Thin Air: (Shetland book 6) (39 page)
Read Thin Air: (Shetland book 6) Online
Authors: Ann Cleeves
Perez spoke slowly, explaining the events to himself as well as his audience. ‘The sight of the girl in the same room as Polly would have sent Lowrie into a panic.
What shall I do? What will happen if Polly sees the girl, and Grace tells her everything? The police will want to know why I’ve been lying to them.
And there might have been recriminations too:
I should have gone to Jimmy Perez right at the start. I should have explained.
Implying that it all this was his mother’s fault. And still Grusche would have been strong and reassuring: “Don’t worry, son. Leave it to me. I’ll sort it out.” Then Lowrie made another phone call to Voxter, after Polly went missing, and the tension increased. Grusche would have heard the fear in her son’s voice. “Polly’s disappeared. She chased after Grace. She just phoned Marcus to tell him what she was doing, that she’s seen Peerie Lizzie.” And again Grusche would have reassured him. She’d always looked after him and she would always provide the answers.’
Perez’s thoughts rushed back to the house by the shore, where he’d lived quite happily until Fran had swept him away to her home in Ravenswick, like flotsam on a big tide.
‘Grusche phoned Polly on her mobile and told her to go back to the boat club, where George would pick her up. That’s where George was, Sandy, when you went to visit Voxter. He wasn’t asleep in his room, but driving through the fog to do what his wife had told him. Half-asleep and more than half-drunk.’ A pause. ‘And by then Grusche thought she was invincible and that her only role in life was to protect her son.’
‘I’d wondered if Polly Gilmour was the killer,’ Sandy said. ‘She seemed so weird and distant most of the time. Spending her days reading old folk tales and legends. I thought it might have twisted her brain. It didn’t seem like a real job for a grown woman.’
‘Not like teaching, you mean?’ Willow gave an innocent smile, but Sandy blushed to the roots of his hair.
Perez grinned. Sandy got awkwardly to his feet. ‘I’m away home to my bed.’ He shambled out of the house without looking back. The house was quiet again.
‘What are your plans?’ Perez felt suddenly uncomfortable, with Willow lying almost at his feet. It was as if Sandy had left them alone on purpose, a tactless kind of match-making.
‘I’m booked on the first plane in the morning.’
There was an awkward silence and Willow broke it first.
‘When did you know, Jimmy, that Grusche was the killer?’
‘I didn’t
know
until I saw her in the kitchen at Voxter with her arm round Polly’s neck.’
‘But you suspected. You had a very good idea.’ It wasn’t a question.
‘Grusche was a kind of friend,’ Perez said. ‘She was always talking about her son, and there was nothing wrong in that. I thought it a splendid thing that she was so proud of him. Then, this time, the way she looked when she was speaking about him made me feel uncomfortable. It was as if she was living her life through her boy. She was too intense.’
And that’s a lesson for me, perhaps
.
‘You could have talked to me, Jimmy. There was no need to wait until you were certain you were right. That’s what colleagues do. Share their uncertainties and their ideas. I don’t like feeling shut out.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Perez said. ‘I was trying to work it all out in my head. I didn’t want you to think I was a fool. All that stuff about ghosts was making me a peerie bit paranoid too . . .’
Willow got to her feet. He wondered if she was going to walk out on him, just as Sandy had done. Without looking back. Then she laughed. ‘Put the kettle on, Jimmy Perez. Let’s have some more coffee and another dram. We’re at the end of this investigation and we’ve plenty to celebrate.’
Chapter Forty-Seven
The next morning Perez and Cassie gave Willow a lift to Sumburgh. They dropped her at the airport and she swung her bag out of the boot and walked away with just a little wave. Cassie jumped into the front seat beside Jimmy, because it was only a short drive from there to the pier at Grutness, where the
Good Shepherd
would arrive from Fair Isle. Perez had slept well and felt rested and oddly calm, better than he had since Fran’s death. He and Cassie climbed the low headland together and watched the boat approaching from the south.
They were the only passengers. The
Shepherd
had a reputation for making folk seasick and most visitors into the Isle chose to fly these days. But there were provisions for the shop to load and some equipment for the bird observatory. Perez helped the crew and Cassie waited, very serious and a little apart, until his father, the skipper, called her aboard.
‘Will you come into the wheelhouse with me and Jimmy, lass? We’ve only had one female crew member before, and I’m thinking that it’s about time that we had another. And this is a bit special, isn’t it?’
So she stood between them and watched the misty outline of Fair Isle become clearer, until they could make out the North Lighthouse and the wedge of Sheep Craig. James told her what he was doing and the hours passed very quickly. Then they were so close to the cliffs that they could make out individual kittiwakes and razorbills and they rounded the headland into the North Haven. And the whole island was there to meet them.
By Ann Cleeves
A Bird in the Hand Come Death and High Water
Murder in Paradise A Prey to Murder
A Lesson in Dying Murder in My Back Yard
A Day in the Death of Dorothea Cassidy
Another Man’s Poison Killjoy
The Mill on the Shore Sea Fever
The Healers High Island Blues
The Baby-Snatcher The Sleeping and the Dead
Burial of Ghosts
Vera Stanhope series
The Crow Trap Telling Tales Hidden Depths
Silent Voices The Glass Room Harbour Street
The Shetland series
Raven Black White Nights Red Bones
Blue Lightning Dead Water Thin Air
First published 2014 by Macmillan
This electronic edition published 2014 by Macmillan
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ISBN 978-0-230-76813-0
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