He grabbed her hair and yanked as hard as he could, heard her scream as she recoiled

Maddie lunged across Finn and pushed open his car door, then she popped his seatbelt buckle, lifted her feet and kicked out at his body. Finn jolted to the right and his shoulder smacked into the swinging door, which flew outwards then back in with a crack against his head.

He was half out of the seat and clinging to the steering wheel when Maddie gave another two-footed kick and his body shifted.

His feet pushed down on the pedals, the engine revving but the clutch full in, the noise ridiculous. He tried to haul himself back into his seat but a third kick sent him banging against the swinging door again, pain through his back and shoulders, knuckles throbbing on the steering wheel as he lost his grip.

The seatbelt had released but was tangled in his right arm, stopping him falling on to the tarmac. Maddie tried to prise his fingers from the steering wheel with one hand, pushing at his chest with the other.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

His left hand was off the steering wheel now, just his broken fingers clinging on. The only thing stopping him hitting the road was the seatbelt looped round his shoulder.

Maddie tried to haul it free, leaning into him.

Recoiled

He grabbed her hair and yanked as hard as he could, heard her scream as she recoiled. He clutched the headrest and pulled himself up, shuffling into the seat and swinging his fist into Maddie’s face, catching her hard on the cheek and nose, crunching under his touch.

She touched her face, tears in her eyes. He flipped his door shut and popped down the lock then zipped the seatbelt back round, glaring at her then out the windscreen. The car had swerved into the other lane.

If anything had been coming the other way he would be dead now, maybe both of them would be. He turned the wheel to sit behind the tractor then threw his foot on the brake until the car stopped.

He sat getting his breath back as Maddie sucked air in through her hands. He turned to her, shaking.

Maddie took her hand away, touched the trickle of blood from her nose. “I need to get away,” she said. “I need that money.” “So you were going to kill me?”

“We weren’t going fast enough. I just wanted you out of the car.”

“People are in danger because of you, and you were going to leave them to die.”

“Lenny won’t kill them.”

“You think?” Finn said. “Either he’s a killer or you’re a killer. If it’s him, he’s killed his own wife, so I don’t think he’ll worry about two strangers.”

Maddie put her hands over her eyes, lowered her head and sobbed. Finn put the car into gear and headed into Kirkwall, his hands shaking.

On the outskirts he drove past the industrial estate and saw the large sign for the Orcadian office. He wondered if Freya was inside typing up her story.

He hit the roundabout off the hill and took a right along Pickaquoy Road. It felt bizarre to be driving through town in broad daylight. He imagined everyone he drove past pointing and screaming for him to be stopped and arrested.

Across the Peedie Sea he could see the police station where Linklater had questioned him yesterday. Felt like a lifetime ago. How long before Linklater knew about Claire? Finn would turn Maddie in, he knew that, but not now, he still needed her to help with Lenny.

Lost control

Round the corner from here was the Nordic Studies place where Janet had her office. Finn pictured all these women sitting at their desks tutting at him and how he’d lost control.

He glanced at Maddie and touched the bag under him, rubbed at his rib where the pain was worst, his fingers throbbing in time with his heart.

He coughed and blood came into his mouth. He swallowed it, choking as it slid into his belly and burned.

He drove past the supermarket where everyone had stared at him. He had to slow at a pedestrian crossing to let a young mum with a buggy go across. He watched Maddie the whole time.

He turned at Junction Road and thought of the regulars downing drams in the Bothy Bar round the corner. TV crews were probably still hanging around outside St Magnus Cathedral waiting on developments.

He imagined driving there now, walking up to someone with a microphone and telling them everything, showing them the bag of money.

Up New Scapa Road he passed the hospital where he stayed the night of the crash. He thought about Sean Bayliss, the argument they’d had. Did it bring on his stroke?

He tried to remember the names of the dead that he’d recited last night in the tomb but his mind was too wired to concentrate. So much for keeping their memory alive.

On the southern edge of town he drove past the distillery, imagining the airborne spores from the whisky being sucked into his lungs through the car’s air vents.

Then they were out of town and on the familiar road that Finn had driven so many times – places with names like Rashieburn, Nether Button, Gutterpool.

They sped through St Mary’s, Finn’s pulse in his ears as they got near their destination. The rain had stopped but the wind was gusting in roars. He imagined the wrecks of the blockships rising out of the water and sailing away, their rusted hulls somehow expelling the mass of the oceans.

Abandoned

He slowed the car at the first Churchill Barrier. An Audi was on the causeway 40 yards away, roof buckled in, windscreen smashed, wipers sticking up in surrender, the car in a foot of water on the tarmac. As he crawled forward two waves crashed over it. Finn peered out to see if anyone was inside but it was abandoned.

Finn inched past the Audi and then sped up, anxious to get off the barrier before another wave could do the same to the Skoda. He glanced at Maddie, who looked scared, but he didn’t know if it was because of the dangerous road or what was to come.

They made it off the barrier. Finn tried to think why Lenny wanted to meet here. There was nothing on Lamb Holm except the Italian Chapel and the low building he’d just passed, the Orkney Wine Company shop. It was closed, of course, like everything.

Maybe Lenny wanted the isolation, no witnesses.

More tomorrow.

By Doug Johnstone