Willy? Those summers when you took us all out fishing. There was the group of us. Bella and Alec Sinclair, Aggie Watt, my wife Edith, who looks after you here, and Lawrence and me.’
Willy sat quite still, staring into space with a sort of fierce concentration.
‘You
There was a moment while Willy stared into space.
‘He left Shetland,’ Kenny said. ‘We all thought he left Shetland because Bella Sinclair turned him down.’
‘No,’ Willy said firmly. ‘He’s still here.’ He raised a shaking hand to grasp his tea. ‘He didn’t go anywhere.’
‘Where is he?’
But Willy seemed not to have heard the question. ‘He’s a great one for the fishing,’ he said, and he started a story about taking the boat out with a couple of Englishmen. It was all about a big party Bella was holding and how she wanted fish to serve her guests. Willy gutted them for her and took the heads off. He described that in great detail, the gutting of the fish, as if Kenny had never done it for himself. In the end Kenny only listened with half his mind.
‘Was Lawrence there that night?’ he asked in the end. He wanted to get home in case Jimmy called at Skoles.
‘Of course he was. He wanted fish too.’
Willy closed his eyes again, then opened them slowly. ‘That Englishman came to see me,’ he said. ‘Full of questions. But I told him nothing.’
Kenny was going to touch his hand again, to prompt him back to the present, when the mobile in his pocket started to buzz. He fumbled to get it and answered just before the message service cut in. It was Jimmy Perez. Kenny stood up and walked with the phone out into the car park. Willy seemed not to notice his leaving and the other people watched him go without interest. There were a couple of gulls, very noisy, fighting over a scrap of bread, and for a moment he was distracted. Soon he realized there was no real news.
‘I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to get back to you.’
‘I heard about the bones you’d found.’
