Red Bones (Shetland Quartet 3)

you, inspector?’
    In the hotel he talked to Billy Watt, one of the regular workers on the ferry that ran from Whalsay to Shetland mainland. By now the bar was closed. Berglund had taken himself to bed without waiting to hear if there was news of Hattie and Billy had come along as a favour. He couldn’t get there earlier because his son wouldn’t settle. ‘He’s teething,’ Billy said, a great grin on his face. ‘Poor little man.’ They sat in Perez’s room, drinking coffee.
    ‘I think she might have left Whalsay on an afternoon ferry. Have you seen her about? Little, very dark. Would you recognize her if she went out with you?’
    ‘I don’t know her, but we don’t take that many foot passengers. I’d remember if she came out while I was working. There was no one like that on my shift.’
    ‘What time did you start?’
    ‘Four o’clock this afternoon. There were two ferries working today like there usually are. Just because I didn’t see her doesn’t mean she didn’t leave the island.’
    Perez was wondering what could have scared the girl so much that she’d run away. I should have persuaded her to talk to me on the phone , he thought. I should have dropped everything and come to Whalsay immediately. She had three hours to wait between leaving Paul Berglund and seeing me. What happened that she couldn’t bear to wait three hours?
    ‘I’ll talk to the rest of the crew,’ Billy said. He sat on the windowsill of Perez’s room at the front of the hotel and looked out to the trawlers moored in the harbour. Further out to sea a buoy was flashing. ‘Will it wait till the morning now? I wouldn’t want to bother them if it’s not desperate. Some of them are working the early shift tomorrow.’
    She’s an adult , Perez thought. Twenty-three. An intelligent young woman. ‘No,’ he said. ‘It’ll wait until the morning.’
    He expected Billy to make an excuse and leave, but the man sat there drinking the last of the instant coffee made using the kettle in the room. When Perez offered him another one he accepted. Perez was glad of the company. At least with Billy here he could keep Hattie’s disappearance in some sort of perspective. When the crewman left, his imagination would run wild.
    ‘You know what I’d do if I wanted to leave the island without anyone seeing me?’ Billy set his mug on the floor beside him. ‘I’d get a lift in a car. Specially in the small ferry, most folk just stay in their cars on the way across. We don’t notice the passengers when we’re taking the money. You register there’s someone sitting there, but you never really look at them. There were a few of those today.’
    ‘Who might have given her a lift?’ Perez was talking almost to himself. ‘And where would she go once she got to Laxo?’
    ‘Depends what time she got there,’ Billy said. ‘Sometimes there’s a bus to Lerwick connects with the ferry.’
    Perez thought perhaps he’d seen the bus when he was driving north out of town. Was it possible that their paths had crossed? Perhaps Hattie had been sitting in the bus, hunched in the seat, staring out of the window. If she didn’t turn up in the morning he’d have to talk to the bus driver. He wondered if someone in Whalsay had a photo of her. Either Sophie or Berglund would surely have a picture. He didn’t want to have to call Gwen James again. All this is an overreaction. Hattie might be an adult but she’s immature, overwrought. She’s upset because Sophie couldn’t face working with her any more. She’s like a kid in the playground, burying her head in her hands and hoping the bullies will go away.
    He was reassured by the idea that she’d got a lift and left the island, that she was safe and well on the NorthLink ferry, going south to meet her mother. Sandy had been right. There was no need to make a fuss. He’d give Joseph a ring and tell him to hold off the search until he’d spoken to the ferry company in the morning.
    Now Billy did stand to go. ‘Let’s hope the bairn is still asleep, eh?’ Perez was so obsessed with thoughts of Hattie that it took him a moment to realize he was talking about his son.

 
Chapter Twenty-three
     
    Sandy woke very early to a beautiful morning. There was sunshine and very little wind. The house was quiet, not even his father was up. He got out of bed and decided this was the earliest he’d been awake for years, maybe since he was a bairn, unless he was called out to some emergency at work.