'I'd like that very much,' Kenny said. 'If it's not too much trouble.'

'Not at all.' She smiled, and he saw that she had quite a pretty face. 'I like comfort food myself.'

She brought up the subject of Lawrence while she was cooking the chips. She cooked them the old-fashioned way, with oil in a big pan and a basket, so there was the noise of them frying. She had her back to him, so it was hard to tell what she was thinking. The sausages were in a frying pan and they smelled very good. She'd made him a big mug of tea as soon as they got into the kitchen and he sat with his boots off at the table, drinking it. He was just thinking it was a pity she'd never remarried when she started speaking.

'Have the police been in touch with you?'

'About the bones in the Pit? No. I phoned Jimmy Perez this morning but he was out.'

'You think it's Lawrence?'

'I think it was too much of a coincidence for it not to be.'

'I suppose they'll be able to tell,' she said. 'All those things you read about. Forensics.'

'I just want to know,' he said.

She cracked three eggs on the side of the pan and added them to the sausages, lifted the chip basket so it rested just above the oil, then turned round to him.

'I felt that way when Andrew drowned,' she said. 'But sometimes I think hope is better.'

'Do you remember that summer when Lawrence disappeared?' he asked. 'I wasn't here. I was away in Fair Isle, working.'

She took two plates from the warming oven at the bottom of the Rayburn, carefully lifted out the eggs two for him and one for her and the sausages, then shook the oil from the chips and tipped them on to the plates.

'I wasn't here then. I was in Scalloway.' She pushed a knife and fork across the table to him. He couldn't tell what she made of the question. He didn't know what she was thinking at all. 'Eat up while it's hot.'

'But you'd hear what was going on. What were folks saying?'

'Just what they've been saying ever since. That he asked Bella Sinclair to marry him and she turned him down, so he took a great temper on him and left the islands.' She picked up a chip with her fingers and blew on it before putting it into her mouth. Then she frowned. 'He did have a temper, Kenny. You know he did. You remember when we were children, him sc.r.a.pping in the schoolyard. The teacher having to pull the boys apart. He always had to be the best, the strongest. Always in compet.i.tion, even with you.'

Kenny thought of the two of them racing to finish singling the neeps. Lawrence was the quickest, but his own rows were the neater. He wasn't sure there was much of a compet.i.tion, but it was true that Lawrence always wanted to win.

'You never heard anything else? That he'd picked a fight over work? Fallen out with anyone?'

It occurred to Kenny that he might have to apologize to Bella when all this was over. Perhaps she'd had nothing to do with his brother's disappearance after all.

'No,' Aggie said. 'I heard nothing like that.'

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 w.i.l.l.y, who sat a little apart from the others, staring out of the window. w.i.l.l.y 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 sc.r.a.ps 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 w.i.l.l.y 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 w.i.l.l.y, 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 w.i.l.l.y in the lounge. The staff were bringing round cups of tea on a trolley, stopping beside each person in turn. w.i.l.l.y 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 w.i.l.l.y'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 w.i.l.l.y. 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, w.i.l.l.y? 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.'

w.i.l.l.y sat quite still, staring into s.p.a.ce with a sort of fierce concentration.

'You do remember Lawrence, w.i.l.l.y? My brother Lawrence?'

There was a moment while w.i.l.l.y stared into s.p.a.ce.

'He left Shetland,' Kenny said. 'We all thought he left Shetland because Bella Sinclair turned him down.'

'No,' w.i.l.l.y said firmly. 'He's still here.' He raised a shaking hand to grasp his tea. 'He didn't go anywhere.'

'Where is he?'

But w.i.l.l.y 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. w.i.l.l.y 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.'

w.i.l.l.y 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. w.i.l.l.y 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 sc.r.a.p 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.'

'I should have come to tell you, Kenny. But we were so late finishing last night I didn't want to trouble you. And this morning I've been working on the case.'

'Is it Lawrence?'

'We won't know for a while.'

There was a pause. Kenny could tell he was going to add something more, but couldn't help interrupting. 'Can't you do something with DNA?'

'We'd need bone marrow to do a standard DNA test, and because of where the bones were found we don't have that. There is a tooth and it's possible that we could get some dentine. But there's another test. Mitochondrial DNA. It's pa.s.sed down the maternal line. It means you and Lawrence would share it.' Kenny was trying to focus, to take all this in, but found his thoughts swimming. This is what w.i.l.l.y feels like. He can't keep a hold on what's happening around him. He forced himself to listen again to what Perez was saying.

'Could we take a DNA sample from you? Do you understand, Kenny? We need your DNA to identify your brother.'

'Of course you can. Of course.' Kenny felt ridiculously pleased that there was something he could do to help.

'I'll come in this evening to take a swab. But it might be very late. Or I could send someone else . . .'

'Don't worry, Jimmy. I'd rather you came. I'll just stay up until you arrive. It doesn't matter how late you are.'

'And Kenny, it's going to take longer than we'd like to get an answer. About two weeks, because it's not a standard sort of test. I'm sorry.'

Kenny stood for a moment. He was tempted to go back to w.i.l.l.y, to find out what he knew. Then he realized there were other people in Biddista who should be able to tell him.

Chapter Forty-one.

When he came back from seeing Wilding in Buness, Perez returned to the station. He phoned the pathologist in Aberdeen to check the situation on identifying the fragment of bone, then called the Thomson house. n.o.body was at home. He knew what Kenny would be thinking and when finally he spoke to him on his mobile he could sense how much he needed an answer.

'I'm sorry, man. I wish I could make it happen more quickly.' Perez felt helpless because the test was completely out of his control. But all the time he was thinking that really it didn't matter. He had a sense of events moving quickly, racing away from him. He thought the case would reach a climax before the results of the mitochondrial DNA test were returned.

He found Taylor at the desk he'd taken over in the incident room. He'd just finished a phone call and an A4 pad covered with scribbled notes lay in front of him. Taylor was hunched over them.

'I've been on to Jebson in West Yorkshire to see if they've had anything back yet on emails to and from Jeremy Booth. Post too. They had a search team going through the house. The bin hadn't been put out since he left and they thought they might find a letter.'

'Anything useful?'

'No mail. Jebson did come up with an interesting email contact though. A woman called Rita Murphy who runs a theatrical agency. I've just been talking to her. Booth was on her books, had been for years. She comes from Liverpool, like me. We hit it off and she's been dead helpful.'