2

The Landlady

Inspector Jimmy Perez booked into the Stonebridge Hotel on the main street of the village. It had a public bar and a dining room already serving high tea. In the lobby he could smell chips and smoked haddock. He’d thought that his ex-wife might have asked him to stay in her home. He hadn’t realised that his work was to be kept secret from her husband.

In his room he phoned Robert Anderson, a local cop. They’d worked together in Aberdeen before Jimmy had gone home to Shetland.

‘What brings you all the way down here, Jimmy?’

‘Well, we’re all Police Scotland now.’

Robert gave a little laugh. ‘So we are, but I wouldn’t come meddling in Shetland.’

‘The Anna Blackwell case?’ Jimmy said. ‘What did you make of it?’

‘Why do you want to know?’

‘Sarah King is my ex-wife. She’s finding it tough. Apparently her family is being targeted by gossips.’

There was a pause. ‘Ah well,’ Robert said at last, ‘I’m guessing Anna’s little girl is finding it tough too. It seems there are no relatives to take her so she’s gone into care.’

Jimmy thought about this. Anna had been a teacher. She must have loved kids. Would she kill herself knowing there was nobody to look after her daughter? ‘Have you dropped the case?’ he asked.

‘Aye, there’s no sign of murder. No break-in at the house. And it wouldn’t be easy to force-feed a healthy woman a load of pills. Anna’s daughter was at a sleepover at a friend’s house, so there’s no witness to what happened. It seems that Anna had drunk the best part of a bottle of wine. She didn’t leave a suicide note but suicide’s the way the lawyer in charge of the case, the Fiscal, is thinking. We think there’ll be an open verdict to allow that it might have been an accident. It’ll be kinder for the kid when she’s older.’

‘Do you think Anna was having an affair with the doctor, Tom King?’

‘Is that what the gossips in Stonebridge are saying?’ Robert sounded surprised.

‘According to Sarah.’

‘I’d heard that Sarah and Anna had fallen out about something that happened at the school, but there was no mention of the husband.’ Robert made the row sound petty, as if the women were kids who’d fallen out in the playground.

‘So you don’t mind me poking around?’ Jimmy asked. ‘I’ve said I’ll stay for two days. I can’t give it longer than that.’

There was a long pause at the end of the phone. ‘You’ll do what you want anyway, won’t you, Jimmy? You’ve always been a stubborn bastard. Just let me know if you find anything.’

The next day Jimmy Perez woke early. The first snow of winter had fallen. A light coating of white that made the village, with its backdrop of trees, look like a Christmas card.

Breakfast was fried and tasty. He thought of Cassie, who was only six but had strong views on healthy eating. Cassie was his stepdaughter and the love of his life now that her mother was dead.