Raven Black (26 page)

Perez shrugged. 'What did you have for me?'

Duncan was looking better than the last time they'd met, but not a whole lot better. He was shaved and smartly dressed and he'd had a haircut, but Perez thought he wasn't getting much sleep. He'd lost the old Hunter arrogance.

'I've been thinking about that party at the Haa! 'The one Catherine Ross came to?'

'Yes! There was a pause while the waitress took their order. 'Look, I was out of it, OK?'

'But you've remembered something?'

'You were asking about Robert. He didn't come with Catherine. He'd been there earlier, talking to Celia before anyone else turned up. I'm not sure what it was about. Family stuff I suppose. Pretty intense, at least-' He broke off suddenly. 'Perhaps he was persuading her to go home with him. He never liked me and he could always twist her round his little finger!

Perez looked at him, wondering what this was
really
all about. It had nothing to do with helping the police with their enquiries, that was for sure. Duncan wouldn't see the point. With him, there was always a hidden agenda. He could manipulate for Shetland.

'Catherine and Robert knew each other: Duncan said. 'I mean, when she walked in, you could tell!

'How?' Perez was losing patience.

'He was talking to Celia in the kitchen. She'd been putting together some food. That was where the drinks were.

So that was where I was. Catherine came in with a group of other people and Robert saw her. It was a shock.

He wasn't expecting it. He broke off his conversation with his mother and just stared at her. Like thunderstruck. Like there was no way she should have been there!

'Was he pleased to see her?'

'I think so. Pleased but a bit nervous perhaps.

Anxious!

'How did she react to him?'

'She didn't. She gave no sign that she knew him, not then. She poured herself a drink and started chatting to me.

Flirting, I suppose. She was one of those women who make you feel special. They can make you believe you're interesting, funny. Fran could never do that. She could never be bothered to make the effort. But Catherine, oh, she was very good!

'She was only sixteen!

'But sophisticated,' Duncan said. 'Experienced!
And a virgin.

'Is that all you have to tell me? Hardly worth a dinner at Monty's!

'While she was flirting with me, she had one eye on Robert. I don't know why. I mean, I can't imagine for a minute that she fancied him. But at one point they disappeared together. At least, I think so. I mean, I'm pretty sure.

It was before Celia hit me with the news that she was leaving. But you know how it is with parties. Good parties, at least. You get into an interesting conversation and everything around you fades into the background. You hear the music but you're not really listening. You know there are other people there, but you're not aware of what they're doing. They're just bodies moving, dancing'

'Throwing up?'

'Not that early in the evening.' Duncan said crossly.

He paused. 'No need to take the piss, man. I'm trying to help. Honestly. There was one point when I noticed neither of them was there. I'd enjoyed the girl's company. OK, I was looking for her. I looked all over for her. She'd got to me somehow. She had style. And when I've thought about it since, I've realized Robert wasn't there either. I told you it might not be important.'

The waitress came with their food. Perez didn't recognize her, although she was about his age and she sounded local. He was preoccupied for a moment trying to place her. Duncan started eating immediately, sulking because Perez wasn't more grateful for the information.

'Where did they go?'

'I'm not sure. I didn't search the whole place. It wasn't
that
important.'

'But they were in the house?'

'For fuck's sake I don't know. Maybe they went for a drive. Had wild and passionate sex in the back of Robert's van. Only I don't see it. Like I said before, she was an attractive young woman. Robert's a thug. A spoilt mummy's boy. Good looking I suppose if you like the blond Viking type, but she was too bright to be taken in by that.'

And what are you? Perez thought. You're a bully.

It wasn't such a big deal, the event which had made him see Duncan in a different light. It might have happened anywhere. Here, where the web of relationships caught you and held you and wouldn't let you go, it was the sort of thing you had to deal with every day. Duncan had been speeding. Crazy speeds down the road from the north. Sandy Wilson had stopped him. He'd realized he'd been drinking and said he'd have to test him. But Sandy Wilson's dad worked for Duncan's company. He was a joiner, who could turn his hand to anything, and he worked on the renovations of the buildings Duncan bought.

Duncan threatened to sack the father if Sandy did him for drink driving. Perez wasn't sure he would have done it; good craftsmen were hard to come by. But Sandy believed him and Duncan got away with just a spot fine for speeding. Blackmail. Perez found out about it later. Sandy got drunk one night and blurted out the whole story.

Perez kept it to himself. Sandy was a pea-brained bigot, but he didn't deserve to be dumped on. And anyway Perez owed Duncan, didn't he? He'd saved his life when they were at school, saved him from the Foula boys, at least. But the debt was paid and he felt he didn’t owe him any more. That was why he hated Duncan. Not because he was a bully but because he'd forced Perez to see him as one. Because when he was fourteen, he'd been Perez's best friend.

'How long were Robert and Catherine away?' Perez asked.

Duncan shrugged. 'An hour? No more than that. Less maybe. It wasn't that late. Before Celia said she'd had enough, at least. I was still sober enough to stand. And I remember Catherine coming back. Maybe they had been outside. She looked flushed, red-cheeked, as if she'd been in the cold. And she seemed elated. I told you. That was when she told me she wanted to go .into film. She had so many dreams, she said, so many projects in her head she wasn't sure she'd have time to work on them all . . : He broke off and for a moment Perez could believe that he was sad. For the girl. Not

just sorry for himself.

'And how was Robert Isbister?'

'I don't know. I didn't see him again. He didn't come back:

After the meal they stood together outside the restaurant, in a narrow alley at the bottom of steep steps.

'Why don't we go on somewhere,' Duncan said.

'Have a few drinks. Like the old days:

Perez was tempted. It would have been good to get very drunk with someone who didn't work for the police.

But Duncan was too eager and Perez wondered again what the evening was all about. It couldn't be, surely, that Duncan was lonely too, that at school he'd needed the shy boy from Fair Isle as much as Perez had needed him?

He watched Duncan walk away down the lane towards the market cross and his car. It was early and Perez wasn't ready to go home. Word of Tait's arrest would be all over the islands by now. The people would feel safe again, settle back into the knowledge that this had been a crazy aberration and violent crime only happened elsewhere. They'd sleep. Except for the families of the victims.

The Bruces were staying with relatives in Sandwick.

He supposed Euan Ross would be alone in the big house lose to the shore. Perez had sent a constable to inform him that Tait had been taken into custody, but thought now he should go himself. Ross had been bitter that Tait had been released after Catriona's disappearance. It seemed cowardly not to face him and answer his questions. The police owed him that much at least.

Driving past Hillhead, he remembered the raven. Should he kill it now and get it over with? The CSI must have finished with the place because the police tape had been removed and the house was in darkness. When he found the door locked he was relieved.

One of the team would have taken the key. They might even have found a home for the raven. He remembered that there was a woman in Dunrossness who cared for sick and injured birds. Maybe they'd taken it there. He'd have to check. He'd go back later.

Euan Ross was angry. His face was flushed and it showed in the violence with which he opened the door. Perez thought he had been waiting all day for someone to speak to him.

'Inspector,' he said.
'At
last. I've lived here long enough to realize that there's little sense of urgency in Shetland, but I'd have thought it would have been courteous to respond to my request more quickly than this. It was your phone call which started it all off after all.'

He turned and walked away into the house, leaving Perez to shut the door behind him and follow.

They sat in the big room, with the glass wall, looking out towards Raven's Head. Euan hadn't turned on the central light. The space was lit by a couple of spots attached to the wal1. There were big areas of shadow. At some point over the winter he must have collected driftwood, because there was a chunk of pitch pine on the fire. The smell of it must be covering the last trace of Catherine's perfume.

For a moment Perez was confused. He couldn't think what the man was talking about. 'I'm sorry. No one told me that you'd asked to see me!

'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.