White Nights - Ann Cleeves [121]
‘Hi Willy. It’s Kenny. You mind me from Biddista? You taught me everything I know about boats.’
The old man turned very slowly, opened his eyes and smiled.
‘Of course I mind you, man.’
‘I’ve just come to see how you’re feeling.’
‘Not so well. Things are such a muddle in my head these days. Don’t get old, man. There’s no pleasure in it.’
‘We had grand times, didn’t we, Willy? Those summers when you took us all out fishing. There was the group of us. Bella and Alec Sinclair, Aggie Watt, my wife Edith, who looks after you here, and Lawrence and me.’
Willy sat quite still, staring into space with a sort of fierce concentration.
‘You do remember Lawrence, Willy? My brother Lawrence?’
There was a moment while Willy stared into space.
‘He left Shetland,’ Kenny said. ‘We all thought he left Shetland because Bella Sinclair turned him down.’
‘No,’ Willy said firmly. ‘He’s still here.’ He raised a shaking hand to grasp his tea. ‘He didn’t go anywhere.’
‘Where is he?’
But Willy seemed not to have heard the question. ‘He’s a great one for the fishing,’ he said, and he started a story about taking the boat out with a couple of Englishmen. It was all about a big party Bella was holding and how she wanted fish to serve her guests. Willy gutted them for her and took the heads off. He described that in great detail, the gutting of the fish, as if Kenny had never done it for himself. In the end Kenny only listened with half his mind.
‘Was Lawrence there that night?’ he asked in the end. He wanted to get home in case Jimmy called at Skoles.
‘Of course he was. He wanted fish too.’
Willy closed his eyes again, then opened them slowly. ‘That Englishman came to see me,’ he said. ‘Full of questions. But I told him nothing.’
Kenny was going to touch his hand again, to prompt him back to the present, when the mobile in his pocket started to buzz. He fumbled to get it and answered just before the message service cut in. It was Jimmy Perez. Kenny stood up and walked with the phone out into the car park. Willy seemed not to notice his leaving and the other people watched him go without interest. There were a couple of gulls, very noisy, fighting over a scrap of bread, and for a moment he was distracted. Soon he realized there was no real news.
‘I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to get back to you.’
‘I heard about the bones you’d found.’
‘I should have come to tell you, Kenny. But we were so late finishing last night I didn’t want to trouble you. And this morning I’ve been working on the case.’
‘Is it Lawrence?’
‘We won’t know for a while.’
There was a pause. Kenny could tell he was going to add something more, but couldn’t help interrupting. ‘Can’t you do something with DNA?’
‘We’d need bone marrow to do a standard DNA test, and because of where the bones were found we don’t have that. There is a tooth and it’s possible that we could get some dentine. But there’s another test. Mitochondrial DNA. It’s passed down the maternal line. It means you and Lawrence would share it.’ Kenny was trying to focus, to take all this in, but found his thoughts swimming. This is what Willy feels like. He can’t keep a hold on what’s happening around him. He forced himself to listen again to what Perez was saying.
‘Could we take a DNA sample from you? Do you understand, Kenny? We need your DNA to identify your brother.’
‘Of course you can. Of course.’ Kenny felt ridiculously pleased that there was something he could do to help.
‘I’ll come in this evening to take a swab. But it might be very late. Or I could send someone else . . .’
‘Don’t worry, Jimmy. I’d rather you