The Trowie Mound Murders (26 page)

He swung over the guard rail. ‘I can't stay long. My flight's at 18.20.' He came down into the cabin. I moved my heavy-duty oilskins forrard.

‘Have a seat.'

Gavin put the cushion between his back and
Khalida
's wooden shelf and leaned back, looking at the spread charts, the streamlined grey autopilot. Silence fell as I made the coffee, only partly the comfortable silence of friendship. I was too conscious of his physical presence. Anders had once said,
You know how it is, at the end of a voyage, you have become close, and perhaps for that last night you become lovers. Even you, Cass who walks by herself.

Suddenly I wasn't Cass who walked by herself any longer. It was the end of this voyage, and I couldn't look at his face. I watched his hands instead, a countryman's hands, weathered brown and made for strength, but with beauty in their deftness. They were hands for lifting sheep, for mending fences. Land hands, that would hold a selkie wife ashore. I avoided touching his fingers as I handed him the mug which was close to becoming his, and kept a careful distance between us as I sat down. ‘What news?'

‘They caught Madge in Bergen – though only because a sharp-eyed policeman spotted that she was a woman alone on the right sort of motorboat. She must have had her disguise all ready aboard: a long, dark wig, with brows and lashes to match, shoes to make her two inches taller and clothes to make her look slim, rather than plump. The art works stowed aboard were a giveaway, though. Your ‘sisters' guess was bang on. She's insisting, of course, that she was an innocent partner in David and Sandra's shady dealings. They met through her, fell for each other, and worked out this scheme. David had already had dealings with Olaf, and they decided to exploit his connection with Brian to find out about security in likely houses to rob. Sandra of course could find out about drug dealers through Peter, and she did those negotiations, with David passing the actual selling down the line. A very nice earner.'

‘And was the clumsiness of this deliberate?'

‘It was indeed. Sandra was planning just to leave, but when Peter insisted on coming up to Shetland, with these burglaries particularly in mind, David took fright and decided he had to go. If anyone in Newcastle was worried, well, Sandra had her mobile and could reassure them for a bit – then, when there was a suitable nasty storm forecast, she'd do a last call from that area then drop the mobile overboard. Meanwhile, she and David would be living it up abroad. If there were more investigations, well, it was as we figured, there could be a conclusion that Peter had uncovered something, and those responsible had eliminated them both. I'm pretty sure we'll have no trouble convicting her. Norman's a juvenile, of course.' He looked at the chart spread on the table. ‘Where are you off to?'

I lifted it to show him. ‘Bergen. I have to deliver Rat home.'

‘Anders is going by a more conventional route?'

‘By plane, with his parents.'

I felt him withdraw from me. ‘So you're giving up your college plan.'

‘No,' I said vehemently. I spread my hands, trying to conjure the thoughts I couldn't quite articulate. ‘I don't know if I'll fit in there or not, but I need to grow up. I can't stay a footloose hippy all my life.'

‘People do.'

‘I don't want to.'

He smiled. ‘That's different.'

‘There's a weather-window now. I'll take Rat over, then I'll return as soon as I can.'

His grey eyes were steady on mine. ‘What about Anders?'

‘I'm coming back,' I said. ‘I don't know what he'll do.' It wasn't quite what he'd asked, and he saw that. He shook his head.

‘For a woman who rules her own life, you're leaving the initiative open.'

‘I've never been good at this part of it,' I confessed.

‘If you come back from Bergen, call me.'

‘I'll come back,' I said.

A note on Shetlan

Shetland has its own very distinctive language,
Shetlan
or
Shetlandic
, which derives from Old Norse and Old Scots. Magnie's first words to Cass in
Death on a Longship
are:

‘Cass, well, for the love of mercy. Norroway, at this season? Yea, yea, we'll find you a berth. Where are you?'

Written in west-side Shetlan (each district is slightly different), it would have looked like this:

‘Cass, weel, fir da love o' mercy. Norroway, at dis saeson? Yea, yea, we'll fin dee a bert. Quaur is du?''

Th
becomes a
d
sound in
dis
(this),
da
(the),
dee
and
du
(originally thee and thou, now you),
wh
becomes
qu
(
quaur
, where), the vowel sounds are altered (well to
weel
, season to
saeson,
find to
fin)
, the verbs are slightly different (quaur
is
du?) and the whole looks unintelligible to most folk from outwith Shetland, and
twartree
(a few) within it too.

So, rather than writing in the way my characters would speak, I've tried to catch the rhythm and some of the distinctive usages of Shetlan while keeping it intelligible to
soothmoothers
, or people who've come in by boat through the South Mouth of Bressay Sound into Lerwick, and by extension, anyone living south of Fair Isle.

There are also many Shetlan words that my characters would naturally use, and here, to help you, are
some o' dem
. No Shetland person would ever use the Scots
wee
; to them, something small would be
peerie
, or, if it was very small,
peerie mootie
. They'd
caa
sheep in a
park
, that is, herd them up in a field – 
moorit
sheep, coloured black, brown, fawn. They'd take a
skiff
(a small rowing boat) out along the
banks
(cliffs) or on the
voe
(sea inlet), with the
tirricks
(Arctic terns) crying above them, and the
selkies
(seals) watching. Hungry folk are
black fanted
(because they've forgotten their
faerdie maet
, the snack that would have kept them going) and upset folk
greet
(cry). An older housewife like Barbara would have her
makkin
(knitting)
belt
buckled around her waist
,
and her
reestit
(smoke-dried)
mutton
hanging above the Rayburn. And finally … my favourite Shetland verb:
to kettle.
As in:
Wir cat's joost kettled. Four ketlings, twa strippet and twa black and quite.
I'll leave you to work that one out on your own … or, of course, you could consult Joanie Graham's
Shetland Dictionary
, if your local bookshop hasn't
joost selt
their last copy
dastreen
.

There are a number of grammar constructions which are Scots / Shetland. One I've used is
needs + ed
– for example, something in the fridge
needs used.

Adults using the diminutives Magnie (Magnus), Gibbie (Gilbert), and Charlie may also seem strange to non-Shetland ears. In a traditional country family (I can't speak for
toonie
Lerwick habits) the oldest son would often be called after his father or grandfather, and be distinguished from that father and grandfather and perhaps a cousin or two as well, by his own version of their shared name. Or, of course, by a
peerie
in front of it, which would stick for life, like the
eart kyent
(well-known) guitarist Peerie Willie Johnson, who recently celebrated his 80th birthday. There was also a patronymic system, which meant that a Peter's four sons, Peter, Andrew, John, and Matthew, would all have the surname Peterson, and so would his son Peter's children. Andrew's children, however, would have the surname Anderson, John's would be Johnson, and Matthew's would be Matthewson. The Scots ministers stamped this out in the nineteenth century, but in one district you can have a lot of
folk
with the same surname, and so they're distinguished by their house name:
Magnie o' Strom
,
Peter o' da Knowe 
…

Glossary

For those who like to look up unfamiliar words as they go, here's a glossary of some Scots and Shetlan words.

aa
: all

an aa
: as well

aabody
: everybody

ahint
: behind

allwye
: everywhere

amang
: among

anyroad
: anyway

auld
: old

aye
: always

bairn
: child

banks
: sea cliffs, or peatbanks, the slice of moor where peats are cast

bannock
: flat triangular scone

birl, birling
: paired spinning round in a dance

blootered
: very drunk

blyde:
glad

boanie
: pretty, good looking

breeks
: trousers

brigstanes
: flagged stones at the door of a crofthouse

bruck
: rubbish

caa
: round up

canna
: can't

clarted
: thickly covered

cowp
: capsize

cratur
: creature

crofthouse
: the long, low traditional house set in its own land

darrow
: a hand fishing line

dastreen
: yesterday evening

de-crofted
: land that has been taken out of agricultural use, e.g. for a house site

dee
: you.
du
is also you, depending on the grammar of the sentence – they're equivalent to thee and thou. Like French, you would only use dee or du to one friend; several people, or an adult if you're a younger person, would be ‘you'.

denner
: midday meal

didna
: didn't

dinna
: don't

dis
: this

doesna
: doesn't

doon
: down

drewie lines
: a type of seaweed made of long strands

duke
: duck

dukey-hole
: pond for ducks

du kens
: you know

dyck, dyke
: a wall, generally drystane, i.e. built without cement

ee now
: right now

eela
: fishing, generally these days a competition

everywye
: everywhere

fae, frae
: from

faersome
: frightening

faither,
usually
faider
: father

fanted
: hungry, often
black fanted
, absolutely starving

folk
: people

gansey
: a knitted jumper

geen
: gone

greff
: the area in front of a peat bank

gret
: cried

guid
: good

guid kens
: God knows

hae
: have

hadna
: hadn't

harled
: exterior plaster using small stones

heid
: head

hoosie
: little house, usually for bairns

isna
: isn't

joost
: just

ken, kent
: know, knew

kirk
: church

kirkyard
: graveyard

knowe
: hillock

Lerook
: Lerwick

lintie
: skylark

lipper
: a cheeky or harum-scarum child, generally affectionate

mair
: more

makkin belt
: a knitting belt with a padded oval, perforated for holding the ‘wires' or knitting needles.

mam
: mum

mareel
: sea phosphorescence, caused by plankton, which makes every wave break in a curl of gold sparks

meids
: shore features to line up against each other to pinpoint a spot on the water

midder
: mother

mind
: remember

moorit
: coloured brown or black, usually used of sheep

mooritoog
: earwig

muckle
: big – as in Muckle Roe, the big red island. Vikings were very literal in their names, and almost all Shetland names come from the Norse.

muckle biscuit
: large water biscuit, for putting cheese on

na
: no, or more emphatically,
naa

needna
: needn't

Norroway
: the old Shetland pronunciation of Norway

o
: of

oot
: out

ower
: over

park
: fenced field

peat
: brick-like lump of dried peat earth, used as fuel

peerie
: small

peerie biscuit
: small, sweet biscuit

peeriebreeks
: affectionate name for a small thing, person,or animal

piltick
: a sea fish common in Shetland waters

pinnie
: apron

postie
: postman

quen
: when

redding up
: tidying

reestit mutton
: wind-dried shanks of mutton

riggit
: dressed, sometimes with the sense dressed up

roadymen
: men working on the roads

roog
: a pile of peats

rummle
: untidy scattering

Santy
: Santa Claus

scaddy man's heids
: sea urchins

scattald
: common grazing land

scuppered
: put paid to, done for

selkie
: seal, or seal person who came ashore at night, cast his/her skin, and became human

shalder
: oystercatcher

sho
: she

shoulda
: should have, usually said sooda

shouldna
: shouldn't have

SIBC
: Shetland Islands Broadcasting Company, the independent radio station

sixareen
: double-ended six oared boat, around twenty-five foot in length

skafe
: squint

skerry
: a rock in the sea

smoorikins
: kisses

snicked
: move a switch that makes a clicking noise

snyirked
: made a squeaking or rattling noise

solan
: gannet

somewye
: somewhere

sooking up
: sucking up

soothified
: behaving like someone from outwith Shetland

spewings
: piles of vomit

splatched
: walked in a splashy way with wet feet, or in water

swack
: smart, fine

tak
: take

tatties
: potatoes

tay
: tea, or meal eaten in the evening

tink
: think

tirricks
: Arctic terns

trows
: trolls

tushker
: L-shaped spade for cutting peat

twa
: two

twa-three (usually twa-tree)
: a small number

vee-lined
: lined with wood planking

voe
: sea inlet

voehead
: the landwards end of a sea inlet

waander
: wander

waar
: seaweed

wand
: a fishing rod

whatna
: what

wasna
: wasn't

wha's
: who is

whitteret
: weasel

wi
: with

wir
: we've – in Shetlan grammar, we are is sometimes we have

wir
: our

wife
: woman, not necessarily married

wouldna
: would not

yaird
: enclosed area around or near the croft house

yoal
: a traditional clinker-built six-oared rowing boat.