the ferry the night after the murder.
‘What brought Booth up here after all these years?’ Taylor was still sitting on the floor, his legs stretched out in front of him.
‘Greed,’ Perez said. ‘He’d just found his daughter again and he wanted to make up for lost time. Or give her a big present to make her love him. His business was limping along just as it had always done, but there was no spare cash. He was struggling just to survive. Then he saw the TV documentary, which apparently made Kenny and Edith out to be great landowners, and everything came together.’
‘Why didn’t he try blackmail at the time of Lawrence’s death?’
‘What would be the point? The Thomsons were struggling for money themselves. They’ve only become comfortable in the last few years. After the first time he was here Booth probably wanted to forget about the whole visit. Bella does a mean line in put-downs and he had a history of running away. Besides, I think Willy might have scared him off. He was a big man in those days and made sure he saw Booth on to the boat south.’
‘But Booth came back and Edith decided she wasn’t going to pay up.’
‘She grew up without anything,’ Perez said. ‘She wasn’t going to hand over cash she’d worked so hard for to a blackmailer. She was used to controlling events and keeping secrets. She thought she would get away with it.’ He was sitting on the windowsill, looking out at the water.
‘And the amnesia? What was all that about?’
‘The scene at the party was Booth’s idea of a practical joke to spite Bella. He wasn’t expecting to be taken to one side by a cop and I told him straight away what I did for a living. He certainly didn’t want to explain why he was in Biddista. The amnesia was an excuse not to answer my questions.’
‘Where did Wilding come into things?’
‘He didn’t. He was too wrapped up in his fairy stories and his new house to think about anything else. He talked to Willy, but about old Shetland folk tales. Material for his new series of books. Nothing more.’
Taylor stood up and set his mug back on the tray. He was frowning. ‘You did it again,’ he said. ‘Got there before me.’
‘It’s my place,’ Perez said. ‘I wouldn’t know where to start in Inverness.’
Taylor seemed about to speak again, but he only smiled.
Two days later Perez took Taylor to Sumburgh. Fran came along for the ride. She’d gone to buy coffee, leaving the two men standing in the lounge, when Taylor’s flight was called. He picked up his bag and moved towards the queue, then turned back.
‘I wasn’t going to tell you,’ he said suddenly. ‘But I’m changing jobs. I’ve been head-hunted.’ Taylor smiled his wolf-like grin. ‘Imagine that, eh? I’m going back to Liverpool to head up their Major Crimes Unit. I wasn’t going to take it. Too close to home, too many bad memories. But I never want to work in this place again. This weather, this light. Another case and I’d be as daft as the rest of you.’
He smiled again to show it was a joke, of a sort, then walked through the door. Through the long window they saw him cross the tarmac, but he didn’t look back or wave.
‘How do you fancy a bit of a walk?’ They were in Perez’s car on the way north. He’d been wondering how to ask her and the question sounded awkward, a bit abrupt.
‘Sure.’
‘I was thinking we could maybe call in to Biddista.’
‘Why would you want to do that?’ Fran said. ‘It’s over. Not your responsibility.’
‘It feels that it is.’
‘Do you really think they’ll want to see you?’
‘They’ll have questions,’ he said.
‘It’s a sort of arrogance, believing yourself indispensable.’ But she said it kindly and he assumed that meant she would go with him. He was grateful. He wouldn’t have wanted to do it alone.
They parked on the road by the Herring House and stood looking out on the beach for a while before going inside. There were no other customers in the cafe, but Martin and his mother sat at a table chatting quietly. Aggie saw them come in and stopped talking mid-sentence. Perez nodded to them.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘The way it all turned out.’
For a moment they just stared. He wondered if this was how it would be in Biddista, that no one would speak to him again.
‘I was just telling Martin,’ Aggie said. ‘I didn’t know what had happened to Lawrence. Not for certain. You know what it’s like here, Jimmy. Sometimes there are things you don’t want to know. It doesn’t stop me blaming myself for what’s gone on since.’
There was a brief pause, then Martin got up to take their order. Suddenly things were ordinary again. Like a freeze-frame film running once more at normal speed. They could have been two tourists who’d dropped in for coffee.
‘Ingirid and her man are going to move back into Skoles,’ Aggie said. ‘Keep Kenny company for a while. She’s expecting a baby, due any time. It’ll be good to have another child in Biddista.’ Perez could tell she was thinking of her new grandchild too.
‘Shame Willy won’t be around to get them out in a boat.’
‘Maybe,’ she said. ‘But those old times weren’t so great.’ She smiled at him. ‘Get off home, Jimmy. A day like this, you’ll have better things to do. We don’t need you here.’
Fran slipped her arm into his. He felt the silky fabric of her sleeve against his bare skin. She turned and smiled at him.
‘Yes, come on home, Jimmy,’ she said. ‘We’ve got much better things to do.’
Ann Cleeves
