Free Thin Air: (Shetland book 6) by Ann Cleeves Page B

She’d taken over the small morning room as an office. The sun shone directly in through the large sash window and the room was filled with light. There were cut flowers in a glass bowl on the mantelpiece and she felt like a Victorian lady of the manor sitting at the mahogany table. Jimmy Perez was with her, but they’d agreed that she would lead the interview. Perez seemed subdued and distracted and she wondered if he was actually sleeping as well as he’d claimed the night before. Or perhaps he was anxious about Cassie. He’d arranged for her to stay with her natural father for a few days, and Willow knew the relationship between the two men was difficult.
    Marcus Wentworth sat on a yellow brocade sofa. He seemed quite at ease and not to mind the silence that followed his entrance in the room. Willow saw that as a kind of arrogance.
    ‘Tell me how you fit into the party at Sletts,’ Willow said. ‘You didn’t know Caroline or Lowrie well, yet you were invited to the hamefarin’.’
    ‘I didn’t know Caroline and Lowrie at all actually,’ he said. ‘I think Polly swung the invitation. You know how it works. Do you mind if I invite Marcus along? That must have been how it happened. And I was delighted. I’d never been to Shetland, and a wedding this far north was always going to be something special, wasn’t it?’
    ‘How long have you known Ms Gilmour?’
    ‘About six months.’ He paused, looked up and smiled. ‘We’ve become very close, though. She’s quite reserved and I’m only just getting to know her properly. Polly’s a very gentle person, actually. I love that in her. Rather shy too. I hope you’ll remember that when you talk to her. And the fact that she’s just lost a very dear friend.’
    Willow decided he was one of those public-school boys who never really grew up. He’d be given to sentimentality, to ideas of honour and protecting his woman. She’d gone out with an army officer once who had a similar view of the world. The relationship had been destined to fail from the start. ‘How well did you know Eleanor?’
    Marcus looked across to Perez. ‘I explained to your colleague that I was very much the outsider of the group. The four of us had dinner a couple of times, and of course we spent time chatting on the ferry from Aberdeen. She seemed lovely, but she was Polly’s best friend, so I was disposed to like her.’
    There was a pause. Willow wondered why she’d taken such a dislike to the man. Perhaps it was just because he reminded her of a former lover and she should learn to be more objective. ‘Tell me a little bit about yourself, Mr Wentworth. What do you do for a living?’ She made her voice warm to compensate for the antipathy.
    ‘I run my own tour company. Specialist travel to North Africa and the Middle East for people who want to stray off the beaten track, but are a little nervous about doing it on their own.’ He paused. ‘Sorry, that sounds like a sales pitch. I took a gap year before university and got the travel bug. Worked for other people for a while, then I set up for myself. I don’t need to advertise these days. Most of my work comes from word-of-mouth recommendation. I specialize in elderly Americans. Very wealthy elderly Americans.’ He gave her a quick grin, but she didn’t respond.
    ‘How did you meet Ms Gilmour?’ Willow thought they made an odd couple: the rangy tour leader and the quiet librarian.
    ‘She came on one of my holidays. Morocco. Taroudant and the Atlas Mountains. The rest of the group had an average age of seventy and didn’t want to wander much from the hotel pool or the minibus, so we spent a lot of time together. She’s a kind woman.’ He looked up suddenly. ‘Kindness is very attractive, don’t you think?’
    Willow didn’t know how to answer that. She was beginning to feel impatient, but she was aware of Perez in the corner. His skill was patience. Letting a silence stretch until it was filled by a witness.
    And eventually