'I tried to stop Edith jumping,' Kenny said. 'In the end she just slipped away from my grasp.' He shut his eyes. Perez thought the picture of Edith, stepping over the cliff-edge into s.p.a.ce, would never leave him.

'When did you find out that Edith and Lawrence were having an affair? Did you know at the time?'

'No,' Kenny said. 'It never crossed my mind. Not while I was on Fair Isle. I was too wrapped up in my own business there. How did you know? Did Edith tell you?'

'You know Edith would never do that, Kenny. It's been her secret. She had too much to lose.'

'I never thought she would be the sort of woman Lawrence would go for,' Kenny said. 'She was quiet, homely then. Not a beauty. Not pretty in the way that made her stand out. But maybe that was what he took a fancy to. The quietness. The determination. He could have had showy Bella, but he decided in the end that wasn't what he wanted.'

'He didn't want Edith just because she belonged to you, Kenny? I wondered if it was about that? A jealousy thing between brothers. Rivalry.'

'No,' Kenny said. 'I don't think it was that. Lawrence didn't want to hurt me. He couldn't help himself.'

'How do you know that?'

'I don't know it. Not for sure. It's what I think what I want to think, I suppose.' Outside the sun had dropped further, was chopped in half by the horizon, the outline broken by some twisted threads of purple cloud. The light was softer, less lurid. 'How did you find out about the pair of them if Edith didn't tell you?'

'I worked it out from what people said.' Perez took a sip of the whisky. 'Edith mentioned something herself. She told me that Lawrence was like Roddy, had to have a woman in his life. I knew he was spending all his spare time in Biddista that summer. He wasn't seeing Aggie or Bella, so it must have been Edith. Then Aggie said something similar tonight. "I always felt sorry for Kenny, having to play second fiddle."'

'Did the whole valley know?' Kenny was angry.

'Not the details,' Perez said. 'But that Lawrence liked Edith, most of them would know that. It was just you and Bella in the dark, and I think Bella suspected something. It was just her pride stopped her seeing it.' He paused. 'And how about you, Kenny? How did you find out?'

'I worked it out in the end, a bit like you. I went to see the writer, Wilding. He remembered something of what went on. All those parties. Lawrence must have talked to him. He always did get sentimental when he was drunk. You're right: Wilding tried to tell Bella at the time that Lawrence had no interest in her, but she didn't want to hear it.'

'Jeremy Booth must have known too.' Perez took another sip from the whisky. Later he would need all this in a statement. Now he just wanted things straight in his own mind.

'Booth was on the hill when Lawrence went into the Pit,' Kenny said. 'He saw what happened.'

'What did happen that day, Kenny? Did Edith tell you?'

'It was the middle of summer, a steaming hot night. Airless. The evening of the grand party at the Manse. Lawrence asked Edith to meet him on the hill while the rest of them were dressing up in their fancy clothes and their masks. Edith must have been flattered by him, don't you think? Is that why she fell for him? Lawrence, the man all the women fancied, wanting her. He said he needed to talk to her. Anyway she left my father minding the children and went out to see him. Lawrence said he'd told Bella that he could never love her, never marry her, never make a family with her. "I've said I'm going away on my travels, I'm leaving Shetland." He asked Edith to go with him. "Just bring the children. We'll go to Sumburgh tonight and get the first plane south." That was Lawrence for you. No sense of the practicalities, of where they might stay.'

'But Edith wouldn't go with him?'

Kenny looked up at Perez. It was as if he'd forgotten he was there.

'No, she wouldn't go. She enjoyed being with him; maybe she even fancied herself in love with him; but she was married to me. By then they'd walked to the top of the hill and were standing right by the Pit. Lawrence tried to take her in his arms. Edith told me she was worried that if he touched her she might be tempted to give in and go with him.' For the first time Kenny let a trace of bitterness into his voice. 'He always did have that effect on women.'

'Tell me what happened, Kenny.'

'Edith pushed him away and he slipped into the Pit. Hit his head on the rocks at the bottom. She climbed down after and could tell he was dead. She pulled him into the tunnel so n.o.body could see the body from the top. She always was a strong woman. She could keep up with me in the work on the croft.' He paused. 'The rats and the birds and the tide will have done the rest.'

They sat for a moment in silence.

'Did Jeremy Booth confront Edith that night about Lawrence?'

Kenny shook his head.

'She saw Booth when she climbed back up after hiding the body. He was at the bottom of the hill looking up at her. She hoped he hadn't seen the scuffle between her and Lawrence. The next day he disappeared. She must have thought it was all over.'

'That she'd got away with it?'

'Aye. But she never did really. Every summer she lay awake. I thought it was the white nights, but it was dreams of Lawrence.' He set down his gla.s.s. 'She should have talked to me. What did she think? That I'd hate her for it?'

'When did Booth get in touch with her?'

'A couple of weeks ago, by email. It went to her address at work, but she picked it up here. She was always working in the evenings on that computer of hers. He'd seen that television doc.u.mentary about Roddy and Bella and Biddista. It mentioned that Edith worked in the care centre and made us out to be much more wealthy than we really are. He needed money, he said. To give to his daughter. To make up for all the years they'd never had.' He looked at Perez. 'What about my daughter? What will I tell her?'

Perez shook his head to show that he had no answer.

'Then Booth turned up at Edith's work. Imagine how shocked she was! She'd thought he was in England, but he was standing there, claiming to be an old friend of w.i.l.l.y's, looking quite different. He was chatting away to the old man when she found him. "You know what happened, don't you, w.i.l.l.y?" Booth was saying. "You guessed at least." But w.i.l.l.y wouldn't talk to him.'

'w.i.l.l.y said an Englishman had been asking him questions,' Perez said. 'At first I thought he meant Wilding. When I realized it was Booth, I wondered why Edith hadn't mentioned him visiting. What happened next?'

'Booth said he was going to come out to Biddista for the opening night of the exhibition. He'd put on a bit of a show, have some fun, kill two birds with one stone. Bella had always been a snooty cow. She'd invited him into her home then treated him like dirt. It wouldn't hurt her to know what rejection felt like. He just enjoyed making mischief, I think. The mask, the dressing up, he'd have loved all that. Edith didn't ask what he intended to do. She just wanted him to go away without a fuss. He said he'd pick up the money from her at the same time. He'd meet her in the hut on the jetty.' Kenny got to his feet and poured more whisky into Perez's gla.s.s and then into his own.

'Why didn't Edith just pay him?' Perez asked gently.

Kenny gave a little shrug. 'She said she didn't trust him. He might come back for more. And she resented it. We've always worked hard for what we have. That's what she said, but I could tell her nerves were shot. All those sleepless nights. She wasn't thinking straight.' He held on to his gla.s.s with both hands, but still they were shaking. It was taking an effort to keep his voice even. 'She told me how she waited for him in the hut in the dark. He'd picked up his bag from the beach and had put that stupid mask over his head. Playing the fool again. Wanting to startle her, maybe. Perhaps she wouldn't have strangled him if she'd been able to see his face he didn't look human with that thing on but I'm not so sure. Edith was always determined once she'd made up her mind. She surprised him in the dark, strangled him from behind. She made it look like suicide and was back in the garden by the time I came down from the hill.' He paused and looked sadly at Perez. 'I didn't have any idea what had happened. We'd been married all that time and I didn't guess a thing.'

'Where did Roddy come into it? He was only a boy when Lawrence died.'

'He saw Edith walking back from the jetty the night Booth died. He was watching from the Herring House window.'

'Of course he was. I remember seeing him.'

'Sounds like Roddy didn't think anything of it until she put it about that she'd never left Skoles. It must have been troubling him. He came to the care centre to visit w.i.l.l.y and pa.s.sed a comment that got her scared. "What were you doing out on the sh.o.r.e, Edith? Who did you meet that night?" She told him some story, but she could tell he wasn't taken in.'

Perhaps, Perez thought, a memory had come back to him, of something he'd seen when he was a boy, like it did to Bella. 'So she killed him too.'

'Yes,' Kenny said. 'She killed him too. Poor lad. Whatever I thought about him, he didn't deserve that. Edith always said he reminded him of Lawrence. She persuaded him to meet her up by the Pit and she killed him in just the same way. She told the care centre she was out doing home visits.'

'I know,' Perez said. 'I checked.'

Kenny set down the whisky, put his head in his hands as he had on the hill, and began to weep again.

Chapter Forty-five.

This time they talked in Perez's place, which always felt more like a boat than a house to Taylor, with the water lapping against the outside wall and the gulls on the roof. Perez was making coffee and Taylor was shouting through to him from the living room, where he was lying on the floor. It was his back, he said. He had recurring problems with his back. An old sports injury. Sometimes this was the only way he could get comfortable.

'I should have worked it out,' Taylor yelled. He sounded furious with himself. 'There was a photograph of Edith and Lawrence in Booth's house. West Yorkshire emailed it through to me. The pair of them looked very cosy. If I'd realized they were having an affair I'd have got there before you did. I left the search of Booth's house to the local boys. Of course the picture didn't mean anything to them.'

Perez came in carrying a tray. A cafetiere, mugs and a packet of chocolate biscuits.

'You wouldn't have thought she had it in her, would you?' Taylor said, lowering his voice a little. 'She wasn't a big woman.' He sat up, stretched, took a mug from the tray.

'Strong, though. She still helped Kenny on the croft, and she'd be used to lifting in the care centre. Booth wasn't expecting the attack. Once she had the wire round his neck he didn't struggle for long. Faking the suicide was easier.'

'She must have thought she'd got away with Lawrence's death. Even if the bones were found after all these years, no one would think of murder.'

'People thought Lawrence had disappeared because of a broken heart,' Perez said. 'He'd told Bella he was leaving. It suited her if everyone thought she was the reason he left. She's a proud woman. Kenny was on Fair Isle at the time, so there was no one here to follow it up, to check that Lawrence really did get on that ferry. By the time he got back the story was set in stone and he believed it: Lawrence had left because Bella refused to marry him.'

But there were people in Biddista who knew it hadn't happened like that, Perez thought. Suspected at least. A place like that, it was impossible to keep a relationship secret. They'd just kept their suspicions to themselves. It wasn't a conspiracy, because it had never been discussed. Lawrence disappeared and n.o.body asked any questions. They really didn't want to know. In Shetland sometimes it was the only way to survive. Perez thought w.i.l.l.y might have guessed what had happened, but he'd have wanted to protect Kenny. He'd given Booth a lift to 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 doc.u.mentary, 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 w.i.l.l.y 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 w.i.l.l.y, 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 a.s.sumed 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 w.i.l.l.y 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.'

Also 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 Backyard.

A Day in the Death of Dorothea Ca.s.sidy Another Man's Poison.

Killjoy The Mill on the Sh.o.r.e.