Crash Land Read online

  Now at Bendigo, on the outskirts of Kirkwall, a car was stationary in front of him. There was a police car pulled over on the verge and an officer in a yellow jacket was leaning in the window talking to the driver. Not a roadblock but the same low-key thing they had at the airport. They would have them on all roads leading from the area, checking if anyone had seen Maddie. Finn had been expecting it.

  It was a young woman officer, dark hair in a side plait, glasses, small frame. Finn wound his window down. He didn’t recognise her but she raised her eyebrows when she saw him.

  ‘You’re out of hospital, then,’ she said.

  So he was notorious already. Everyone in Orkney knew him, knew what he’d been involved in.

  She patted the side of the car.

  ‘Where you headed?’

  ‘Tesco, getting the messages for my gran,’ Finn said.

  ‘You think that’s a good idea?’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Showing yourself in public, so soon after.’

  Finn hadn’t planned on it at all but now realised he’d have to go there to back up his story.

  ‘I can’t hide forever,’ he said.

  The officer turned as a car pulled up behind Finn. ‘I take it you haven’t seen anything of this Madeleine woman?’

  Finn shook his head. ‘I told Linklater everything I know.’

  ‘Fair enough. See you in a bit.’

  ‘Sorry?’

  The officer peered into the car. ‘When you come back with the shopping.’

  ‘Of course.’ Finn wound the window up, put the car in gear and drove away.

  He headed into town, pulled up in Tesco’s car park and went inside. It was busy. It felt like everyone’s eyes were on him as he wandered round with his basket. He was sure they were talking about him as he walked up and down the aisles. He would have to buy a decent amount of stuff, make the journey worthwhile, but he had no idea what Ingrid needed, so he just began picking things up. Milk, bread, fruit, crisps, juice, the Tunnock’s teacakes she liked. When he had enough he went to the checkout, felt like a sitting duck, an easy target. Blood rushed to his cheeks as he paid and took the bags outside.

  He put the shopping in the passenger seat then drove east, making to head out on the airport road then turning left on to Inganess Road, which soon became single-track with passing places outside town. He slowed at each building, unsure which one Maddie was in. He went past three farms with outhouses and sheds clustered together, but kept on driving.

  The road sloped down to Inganess Bay then ended in a tiny car park opposite the beach. One car was parked and Finn saw an old man walking a retriever along the shoreline. The guy was wrapped in a scarf, hat and gloves, two jackets as well, the wind rippling the dog’s fur. Out in the bay was another rusted old ship, prow poking towards land as if it had died in a final attempt to reach shore. These were dangerous waters. The skeletons of hundreds of ships lay around the coastline.

  In the other direction was the airport. He was round the back of it now, could see it spread towards the high road he’d taken earlier with Ingrid. This was the sea he could hear and smell last night, the bay next to the airfield. This was the way Maddie came as she strode from the wreckage. There was no security anywhere. Finn got out the car and walked to the edge of the airfield. The wind blasted his face as he pulled a woolly hat down over his ears and thrust his hands into his jacket pockets. A four-foot fence was all that separated the airport from the surrounding land, bedraggled wires strung between posts that hugged the coast along a rocky outcrop. He approached a gate, mud squelching under his trainers on the rough track. Three signs were tied to the gate with cable ties similar to the restraints he’d had round his wrists and ankles.

  Emergency Exit, Keep Clear, written in black on yellow.

  No Public Access Beyond This Point, a red circle with a diagonal line through it, some guy shoving his hand out to say no, in case you didn’t get the point.

  And last a flimsy blue cardboard sign that read Kirkwall Airport Bylaws Apply Beyond This Point. Finn wondered what those bylaws were. Don’t get involved in a plane crash? Don’t cause seven deaths? Don’t leave a crime scene? Don’t help someone you hardly know evade the police?

  He put his hands on the metal of the gate just to feel the cold of it against his skin, then went back to the car, nodding at the dog walker on the beach. He turned the car and headed back up the hill, this time at a crawl, peering out the windscreen at each farm building. From this direction he noticed the red corrugated-iron door that Maddie had described. He nudged the car into the nearest passing place, switched the engine off and sat thinking. He couldn’t just drive up to a cowshed. What if the farmer was inside? But he needed to get Maddie into the car without being seen.

  He got out and walked towards the barn as if he knew what he was doing. He went straight into the building without looking round, thinking that would seem suspicious. The place smelled ripe and sour, dung and animal. Cows shuffled in their enclosures, their breath billowing from their noses. He got his phone out and called her number. Three rings then he hung up, like they agreed.

  She stepped out from a stall at the end of the shed. She was silhouetted against the light from the other entrance as she came towards him. He felt excited and sick, a little dizzy. She had the same sway to her walk, her bag slung over her shoulder.

  ‘You came.’

  ‘I said I would.’

  She grabbed him and held on in a hug. The smell of her hair came to him through the musty air of livestock and hay. He put a hand on the back of her head as he felt her breathing quicken and shoulders shake.

  ‘It’s OK,’ he said.

  She lifted her head. ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘Don’t be.’

  Finn looked around. They were exposed here, large doorways at either end.

  ‘We should go.’

  He led her along the length of the shed then signalled for her to stop at the entrance. He went out a few feet and looked around. The Skoda was thirty yards down the road. Beyond that another car was starting up the hill from the car park. The dog walker. Finn ducked inside the barn till it was past, then took Maddie by the hand and walked to the car. He unlocked it and opened the boot.

  ‘Get in.’

  Maddie looked at him.

  Finn nodded at the horizon. ‘There are roadblocks. I went through one on the way here.’

  ‘Christ.’

  Maddie threw her bag in and squeezed into the tight space.

  Finn stood holding the boot.

  ‘Can I trust you?’ she said.

  ‘You have to.’

  He closed the boot and got in the driver’s seat. He wasn’t used to being in charge. He swung the car out of the passing place, hyper-aware of the vehicle’s motion, how it must feel in the boot. He nipped through town then south, back the way he’d come. The same cop on the road flagged him and he slowed, then stopped and wound his window down.

  ‘Got your gran’s messages,’ she said, nodding at the plastic bags in the passenger seat.

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Took you a while.’

  Finn shrugged.

  There would be witnesses if she asked, plenty of people had seen him walking up and down the aisles.

  ‘On you go,’ the officer said. ‘And take it easy on the barriers, the wind’s up, they might be getting closed today.’

  The engine crunched as Finn fumbled with the gearstick then got going, heading over the hill towards South Ronaldsay, wiping the sweat from his palms on to his jeans.

  16

  He drove the Skoda into the visitor centre car park and pulled up next to the entrance. The car park was empty except for the Tomb of the Eagles van, large brown logo on its side. The Lewises used in the summer, but it just sat here when they were away. He got out and opened the boot. Maddie blinked and squinted in the light, held a hand up to shield her eyes.

  ‘Are you OK?’ he said.

  She held her hand out. ‘Lucky
I’m not claustrophobic.’

  Finn looked around as he helped her out of the boot. The visitor centre was halfway between the tomb and Ingrid’s cottage, but there was enough of a slope before the headland that Ingrid wouldn’t be able to see them here.

  ‘Come on,’ he said. He led her to the doorway and fumbled some keys out of his pocket. Opened the mortice and Yale, punched the alarm into the box and went in.

  ‘The Tomb of the Eagles?’ Maddie said.

  ‘You know it?’

  ‘I was here years ago with Kev.’

  Her face clouded over as Finn shut the door behind them. His phone rang. Ingrid. He declined the call.

  ‘You’ll be safe here,’ he said, leading Maddie into the main room. The visitor centre was three rooms of exhibits built on to the side of the Lewises’ home. With them away and no tours booked it was the safest place Finn could think of. His first idea of Maddie staying in the actual tomb was crazy. She needed sleep, warmth, food, a working toilet.

  Finn’s phone buzzed in his pocket, Ingrid again.

  Maddie ran a hand along a thigh bone sitting on a display bench. ‘How do you have keys to this place?’

  ‘My gran looks after it while the owners are away.’

  ‘And the owners are away?’

  Finn nodded. ‘For the next couple of months. They spend the winters somewhere hot.’

  ‘But the tomb is still open?’

  ‘Appointment only. We hardly ever get tour groups this time of year. If we get any I’ll know in advance. I’ll check with Ingrid.’

  ‘Ingrid?’

  ‘My gran.’ Finn felt his pocket buzz again. ‘I should get back, she’s worried. But we need to talk first.’

  Maddie stopped looking at the exhibits and turned to him. She caught the serious expression on his face. ‘What about?’

  Finn angled his head. ‘You know what about, tell me what the hell is going on.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Come on, I’ll put the kettle on.’

  He went through to the small kitchenette next to the public toilet, filled a kettle at the sink and switched it on.

  He turned and Maddie was behind him in the doorway.

  ‘If I’m going to help you, you need to tell me everything,’ he said. ‘We need to be completely honest.’

  She was beautiful. With daylight streaming through the window, Finn could make out her features better than yesterday at the airport or earlier today in the byre. Deeper crows’ feet around her eyes, the weary way she set her mouth, a vulnerability to her body language as she wavered at the door. It was a world away from the confident woman she appeared to be last night. Finn liked this Maddie more, she seemed real.

  ‘Ask me anything and I’ll tell you the truth,’ she said.

  Finn finished making coffee in mugs and handed her one.

  ‘Let’s sit through there,’ he said, nodding at the next room. There were two stools at a display about excarnation. The people who lived here used to leave their dead out on the cliff top so that the remains were picked clean by sea eagles and other birds. A method of returning themselves to the world. Eagle food was not a bad way to go, Finn thought.

  ‘Tell me why you were on the plane last night,’ he said.

  Maddie looked out the window and took a breath.

  ‘I was leaving Orkney for ever.’

  ‘Why?’

  She turned a look on him. ‘Because I’d just walked in on my husband screwing my best friend. The oldest bullshit in the world. Men have been fucking their wives’ best friends ever since these guys were alive.’ She waved a hand at the bones. ‘I’m such an idiot.’

  ‘What did he say when you found him?’

  Maddie shook her head. ‘I didn’t give him the chance to say anything. What could he say, that he was sorry, it wasn’t what it looked like? He was pounding away on her, the pair of them screaming the house down.’

  ‘Why not just move out?’ Finn said. ‘Why jump straight on a plane?’

  ‘You don’t know Kev, he’s a bully. This has been coming for ages. I was glad of the chance to get away while he still had his pants down. He’s such a shit, he twists things around, has to be in control. If I hadn’t got on that plane he would’ve found me and dragged me back. I would’ve been imprisoned.’

  ‘You don’t seem like the kind of woman who lets herself be controlled like that.’

  Maddie sighed and looked around the room. ‘You don’t know me.’

  ‘When the plane turned round you acted like it was a death sentence,’ Finn said. ‘Surely it’s not that bad, surely you could’ve laid low somewhere until he forgot about you?’

  ‘It’s not as simple as that. I made sure I could never go back.’

  ‘How?’

  Maddie lifted her bag off the floor and unzipped it. She pushed aside some make-up and a purse, clothes and underwear, and lifted out a carrier bag. She held it open. Twenty-pound notes. Thousands in neat bundles with elastic bands.

  ‘Shit,’ Finn said. ‘How much?’

  ‘Hundred thousand.’

  ‘It’s his?’

  Maddie nodded. ‘Kev is up to his neck in illegal crap.’

  ‘How does he make it?’

  ‘Does salvage runs in Scapa Flow with his mate Lenny. They strip the sunken fleet and flog it. They also pick up dubious deliveries from overseas in his boat.’

  ‘Isn’t taking this asking for trouble?’

  ‘It’s my divorce settlement, ten years of loyal service.’

  Finn took a sip of his coffee as Maddie put the money away. Silence for a moment. Out the window were just brown fields and sheep. The smell of the sea filtered into the room.

  ‘I want to talk about the crash,’ Finn said eventually.

  A look passed between them that made Finn think she understood him. She was the only one who could understand because she’d been through the same thing.

  ‘What happened in the cockpit?’ he said. ‘You were alone with the pilot for a few minutes.’

  ‘I didn’t do anything.’

  ‘You must’ve done something.’

  ‘Are you saying the crash was my fault?’

  ‘I’m not saying that.’

  ‘If anything it was your fault.’ Maddie put her mug down. ‘If you hadn’t got in a stupid fight none of this would’ve happened.’

  ‘That’s not fair.’

  ‘It’s just as fair as saying I did something to the pilot.’

  ‘Take it easy.’

  ‘I asked him to turn round, head for Edinburgh. He said no. He radioed the tower and told them to send police, then he asked me to leave.’

  ‘And you just left?’

  ‘What else could I do, fly the plane? I realised I was being an idiot. I came out, but that’s when we hit turbulence.’

  Finn looked down at his coffee. ‘I’ve replayed it a thousand times in my head. I can’t help it.’

  ‘Me too.’

  ‘Seven people are dead. Just you, me, Charlotte and Sean left.’

  ‘Who’s Sean?’

  ‘The guy who hassled you. He’s in a coma.’

  ‘How’s the stewardess?’

  ‘Suffering from shock.’

  ‘You think we’re in shock?’

  ‘It doesn’t matter what you call it.’

  ‘I suppose not.’ Maddie lifted a hand to her brow. Her bones seemed so fragile.

  Finn examined her. ‘Did you get injured?’

  Maddie shook her head. ‘I was lucky.’ She laughed at herself then looked at Finn’s bandaged hand. ‘How are you?’

  Finn held it up. ‘Hurts like hell.’ He put his hand to his chest. ‘A cracked rib as well, nothing too serious.’

  Maddie put her hand out and touched his chest where his heart was.

  ‘I’m sorry I got you mixed up in this. I should be on a beach in Thailand by now.’

  ‘Thailand?’

  Maddie shrugged. ‘Maybe, I don’t know. I was going to head to Am
sterdam from Edinburgh, then just see what flight left next. As long as it was far away from this dump. If you hadn’t answered my call I don’t know what I would’ve done. I needed a friend and you helped.’

  She took his broken hand in hers and stroked the fingers, around the splint, over the discoloured and sunken knuckle.

  Finn’s phone buzzed again in his pocket.

  ‘I need to go and see Ingrid,’ he said.

  But he didn’t move, just let her hold his damaged hand.

  ‘I’ll be back soon,’ he said. ‘I’ll bring food and the key to the main house, so you can get some rest.’

  She kissed him on the lips.

  ‘My saviour.’

  17

  Ingrid was in the hallway before he had the door closed behind him.

  ‘Where have you been?’

  Finn held up the two bags of shopping.

  ‘Why didn’t you answer your phone?’

  ‘Battery died.’ Finn moved past her into the kitchen.

  ‘Jesus.’ Ingrid shook her head. ‘Have some sense, lad.’

  ‘Sorry.’

  ‘Think about what you’ve been through. I had no idea where you were.’

  Something in her voice made Finn stop unpacking the groceries and turn. She was standing at the door with her hands at her face.

  ‘I’m OK, Gran,’ he said.

  Ingrid rubbed at her hair. ‘I thought I lost you last night. Do you understand? I heard about the crash, that folk were dead, and I thought you were one of them. Do you know what that felt like, after what happened with Sally?’

  She sat down at the kitchen table and stared at her hands in her lap.

  Finn stood there with a carton of milk in his hand. ‘I saw that we were getting low on stuff so I went to the shop. Sorry, I should’ve left a note.’

  Ingrid shook her head. ‘We’re not running out of anything.’

  Finn came round to face her. ‘I just needed some space to think.’

  She reached out and touched his injured hand. ‘I understand that but you have to be more considerate of those around you. I’m here to help, you know. So is Janet.’

  Finn had to think for a minute who that was. Right, the counsellor.