The Black Isle

by Ed James

  Fiona led Hunter over to a table, away from Jock and the rest of the beer fiends. ‘What we doing here?’

  ‘One, I need that old git to get some food in him before I kill him.’ He nodded over at Jock, shovelling beer nuts into his face as he soaked in the laughter from his sudden best mates. ‘Two, I need to think through what to do now.’

  ‘Isn’t Jock right? Shouldn’t you go in there?’

  ‘If he’s right, then I don’t want to admit it to him.’

  Fiona laughed just as a waiter appeared with their drinks. Hot chocolate for her, tea for him.

  ‘Thanks.’ Hunter nodded him away, then poured a cup for himself. Jock was supping a coffee at the bar. No doubt being tempted by a brewery tour, though it was surprising he hadn’t already tried to organise a piss-up. ‘Fiona, you said you haven’t seen Shug since last Sunday, right?’

  Fiona sipped from her mug. ‘Right?’

  ‘But you said you’d spoken to him.’

  Fiona blew on her coffee but didn’t take a sip. ‘Right, so I got a WhatsApp off him a few days ago.’ She took another sip and grimaced. ‘Shug was saying he’s away, wouldn’t tell me where. Just abroad.’

  ‘Abroad?’

  ‘Shug’s a bit of a shagger. Always heading to Thailand, if you catch my drift.’

  ‘Great. You think he’s there?’

  ‘Could be. Or it could be someone else has his phone. Didn’t stack up and, until I see the boy with my own peepers, I’m not believing anything. I mean, you could check flights to Bangkok, right?’

  Hunter held out his hands. ‘Can I see your phone?’

  ‘Rather you didn’t.’ Fiona slurped at the hot chocolate.

  Hunter snatched the phone off her. The screen was filled with a photo of his arse as he bent over to tie his laces.

  ‘Really?’ She was blushing.

  He switched apps and found the recent message from Shug. Unanswered. But it showed Shug as being online.

  Fiona

  Hey boy, u ok?

  Shug

  Why wouldn’t I be

  Lol

  Hunter started typing, trying to copy Fiona’s clipped style:

  Oil rig shite?

  Cop here asking about the boys

  Ffs

  Fuck me

  What did you say????

  Relax bud

  Said nothing

  But one of your boy’s is missing

  Any ideas?

  Best keep you out of it

  Cheers

  So?

  So whit?

  What should I tell the pricks

  Nowt

  Cops bud

  Not taking fuck off for an answer

  Lol

  Fuck it

  Then it said ‘Shug is typing…’ but no message.

  Hunter let out a sigh and walked over to the window. The Range Rover had gone. The smartphone buzzed again.

  Shug

  Took the pair of them to the oil rig and they went up but only the mate came back and he was freaking out

  That matched what they knew so far.

  The fuck happened up there bud?

  This boat came out of nowhere

  Thought it was the coasties

  Started ma engine

  Shot off

  But this Keith kid was climbing down the ladder

  Went back for him

  Then fucked off again

  Didn’t say what happened but took the boy back to Crom

  Kid said he was leaving

  Not seen the cunt since mate

  Say where?

  No idea

  You go to the cops?

  Kid told me not to

  Should of seen him dude

  Shiteing it

  Got to land and he shot off like bat oot ay hell

  Where you at?

  Left these camera things in the back

  Hunter stared at the screen, trying to keep calm.

  Cameras?

  Heid ones

  Like mountain bikers

  Or canoers

  Or porn lol

  You still got them?

  Aye

  Going to sell them but

  Fucking hell

  Pure shiteing it about the boys in the boat

  Cops after them bud

  Fuck sake

  Must of seen mah name on boat reg

  Be turning up at mah door any day noo

  Well ahm long fucking gone

  Where u?

  Walls have ears Fi

  Ah’ll call when ah’m back

  Mind if I look at the cameras?

  You wantin to get into porn eh lol

  LOL

  Maybe

  Girl needs to earn a crust

  Bud I’ll see if there’s anything I can give the pigs

  Throw them off your scent eh?

  Good idea

  Keys under the gnome

  18

  ‘That’s it there.’ Fiona pointed out of the window.

  A ramshackle cottage on the right, one-and-a-half storeys, bare stone, with bay windows downstairs and squat dormers poking out of the roof. Either side of the door, a thin strip of unruly plants passed for a front garden.

  Hunter drove on down the narrow street, past more fishing cottages like you’d find in any town or village north of Edinburgh. Fortrose could be Forfar, Forres or Fort William.

  ‘We not stopping, bud?’

  ‘Not outside, no.’ Hunter pulled up at the stop junction. Not much traffic, just a tractor parked outside a Co-op that looked more like a house than a shop. He pulled into the car park and killed the engine. ‘Stay here.’

  Fiona was in passenger seat, tapping away at her phone. ‘I’m looking after him?’

  Jock was in the back seat, drinking a massive coffee from a paper cup. ‘Good point. Why are you still here?’

  ‘Like he’s letting me go.’ Fiona went back to her phone. ‘He’s fucking chaos, bud. He can’t be controlled.’

  Hunter waited until she looked up. ‘You’re crapping yourself, aren’t you?’

  ‘Thinking you pair are my best bet. Strength in numbers, bud. Plus my name’s mud in Crom just now.’

  ‘Well, just keep an eye on him.’ Hunter turned round and locked eyes with Jock. ‘Same with you. Stay with her and make sure she doesn’t bolt.’

  ‘Sure thing, son.’ He slurped coffee, oblivious to what else was going on.

  Hunter got out and walked over to the corner. The tractor trundled past, belching out fumes. The hoodie-wearing lump saluted a dapper gent outside the Co-op. Hunter crossed and walked up Shug’s street. Only a couple of parked cars on the road, and nowhere near enough room for a porch let alone a drive.

  Halfway up, he bent to tie shoelaces that didn’t need tying. Gave him a chance to scope the area better than the cursory glance before.

  Shug’s small cottage wasn’t directly overlooked. Over the road, a side-on bungalow sat in some actual garden, surrounded by a tall wall. Looked like a clone further up.

  Both neighbouring cottages looked post-war rather than two centuries old.

  A silver Range Rover slid past.

  Hunter couldn’t figure out if it was the one he saw in Cromarty. Unlikely. Or extremely likely. That was gunmetal grey, but then so was the sky. Now the sun was out, that could lighten to silver.

  Either way, he set off again towards the cottage, but he knew there wasn’t a front garden, meaning any gnomes were round the back. A drive led to a garage behind the left-hand neighbour, with a gate into Shug’s garden.

  Hunter opened it with a squeal, walking into the garden like he was here to water Shug’s plants while he was off shagging half of Thailand. He stopped by the garden hose and looked around for anyone who might’ve heard. Nobody even who cared. Over the hedge was a grand old house, maybe a manse or just a wealthier local, but no sounds of kids playing or anyone gardening. Not the season for either.

  He spotted a row of gnomes. Not what he’d
expected. They wore bondage gear and demonstrated sexual kinks: one was being whipped by another one; one wore a gimp suit; another was hanging from a noose, wearing fishnets, with an oversized lemon in his mouth; and the last one held a candle to his exposed genitals.

  And his candle hid a key.

  Thank god for vice-signalling sexual deviants.

  Hunter walked over to the back door and unlocked it. Another look around, no sign or sound that he was being followed. He carefully unlocked it and nudged the door open. Again, listening hard. Inside, the walls were covered in all of the deviant artworks you’d expect. The tennis girl scratching her arse. Charlie the Seahorse smoking a spliff. A Del Amitri album cover blown up to A0.

  A harsh rubbery smell he couldn’t place. Given the gnomes, he didn’t want to.

  The place was an absolute midden, stuff lying everywhere: CDs lying on DVD cases; clothes on the kitchen floor; a week’s worth of dirty dishes. Hard to figure out if it was a life lived in chaos, someone who’d split in a hurry, or if someone had cased the joint before Hunter.

  A few open cardboard boxes lay on the kitchen counter. Box one had packaged Funko Pop dolls, squished-down versions of Iron Man, Captain America and other Marvel superheroes. Next box was filled with more Funko Pops, this time from The Walking Dead.

  The third box had a GoPro camera inside.

  He knew he should go, but Hunter popped the front panel and unlocked it. He’d used a similar device in his fell running days, a birthday present from Murray, and this wasn’t so far advanced that he needed to consult a manual. The screen showed a list of video files. He opened on the last one.

  Video started playing, filling the screen. Whoever wore it crept across the rig platform, without anywhere near as much wind as he’d faced that morning. The camera seemed head-mounted, but that bit lower than you’d expect. They came at the crew quarters from a different angle than Hunter and Jock had, and entered via the corridor Jock was supposed to search, where they’d found the note.

  Keith—assuming it was him—ran along it, passing the room with Jock’s porn, and into the recreation area. The sound swelled, the tiny speakers nowhere near good enough to reproduce the detailed room noises. Keith chanced a look backwards and started writing the note to Murray. He left it on a bed, then slipped out and raced along the corridor. He stopped by the door and peered out. No sign of Murray now. So he walked onto the main deck. He peered down and Shug’s boat was still there, but he was leaving.

  Keith ran after him, sliding down the ladder like a fireman. Guy was clearly in the top percentile of physically fit. Where Hunter had been in his squaddie days.

  The boat was now twenty metres or so away. Shug spotted Keith’s waving arms and seemed to think it through.

  Keith looked into his hands—clutching a giant block of white powder; cocaine, maybe, or pure heroin—then at Shug coming back.

  A voice called from above and he looked up. A man was up on the platform, with Murray. Looked like the same guy who’d shot at Hunter, who Jock twatted with that pipe.

  ‘Here, get in!’ Shug’s boat was down at the jetty. No time to dock, just rocking with the waves.

  Keith gave Murray a final wave then jumped in the boat, landing on his side and looking back as they shot off around the oil rig.

  A speedboat was moored at the far side of the rig, the same one that chased them, or at least the same model.

  The video stopped and Hunter played it all through. The video tallied with what Shug told them over WhatsApp.

  That block of drugs, though? Jesus.

  Hunter played the second-last file.

  Murray swung round, pointing his camera back out to sea.

  ‘There’s enough here for, like, ten shows.’ That voice again, peering into the crew quarters, looking exactly as Hunter had left them that morning. The ping pong table, the games machines, the copious pornography, the TVs. ‘Hello?’ He walked through the door, taking it much slower than Hunter had when they’d visited, and stopped at the pinball table. A hand reached over and pulled the lever, then let it go again. He crouched low and flicked the power but the table stayed dead. Then he walked over to the bar and fiddled with the dry taps just like Jock had. Seemed bored, if nothing else.

  He walked back to the crew quarters and took the left fork. He stopped dead and crouched low. Inside the first room was a pile of cardboard boxes that hadn’t been there that morning. Keith sidled up to one and eased the packing tape off. He pried the flaps apart but the camera took a while to resolve the image.

  Blocks of heroin, hundreds of them, just like the one he had on the other video. But so much of it.

  ‘Hot shit.’ Keith took a bag and turned it round in his hands. ‘There’s at least a hundred bags here. This is over a kilo. Smack or coke, Muz. Must be billions of quid.’

  The camera pointed over at the door back to the deck, but it was shut and rattling in the wind.

  Keith sighed and walked over. He stopped dead, then the camera swung round to point at a man still standing out on the oil rig platform, his features hidden in the darkness, the camera struggling to cope with the bright sunlight coming from behind.

  Hunter pressed pause, his heart fluttering. He could make out the face.

  Murray.

  But he was holding his hands up. The trail was heating up again, but Hunter couldn’t see who was pointing the gun at him.

  Hunter hit play and Keith seemed to put his head to the door, like he was listening. Heavy footsteps pounded past.

  A man’s voice. Either the microphone didn’t catch it or the speakers couldn’t reproduce it accurately, but it was hard to figure out what was being said.

  ‘—You are not supposed to be here. As much as I would like to kill you, I have a much better plan. We are going to have so much fun.’

  The video cut off. No more footage to check.

  Hunter replayed the last snatch and felt like he’d been punched. It confirmed his worst fears. Murray was possibly dead.

  Definitely.

  Probably.

  I punch Murray in the arm, harder than I meant to. It makes him cry. Murray tries hitting me back, but I’m too big and too strong for him. I do that thing he hates, where I grab his head and he’s punching and punching but he can’t hit me, so he cries even more.

  I hold him there really long, his crying getting worse and worse, then I let him go, and he scurries off inside.

  Crybaby, running to Grandpa.

  Hunter stared around the grotty kitchen, counting the glasses in the cupboard, the cups on the mug tree, the plates on the rack. Back in the here and now. No time to visit the pharmacy yet. He found a clean-enough glass in a cupboard and poured some water. He sipped it.

  How the hell had that happened? Two idiots fucking about on an oil rig and they stumble across a shit-ton of drugs.

  Did Lord Oswald know what was going on? Was he behind it?

  Those rigs sat there for a long time, for months or years, waiting their turn to be refurbished or dismantled. Perfect place to hide a pile of drugs as nobody in their right mind would even consider going up there. Just a pair of idiot urbexers, or a desperate brother and father.

  What the hell now?

  Hunter looked around the empty cottage. Nothing more to see here. That video camera was the only connection between Shug and Murray. He needed to find Keith. Assuming he was still alive, he’d know more.

  Big if.

  A shadow passed under the front door. Someone outside.

  The handle rattled and the goon from the oil rig stood there, peering in.

  19

  Hunter sneaked over to the back door and tried to open it without making a sound. Almost succeeded, just a slight click. He pushed himself against the side wall, clutching the GoPro to his chest, and peered back inside.

  The goon was now snooping around Shug’s kitchen. Gloves on, a mask covering his mouth. An expert. How the hell had he found Hunter?

  Hunter set off across the garden but
the GoPro slipped out of his grasp. He reached down to pick it up. Caked in mud.

  Shite and shite again.

  He crept through the gate, then darted down the path onto the street. A mid-grey Range Rover was parked a few spaces down. So it was the goon who had been following Hunter and staking out the hotel.

  Hunter settled into a casual walk, just a normal guy out for a stroll, carrying a muddy head-mounted camera. Back to the crossing by the Co-op and the Range Rover still hadn’t moved.

  He didn’t even take a knife and jab it in the tyres.

  Fiona was leaning against Jock’s Passat, sucking deep on a cigarette and messing about on her phone.

  ‘Get in.’

  She looked up. ‘Huh?’

  ‘In!’ Hunter got behind the wheel, and dropped the camera on Jock’s lap.

  ‘Well?’ Jock didn’t look up from his paper.

  ‘I’ll show you later.’ Hunter jabbed the ignition and put it in drive. Fiona was taking an age of man to buckle up. ‘Right now, I need to get away from that guy.’ He pulled off into the slipstream of a tractor, heading towards Cromarty on the road to Rosemarkie.

  And he spotted the Range Rover in the rear-view, indicating left at the Co-op.

  ‘We’re being followed. Buckle up.’ Hunter stuck the Passat into sports mode and floored it, whizzing round the tractor. Another one rumbled towards him and he sneaked in just before it hit. The speedo kept climbing, hitting eighty, ninety.