‘And did it?’ Perez remembered the days after Fran’s death. He’d felt like drinking himself unconscious, but he never had. Too guilty. He hadn’t felt he deserved to escape the pain.
‘Yeah,’ Ian said. ‘But I’ve got a bloody awful hangover this morning.’
‘How long did you stay in the bar?’
Ian shrugged and looked at Caroline. ‘You drove us home. When was that?’
‘I’m not sure.’ Caroline turned to Perez. ‘It was getting light again. Maybe two o’clock.’
‘Were you in the bar with the men?’
‘I stopped for one drink,’ she said. ‘Then I saw that it was going to turn into a session, so I came back to Meoness in our car and told Lowrie to give me a ring when they wanted to be collected.’ She paused. ‘It was obviously going to be a boys’ night out and I had the feeling that I’d be in the way.’
‘You didn’t come back to Sletts to keep Polly company?’ That seemed odd to Perez, if the two women were such good friends.
‘No. I wanted to speak to the solicitor handling the sale of our house. He’s an old friend and I knew he wouldn’t mind me calling late. Now that we’ve made the decision to come north we want to get things moving as soon as possible.’ Caroline hesitated. ‘I’ve already handed in my notice to the university, and Lowrie’s told his employer that he’ll be leaving soon. It’s a little bit scary that we won’t have any real income for a while. We need to be planning our new life.’
Perez had the uncharitable thought that Caroline seemed to be viewing her friend’s death as an interruption to her business plans. ‘Were George and Grusche at home?’
‘Are you asking me to provide an alibi, Inspector?’ The question was sharp and angry.
‘I’m just trying to get a picture of everyone’s movements.’
‘Grusche was at a book group in Baltasound. I’m sure her friends will corroborate her story. George was working outside, I think.’
Perez directed his next question to the men.
‘When you were at Springfield did you see Charles Hillier?’
Lowrie shook his head. ‘The owners hardly ever come into the bar. It’s managed by a local guy, a pal of mine. Ian told me that he’d run up against Charles, but I didn’t think there was any danger that they’d meet there.’
‘Did any of you leave the bar for any length of time?’ The question came from Willow. ‘Of course we’ll be talking to the other drinkers.’
‘By that time I was so pissed I could hardly stand,’ Ian said. ‘I didn’t think much of the local band – the folk thing doesn’t really do it for me – and I might have gone out to escape the music, but I don’t remember anything about it.’
‘I left for about half an hour,’ Marcus said. ‘It would have been around eleven. I phoned Polly. I wanted to make sure she was OK. She said she was fine, just going to bed and not to make too much noise when I came in. Then I phoned my mother. I hadn’t been in touch for a few days and we chatted for quite a time.’ He gave a wry smile. ‘You know mothers.’
‘If you were in the garden at Springfield you’d have had a view down to the shore,’ Perez said. ‘Did you see anything? Hear anything?’
Marcus gave a little laugh. ‘The fog had come in again. It was eerie. There was a foghorn somewhere in the distance. Moaning like the seals we saw earlier in the day. But no, I didn’t see anything.’
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Before they’d arrived at Sletts, Willow had discussed tactics with Perez. ‘See if you can get Lowrie on his own afterwards, Jimmy. Talk to him about Eleanor. She must have asked him about Peerie Lizzie before she arrived for the party. Why hasn’t he told us? Some last-minute fling with his first love before he tied the knot, do you think? Seems to me Eleanor would have been up for that. It would have amused her.’
Now they were all trooping out of the holiday house and Perez wasn’t sure how he would manage to separate Lowrie from Caroline. The woman was so forceful and competent that she intimidated him. But it seemed she had plans of her own: a trip to a gallery in Yell to look at some pieces for the new house. ‘Are you OK to walk home, Lowrie? If I take the car now, I should be back before supper.’ So in the end it was quite straightforward and Perez joined Lowrie as he set off along the beach towards Voxter, his parents’ croft.
‘This is a terrible business, Jimmy.’
‘Worse for you, perhaps. You were very close to Eleanor at one time, I think.’ Perez remembered Lowrie, red-faced and distraught after finding the woman’s body.
‘Has my mother been gossiping to you?’ The tide was on the ebb now and the sand was hard where they were walking. It was hard to tell what Lowrie made of Grusche’s interference. Or what he made of Eleanor’s death after the first dramatic reaction.
‘As Marcus said, you know what mothers are like.’ My mother wants me home too. She’d like me and Cassie in a croft in Fair Isle, where she can keep us safe.
‘I fancied myself in love with Eleanor when we were at university,’ Lowrie said. ‘It seems like a kind of madness now. But I was young and homesick and I’d never met anyone quite like her. She was like some exotic creature from another planet. For the first six months in Durham she filled all my dreams.’
‘What happened?’
‘She slept with me a couple of times for fun and then moved on to more interesting men. Men with more style and influence.’ Lowrie stopped suddenly and looked out to the horizon. ‘She said that I was very sweet, but she was ready for a grown-up.’
‘A bit harsh.’ Perez kept his voice light. He didn’t want to make too much of this and frighten the man into clamming up. ‘But you stayed friends?’
‘I adored her. Better to stay friends than to lose contact altogether, I thought. One day she might need me, and I’d come rushing to the rescue like a knight on a white charger and she’d realize that I was the man for her all along. Then I came to my senses and saw that living with her would be a nightmare.’
‘Ian managed it, though, did he?’
Lowrie hesitated. ‘Ian’s a very different kind of man.’
‘In what way?’ Perez was genuinely interested. He thought that of all the incomers Ian was the person he understood least.
‘He’s very certain. There are no doubts with Ian. Once he knows where he stands on an issue there’s no moving him.’ Lowrie slowed in his walk and turned to Perez. ‘He was like that when he decided that Eleanor was ill and needed to be in hospital. The rest of us couldn’t see it. We knew she’d hate it.’ He paused. ‘I went to see her in there. I didn’t tell the others, but I just slipped in on my own after work. It looked pleasant enough, like a kind of hotel, but she was so miserable. It was making her more crazy than losing the baby. I told her she should leave. She was a voluntary patient. There was nothing to stop her.’
‘And did she take your advice?’
‘Yes. She signed herself out the next day.’
‘What did Ian make of that?’
‘I didn’t tell him I had anything to do with it.’ Lowrie grinned briefly. ‘Too much of a coward. Ian has a lousy temper. I’m not sure what Nell said to him.’
‘Did you see her on her own after that?’
There was a pause. Perez wondered if Lowrie was preparing to lie. ‘Once,’ he said at last. ‘Ian was working away and I went to her house. She seemed better. She thanked me for giving her the confidence to leave the hospital. I asked how Ian had taken it and she said he’d realized she wasn’t ill, just sad. And she’d decided not to get so hung up on the baby thing. Maybe it’s just nature telling me I’d be a crap mother. I’ve got a wonderful man and that should be enough.’