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Chapters (53)
  1. Title page
  2. Dedication page
  3. Contents
  4. Acknowledgements
  5. Chapter One
  6. Chapter Two
  7. Chapter Three
  8. Chapter Four
  9. Chapter Five
  10. Chapter Six
  11. Chapter Seven
  12. Chapter Eight
  13. Chapter Nine
  14. Chapter Ten
  15. Chapter Eleven
  16. Chapter Twelve
  17. Chapter Thirteen
  18. Chapter Fourteen
  19. Chapter Fifteen
  20. Chapter Sixteen
  21. Chapter Seventeen
  22. Chapter Eighteen
  23. Chapter Nineteen
  24. Chapter Twenty
  25. Chapter Twenty-One
  26. Chapter Twenty-Two
  27. Chapter Twenty-Three
  28. Chapter Twenty-Four
  29. Chapter Twenty-Five
  30. Chapter Twenty-Six
  31. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  32. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  33. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  34. Chapter Thirty
  35. Chapter Thirty-One
  36. Chapter Thirty-Two
  37. Chapter Thirty-Three
  38. Chapter Thirty-Four
  39. Chapter Thirty-Five
  40. Chapter Thirty-Six
  41. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  42. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  43. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  44. Chapter Forty
  45. Chapter Forty-One
  46. Chapter Forty-Two
  47. Chapter Forty-Three
  48. Chapter Forty-Four
  49. Chapter Forty-Five
  50. Chapter Forty-Six
  51. Chapter Forty-Seven
  52. By Ann Cleeves
  53. Copyright page

There was a moment’s silence in the room and in the end Alice spoke. ‘I found out about Peerie Lizzie on the Internet,’ she said, ‘and tracked down one couple who’d claimed to have seen her. The others weren’t very credible. Though Eleanor had already heard about Peerie Lizzie from a friend and she said she’d follow up that story because she was going to Shetland anyway. It was a bit of a bummer actually! I was hoping I’d get a trip to the islands out of it. I’ve never been further north than Derby.’

‘Did Eleanor set up a meeting with the couple?’

‘I don’t know,’ Alice said. ‘Nell went a bit weird and mysterious on us actually, about Peerie Lizzie. I mean usually she was very open and sharing about her work, but she started shutting her office door when she was on the phone.’ She pointed to a glass box in the corner of the room. ‘It was odd. She hasn’t minded us listening in before, even to quite high-powered discussions with execs.’

‘Are you sure all her secret conversations were work-related?’ Perez was trying to make sense of this. If Peerie Lizzie had the reputation of appearing to the childless and helping them to become pregnant, he could see why Eleanor would want to follow up the story herself. But he couldn’t understand why she would want to keep her interest private. Perhaps she’d be embarrassed to admit that she might be taking the claims seriously, but she had a legitimate work-related excuse for her questions, so why be worried about her team eavesdropping? It occurred to him that there might be another explanation for the closed door.

Alice seemed to be following his train of thought. ‘You think she might have been having an affair?’ She laughed. ‘Nah, really I don’t think so. We always said that Nell was married to Ian and her work, and we weren’t sure which was most important to her. She wouldn’t make time for another man in her life.’

‘Do you have the contact details for the Shetland couple who claimed to have seen the ghost?’

‘Sure, I’ve got them on my system. I’ll print them out for you.’ She tapped on the keyboard, the printer whirred and she handed him a sheet of paper with a name and an address.

‘Neil and Vaila Arthur, Spindrift, Meoness, Unst.’

The words obviously meant nothing to the people in the room. But they were of great significance to him.

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen