A look passed between them that made Finn think she understood him

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 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 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.

In control

Finn finished making coffee. “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. A way of returning themselves to the world.

“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 with my best friend. The oldest scenario in the world. 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?”

“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 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.”

“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 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, clothes and underwear, and lifted out a carrier bag. She held it open. Twenty-pound notes. Thousands in neat bundles with elastic bands. Finn gave a low whistle. “How much?” “Hundred thousand.” “It’s his?”

Maddie nodded. “Kev is up to his neck in illegal business.”

“How does he make it?”

Dubious

“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, 10 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 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?”

Nothing too serious

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 Amsterdam 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.”

More tomorrow.

Crash Land is published by Faber, paperback priced £7.99. dougjohnstone.co.uk