Elsewhere by Sarah Tierney

Author:Sarah Tierney [Tierney, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-06-26T00:00:00+00:00

In Mallaig we parked outside the police station, a low, white building opposite the train station. Catherine turned off the engine and took a new notebook out of her bag. ‘I need to read through this before we go in,’ she said.

‘What is it?’

‘What we’re going to say.’

‘Shall I have a look too?’

‘No, I’ll do the talking.’

She was wearing black trousers and a cream blouse under her summer jacket. I was in jeans and a hoodie. It looked like I’d been called in for questioning and she was my solicitor.

In the police station an older man in a screened-off office was talking on the phone. When he put it down he came over to the counter where we were waiting. ‘Can I help?’

Catherine cleared her throat. ‘Yes. I need to report a crime.’

He asked what it was, and where it had taken place. Criminal damage, Catherine said, and theft, and intimidation. She knew all the terminology.

He looked up at the last one. ‘Intimidation of what kind?’

‘Threats. Stalking. A break-in.’

‘Okay.’ He tapped it all into a computer. ‘And your address?’

‘We’re on holiday here. Do you want the address of where we’re staying?’

‘Yes please.’

I didn’t have a clue what our address here was, but Catherine had it all ready in her head. She was acting like she knew what she was doing but I could tell she was nervous. It was in her breathing: the deep intakes of air. And in her restlessness: the fast movements of her head. Her nerves made me nervous. I’d never even been in a police station before today.

The man took Catherine’s name and date of birth, then said, ‘Let me see if someone’s available to talk to you.’

I’d expected an officer in uniform but the lady who came to meet us was casually dressed in jeans and a chunky cardigan. She had a mug of tea in one hand and a notebook in the other. ‘Let’s have a seat in here,’ she said, leading us into a room with a computer on a desk and a few plastic chairs. She put her tea down. ‘The last two went cold before I had a sip. Third time lucky.’

She nudged the mouse pad on the computer to bring it to life then turned to face us. She was a similar age to Catherine, maybe a bit older. She read Catherine’s home address and date of birth back to her, then she shifted her chair across so that there was no desk between us and turned to a fresh page of her notebook. ‘What is it you want to tell me about?’

‘On Tuesday the 15th of June, between one and two in the morning, our car was vandalised, outside the cottage where we’re staying. Then on Friday the 18th of June, sometime between 1pm and 5pm, the cottage was broken into. I suspect the front door key was stolen from the harbour garage here in Mallaig. We took the car there to be fixed earlier that day.’

‘What was taken from the cottage?’

‘A diary.

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