Free White Nights by Ann Cleeves

sudden blankness which had scared the stranger so much that he’d fallen apart? Or had theamnesia been an act, turned on for the audience? To disrupt the event further, like the flyers of cancellation scattered all over the town.
    ‘What did you do after you’d finished playing?’ Perez asked.
    ‘I got pissed. It wasn’t much of a party, but I thought I should enter into the spirit of the event.’
    ‘Who were you drinking with?’
    ‘Whoever was around, but everyone drifted off very early. In the end it was just me and Martin. He was clearing up. I don’t supposed I helped much, but at least I could keep him company, keep his glass topped up.’
    ‘You two old friends?’
    ‘Well, he’s a bit older than me. But in the scale of things in Biddista, we’re both children. If I’m staying with Bella we usually get together for an evening. If Dawn will let him out to play.’
    ‘What time did you leave the Herring House?’
    ‘Can’t remember, I’m afraid, and it’s hard to tell, isn’t it, at this time of year? I mean, all night it looks as if it’s just dusk. Martin might know. He was marginally more sober than me.’
    ‘You left together?’
    ‘Aye. I remember standing outside waiting for him to lock up. I had a bottle of wine in each hand. I’d invited him back to the Manse to carry on the party. You know how it seems a good idea at the time?’
    ‘Anyone else about?’
    ‘No. It was all quiet. I do remember thinking that. Most places in the world there’s something. Traffic noise. Music. A siren in the distance. Here it was justthe birds. The water on the shingle. Then I started singing and Martin told me to shut up or I’d wake his daughter.’
    ‘Martin walked up to the Manse with you?’
    ‘No, in the end he went all sensible on me. Said Dawn would kill him if he didn’t get back at a decent time and he’d promised to help in the shop in the morning. I walked with him as far as his house, then carried on by myself.’
    ‘Still no one else about?’
    ‘I didn’t see anyone.’
    ‘Was Bella up when you got home?’
    ‘No. The place was empty. Quiet as the grave.’
    Back on the jetty, the GP’s car had gone. Sandy was still sitting by himself. He never seemed troubled by boredom. Perez wondered what he could be thinking about, sitting so still and nothing to occupy him. Some woman, perhaps. Sandy was given to brief and violent infatuations. The relationships never lasted and each time he was left disappointed and confused.
    Perez thought his own record was hardly any better. Now he was infatuated too. Perhaps he was making as big a fool of himself as Sandy always did. He felt himself grinning and decided he didn’t care, looked at his watch to cover up the daft smirk. It was nearly one o’clock. Sandy was troubled by hunger and would soon be pressing for a lunch break. When he saw Perez approaching he jumped off the harbour wall.
    ‘I’ve just tried to phone you.’
    ‘No signal on the hill,’ Perez said. There were black holes for mobiles all over the islands.
    ‘The doctors have just gone.’
    ‘And?’
    ‘They’re agreed. Murder.’

Chapter Nine
    So now it was official. They couldn’t just call out the paramedics, cut down the stranger in black and hand his body over to the health authority. Perez looked at his watch. The squad from Inverness wouldn’t get to Aberdeen in time for the ferry, but they should just make the last plane of the evening in. He was already dialling to let his team in Lerwick know what was happening, get things moving.
    ‘Are you OK to stay here, Sandy? Mark it out as a crime scene and keep folks well away. I’ll get them to send someone to relieve you as soon as we can.’
    He supposed he should go back to town. There was all the bureaucracy that came with a suspicious death. His first priority should be to identify the dead man. He should speak to the Fiscal, start the legal process of the investigation. But really he wanted to stay in Biddista.