The Killing Tide Read online

  The

  Killing

  Tide

  Dark water. Darker deeds.

  LIN ANDERSON

  Contents

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  86

  Six weeks later

  Acknowledgements

  Driftnet

  1

  2

  For

  Vina and Geordie Pirie

  Who gave us our first home in Orkney

  1

  The latest storm was female.

  Birka had swept in from the Atlantic like the Viking shield maiden she was named after, sharpened sword at the ready to attack the northern isles of Scotland.

  Orkney, used to high winds and seas, was weathering the late April storm, just as the archipelago had done over the centuries, its low houses and sheltered towns built to survive the worst that the weather might throw at it.

  Towards daybreak, as the wind began to diminish in strength, a few folk ventured out to check that their barns, housing the wintering kye, still had their roofs, and the sheep in the fields hadn’t been blown away.

  Geordie Findlater was one of them. His farm, being on the western side of the Orkney mainland, often took the brunt of the cross-Atlantic weather, with the fields closest to the Yesnaby cliffs soaked by salt spray.

  Having satisfied himself that his barn and cattle were unharmed, Geordie now headed for a knot of sheep huddled in the shelter of a dyke. At that moment the clouds parted and the dawn light lit up the frothing sea beyond the cliffs . . . and something else.

  Geordie, brushing the driving rain from his eyes, tried to focus on what he thought might be the outline of a ship.

  As the moon peeked out again, he saw that he was right. What looked like an unlit cargo ship was being driven towards the cliff face. Geordie decided to try and get closer. Already on his knees, he dropped to a crawl and managed to get near enough to the cliff edge to see it properly.

  Taking out his mobile, he did his best to capture some shots, thinking all the time that if anyone was still aboard that ship, they were in serious trouble.

  Mission accomplished, he began his retreat only to be confronted by what all fishermen knew as the seventh wave. He noted the outsize wave as it came rushing towards him, felt the ground beneath him shudder as it crashed against the cliff face, deluging him in its spray, and knew what would happen next.

  Grabbing at the nearest rock, Geordie hung grimly on as the sucking backflow threatened to drag him with it.

  Eventually released, he got to his feet and, with the wind now thankfully at his back, headed for the lights of the farmhouse. Throwing open the door, he staggered into the warmth of the kitchen, where Bella, his wife, cried out in relief.

  ‘I was about to come and look for you, Geordie. What is it?’ she said, seeing his expression. ‘What’s wrong?’

  Still choked by wind and water, Geordie handed her the mobile. ‘Look,’ he managed.

  Bella stared at the fuzzy photograph unblinkingly for a moment before her face registered what she was seeing.

  ‘Take off your wet things, Geordie, and sit by the range. I’ll make you a hot drink after I call the coastguard.’

  2

  Rhona surveyed her cleared plate with satisfaction. Not much of a cook herself, she usually settled for a takeaway after work, especially if she’d been at a crime scene.

  Once at a locus, she could be there for up to twelve hours, meticulously processing the victim and their immediate surroundings. That didn’t stop her getting hungry, of course, plus her forensic assistant Chrissy McInsh was famous for the size of her appetite. There had been plenty of times when a ‘starving’ Chrissy had felt the need to send a uniform off to the nearest chippy while still working a scene.

  If Rhona arrived home hungry from a long day at the lab, she went straight for the menu cards in the kitchen and ordered whatever would arrive the quickest.

  Not tonight, however.

  Tonight she’d come home to the scent of slow-cooked venison in red wine with mushrooms, garlic, onions, carrots and potatoes prepared by the man opposite . . . Sean Maguire, the dark-haired, blue-eyed saxophonist who, although they weren’t actually living together, did on occasion both feed and bed her.

  This evening the sex had come first.

  Sean indicated her almost empty wine glass, offering to top it up. Rhona nodded as another blast of rain hit the kitchen window.

  ‘Jeez,’ Sean said, ‘that’s one serious wind.’

  According to the radio update, Glasgow wasn’t in the direct line of the storm sweeping in from the Atlantic, although the forecaster did mention the great gale of ’68 when many of the tenement buildings, similar to Rhona’s, had had their roofs torn off by the strength of the wind.

  On this occasion it seemed the worst of the storm was hitting Orkney, where gusts of over ninety miles an hour had been recorded. At this point, Rhona wondered how Magnus’s house, Seaview, was faring, built as it was on the shores of Scapa Flow.

  ‘Has Magnus gone home for the Easter break?’ Sean said, reading her thoughts.

  ‘He usually does.’ A professor of criminal psychology at Strathclyde University, Magnus Pirie liked to return to his native island whenever he got the chance. ‘I’ll maybe check on him later,’ she said. ‘Make sure he’s not blown away.’

  As Sean began to clear the table and stack the dishwasher, Rhona intervened. ‘I’ll do that. You’d better get ready for the jazz club – although judging by the weather, you may not have much of a crowd tonight.’

  ‘The diehards always turn out, come hell or high water,’ Sean reminded her.

  ‘You’re going to get soaked,’ she warned. ‘Maybe you should try for an Uber?’

  ‘No worries. I’ve got dry clothes at the club.’ Sean glanced at the window as another blast of wind and rain rattled the glass. ‘Though if it carries on like this, I might bunk down in the back office afterwards.’

  Rhona tried not to look too pleased by that, although she had been planning to suggest he go home to his own flat tonight anyway.

  Sean was observing her, a small smile playing on his lips.
‘You’re done with me for tonight, I take it?’

  Rhona smiled her answer.

  ‘Then I’ll be gone.’

  She followed him into the hall and watched as he dressed for the weather. He gave her a hug and reminded her to call him.

  ‘Of course,’ Rhona promised, though not saying exactly when that might be.

  He opened the door to the shriek of the wind in the stairwell.

  ‘The garden door hasn’t been shut properly,’ Rhona said.

  ‘I’ll bolt it as I go out,’ Sean promised.

  She watched as his tall figure headed down the stairs, perturbed that she was glad to have the flat to herself again. But hadn’t it always been like this? Even from that first night, when they’d met at DI Bill Wilson’s fiftieth birthday party at the jazz club, and she’d taken Sean home with her.

  There had been a few times since then when their on-off relationship had appeared to be at an end, but then the positives would persuade them back together again. She was pretty sure Sean didn’t spend much time fretting about where he stood with her. She, on the other hand, probably analysed it too much.

  As the shriek stopped, signalling that the back door had been shut and bolted, Rhona headed inside and, fetching her wine, took it and her phone through to the sitting room, where the gas fire was dancing in the draught from the chimney.

  Sitting on the couch, feet up, Tom the cat on her knee, she pulled up Magnus’s number.

  His voice, when he answered, was rich in its Orkney heritage. When in Glasgow he usually modified it, dropping the descriptive phrases so reminiscent of his native isles.

  ‘Describe the wind for me,’ she said after his welcome greeting.

  ‘Well, here in Orphir we might call it a skreevar. Across on Hoy it would likely be called a katrizper. The UK weather forecasters are referring to it as Birka, which is, as you know, the name of a female Viking. So not a bad choice.’

  ‘What’s Scapa Flow like?’ Rhona said.

  ‘Pretty angry,’ Magnus said. ‘Throwing her wrath at the back o’ the hoose as we speak. How’s my favourite city faring?’

  Through the sitting-room window, Rhona could just make out the thrashing trees of Kelvingrove Park via the nearby street lights. ‘You know Glasgow. Nothing much daunts her.’

  ‘So no flying roof tiles as yet?’

  ‘Not around here anyway.’

  They chatted for a few minutes more before Rhona said her goodbyes and offered her hope that Magnus might get some sleep despite the wind.

  ‘I doubt Birka’s shrieking will allow for that,’ Magnus said with a laugh, ‘although a whisky nightcap might help.’

  Sleep proved elusive in Glasgow too as the howling wind, peppered by the distant shriek of sirens, no doubt answering emergency calls, kept Rhona on red alert.

  Eventually she did doze off with Tom stretched out alongside, the cat having no issue with the Viking maiden’s assault on Glasgow, or indeed on Scotland for that matter.

  3

  Inspector Erling Flett picked up the drilling mobile and, rising, headed for the kitchen before answering, not wanting his partner, Rory, to be disturbed. They’d had little enough sleep, what with the wind howling round the cottage all night.

  Erling, being Orcadian, was used to the constant winds of the islands, but last night the storm that had battered his low-lying croft house had surprised even him in its ferocity. High on the Scorradale Road, his home faced any onslaught coming across Scapa Flow from the south and the east.

  ‘What’s up, Constable?’ he said, recognizing PC Ivan Tulloch’s voice.

  ‘Looks like we have a stray ship on the rocks up by Yesnaby. I’ve sent over the photo Geordie Findlater took at first light this morning. The coastguard’s been alerted, sir.’

  Erling brought up the image, which had obviously been taken amidst the storm. Through the early light and the falling rain, he could just make out what looked like a battered cargo ship tossing about just a short distance from the famous cliff face.

  ‘Any crew on board?’

  ‘Coastguard says there was no Mayday call. They suspect it might be a ghost ship brought here from the Atlantic by the storm.’

  Abandoned vessels, known as ghost ships, were plentiful at sea and often ended up on Atlantic-facing coastlines, the most recent having been washed up on the west coast of Ireland. They were also a devil to deal with, especially if there was fuel still in their tanks.

  PC Tulloch continued, ‘They haven’t managed to get near it as yet, sir, although the wind’s forecast to drop by the afternoon.’

  ‘Okay, I’ll head over there.’

  ‘What’s up?’ Rory had entered as the call ended, encircling Erling in his arms.

  ‘The storm’s brought a ship ashore up by Yesnaby.’

  ‘God,’ Rory said, studying the photograph. ‘Who was brave enough to take that?’

  ‘Farmer Geordie Findlater went out to check that his sheep hadn’t blown away and spotted it.’

  ‘It looks abandoned. No lights on anyway. I take it the coastguard knows?’

  Erling nodded. ‘No Mayday signal, so they think it’s likely to have been abandoned somewhere mid-Atlantic and driven here by the storm.’

  ‘What about the fuel tanks?’ Rory said worriedly.

  ‘My first thought too.’

  If the ship was holed below the waterline and there was still diesel in the tanks, they could have an ecological disaster on their hands.

  ‘I was due back on Flotta,’ Rory said, ‘but I could stay here in case I’m needed.’

  They would definitely have to check out the ship’s hull for any damage, and that would require a professional diver, which was Rory’s job at the oil terminal. Erling was pleased he’d offered to stay, without being asked. He kissed him as a thank you.

  ‘You want food before you head out?’ Rory offered.

  ‘Coffee and a bannock to take away would be great,’ Erling said as he went to get dressed.

  ‘Did you get the name of the ship?’ Rory called after him.

  ‘MV Orlova.’

  ‘Sounds Russian,’ Rory said as he set up the coffee machine and extracted cheese from the fridge to load up the bannock.

  Minutes later, Erling was heading up the steps to the road and his car. Outwith the shelter of the cottage, the wind was still strong enough to nearly take his car door off as he attempted to get inside.

  Pulling away from the cottage, he was presented by a fine view of Scapa Flow, still raging after the battering it had had overnight.

  Erling could only imagine what the sea off Yesnaby would be like.

  4

  The wind had lifted a few tiles, but they were easily replaced. As for the hen house? Where it had ended up, Ava Clouston had no idea. Although she’d taken the precaution of shutting the hens in the big barn along with the wintering kye, so they wouldn’t be blown away too.

  Nevertheless, she’d spent most of the night awake and peering out of the window, just to check that the barn was still intact. Having lived in London for years now, she’d forgotten just how much damage the wind up here could do, and Storm Birka had apparently been the worst to hit Orkney for a while.

  Heading for the byre, she said a silent thank you to her farming neighbour, Tommy Flett, who’d advised her not to let the cattle out to graze before the first of May, despite the recent bout of good spring weather and the lush green grass that awaited them.

  Her heart was heavy as she trudged through the mud, not because of the storm, but because the storm had only served to amplify the decision she must take, and soon. The funeral had been nearly two months ago and she still hadn’t worked out what to do with the family farm. Pain gripped her again as she recalled the terrible call that had brought her rushing home to Orkney. Her much-loved parents, both dead in a freak car accident.

  Orkney rarely faced ice and snow. Wind was its main winter enemy and yet on that particular night her parents’ car had hit black ice coming home from
Kirkwall, which had taken them into the path of a lorry.

  According to the police, their deaths had been instant, so no chance for either Ava or her teenage brother, Dougie, to say goodbye. Dougie had called her in London, his voice breaking, and of course she’d caught the first plane north to Inverness, then across to Kirkwall.

  Escaping the busy city to alight in Kirkwall had always been such a pleasurable experience until that day. In fact, Ava doubted whether it would ever be pleasurable again.

  Much as she loved Orkney, she had chosen not to live and work there after graduation. She’d pursued her dream of becoming an investigative journalist and succeeded. Although based in London, her work took her all over the world, sometimes into scary and threatening situations. It didn’t stop her loving it.

  Coming back here to run the family farm seemed much more daunting and, frankly, much less enjoyable. That thought alone was torturing her. Then there was Dougie to consider. Only seventeen, he was in no position to run the farm on his own, no matter how much he wanted to.

  For Dougie, grief at the death of his beloved parents had now been replaced by anger that his sister should even contemplate selling the farm, his birthright, instead of staying here to run it with him.

  Her troubled thoughts beat at her, much like the buffeting wind, as she made her way to the byre. Straight ahead she could see the boathouse, where no doubt Dougie had gone to nurse his wrath after their latest confrontation, brought on by the storm. She had lost her cool, pointing out to him how unprepared they were to deal with both the finances of the farm and the physical work it required. Plus how was she going to earn a living here, doing what she did?

  Thinking about the words she’d uttered in the midst of the storm, panicked as she had been, she knew they were still inexcusable. Dougie had had every right to take refuge with his beloved dog, Finn, and his boat, the Fear Not.

  Dougie was fearless in a way that only the young can be. Hence the name of the boat he’d learned to sail on Scapa Flow as soon as their parents had permitted it. John Rae, the intrepid Victorian Orcadian adventurer, had always been his idol and it had been sailing Scapa Flow where the explorer had tested himself as a young man, before he’d set sail for Canada as a ship’s surgeon.

  Entering the byre, Ava felt the warmth envelop her. The moos that greeted her showed no fear of what had happened overnight. A series of big eyes turned her way and their breath blossomed in the air. Ava suddenly remembered her childhood and how much she’d loved being in here with the cows.