‘We know Grey disliked Jerry and didn’t want him as a son-in-law.’ Willow stretched. The loose sleeves of her shirt fell back to her shoulders. Perez turned away briefly. ‘I’d have him down as a ruthless kind of man, but I can’t believe he’d come all the way to Shetland to commit murder. He’d have more subtle ways of warning Jerry off.’

‘How did Rhona seem to you?’ Perez remembered the message left on his answer machine.

‘OK. A bit jumpy at first. But happy to talk about Richard Grey. Reliving the passions of her youth maybe.’ Willow was getting to her feet. ‘Why?’

‘She wanted to talk to me, but I haven’t been able to get hold of her. Obviously nothing urgent, or she’d have got back to me.’

Willow was fishing in her bag for her purse, but Perez told her he’d settle the bill. ‘I want a chat with Brian anyway.’

She turned to him, on her way out. ‘What’s this, Jimmy? I hope you’re not going freelance on me again.’ A joke, but also a warning.

‘If I have anything,’ he said, ‘you’ll be the first to know.’

She nodded and ran up the stairs, her hair flying behind her.

Brian made them both tea and they sat outside so that he could have a cigarette. There was a gusty breeze and he cupped his hand around it to get it lit.

‘What is it now, Jimmy? People will be talking if you keep coming in here. You know Shetland. They have long memories. There’s no escaping the past, even if you want to.’

Perez looked along the valley towards Weisdale Voe.

‘It’s about Jerry Markham again. The meeting he had here the day he died. I wondered if you’d thought any more about it. Can you remember who paid, for instance?’

Brian glanced inside to check that there were no late customers. ‘I wouldn’t know who paid. I just give them the bill and they pay in the shop upstairs.’

‘Who came to the counter for the bill? You’d get a better look then.’

‘Do you know how many people I serve in here on a busy day?’ He dragged on the cigarette.

‘But this was Jerry Markham. A bit of a local celebrity. You’d have noticed, wouldn’t you? Hoped for a tip?’

‘Well, I always hope.’ He pulled his jacket around his huge body, leaned back in his seat and shut his eyes. ‘Markham came to get the bill,’ he said.

‘How did he seem?’

Brian looked at Perez. ‘I don’t know. A bit preoccupied. I had to tell him twice that the till was upstairs. When he was living in Shetland we took the money down here. And sad. He looked sad.’

Perez gave no response. He didn’t want to break Brian’s concentration. ‘And the woman? Was she with him then?’