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The recording studio was more cluttered than usual. Papers and photos were haphazardly spread out across the desk and the couch. Elijah straightened them out, and set them down on the desk. He stared at the photo on top of the pile. Neil Howie was dressed in his police uniform, his posture ramrod straight, his face stern. His hair peeked out under the checkered rim of his hat. Elijah hoped he would do him justice.
Elijah checked his watch and looked out the window. His guest hadn’t arrived yet, and it was almost time to film. In the meantime, he set up the camera in front of the couch and hooked up the microphones.
Outside, the gloomy gray sky brightened. A car parked in his driveway. A redheaded woman stepped out. Her bright yellow sweater made her easy to spot amongst the hazy weather.
Relief filled Elijah. He went to the front door to let her in.
“Mirren! Glad you could make it.”
Mirren toed off her shoes. “Sorry, I meant to get here earlier, but traffic was terrible. I'm not too late, am I?”
“No, I was just setting up.” He led her upstairs to the recording studio in the spare bedroom. “Make yourself at home.”
They sat on opposite ends of the couch. Elijah shuffled his notes, and started recording.
“Hello everyone! Welcome back to another episode of Darkness Unmasked.” He rattled off the standard introduction with a practiced ease. “This week, we’re covering the strange disappearance of Neil Howie. Well, disappearance is a bit of a misnomer. I’m not sure what you would call this, actually. Basically, everyone’s pretty sure he was murdered, but the police never found a body, and the timeline is a little unclear. You’ll see why.
“But before we begin, we have a special guest today.” He turned to Mirren. “Why don’t you say who you are and tell us a little bit about yourself?”
She waved to the camera. “I’m Mirren, I’m Elijah's friend. I was actually the one who told him about this case. My mom grew up in that area of Scotland, and she was alive when Howie went missing. It was a big deal back then.” She turned to Elijah. “So when I told her you were doing true crime stuff, she told me you should look into this.”
“I’m glad you told me, ‘cause this case gets crazy. I couldn’t have done this episode without you.” Elijah faced the camera. “Without further ado, let’s get started.”
***
Neil Howie was a sergeant of the West Highlands Constabulary. He was engaged to a woman named Mary Bannock. He was also active in his church.
On April 29th, 1973, Sergeant Howie received a letter detailing the disappearance of a twelve year old girl named Rowan Morrison. According to the letter, no one had seen or heard from her in months. The writer was anonymous, but it was sent from the remote island of Summerisle. Howie left a message for his fiancee to let her know that he would be away for a couple days. He took a seaplane and set off for Summerisle.
What happened in the next 72 hours is still up for debate, but one thing was certain: no one ever heard from him again.
On May 1st, two pilots from the Royal Air Force’s Scottish Coastal Command were sent out on a routine flight over the Atlantic. They were instructed to go sixty miles off course to look for Howie’s seaplane. They spotted the seaplane by the harbor, and radioed back to headquarters to let them know.
But as they were heading back, the flight lieutenant thought he saw a huge man standing on a cliff.
After another day and still no word from Howie, the police went out to Summerisle to investigate. When they came to the island, the seaplane was gone. To make matters even stranger, Rowan Morrison was alive and well, and had never been missing in the first place. None of the villagers owned up to sending the letter, and insisted there was a big misunderstanding.
When police questioned the villagers, contradictions arose in their statements. Rowan’s mother, May Morrison, claimed that Howie left after he saw that her daughter was safe and sound. But after she learned that his plane was spotted on the island, she retracted her statement. She said he stayed to participate in their May Day festivities, and left afterwards. All of the other villagers backed her up, including Lord Summerisle.
However, Sergeant Howie was a devout Christian. According to his fiancee, it would be highly unusual for him to celebrate a pagan holiday, even just for fun. And even if he had chosen to stay for a couple of extra days, that doesn’t explain the lack of communication between him and the police.
At first, the police speculated his plane crashed before he reached the mainland. But no one reported any crashes, and no plane parts were found. His plane might have malfunctioned, but no one recalled any issues with it before.
Soon, investigators suspected he never left Summerisle. But even after searching the island, neither Howie nor his body were ever found. It was as if he vanished without a trace. Strangely enough, on the cliffside, they found a large patch of burnt land.
It was clear that the islanders were hiding something, but they didn’t seem to have a motive. And without solid proof, the case hit a dead end. The police expanded their search to nearby islands, but turned up nothing. After a few weeks of tireless searching, the case went cold.
Howie’s disappearance shocked the town. His fiancee never gave up hope that he was alive. Every Sunday, his church prayed for his safe return.
Now, this is where things get even weirder. Exactly one year after Howie’s disappearance, Lord Summerisle was murdered by the entire village. He was burnt alive in a large wicker man. Human remains were found in the ashes. The crops were doing poorly for the past couple of years, and they believed that killing him would bring back their apples.
But without Lord Summerisle’s leadership, the village quickly fell into chaos. Lord Summerisle wasn’t married, and didn’t have any children, so there were disputes on who should inherit his property, and by extension, the island.
Some of the residents fled to neighboring islands, but a lot of them stayed. For better or worse, Summerisle was all they had known. After the murder was discovered, many of them were arrested. The children were separated from their families, and put into foster care. And for years, that was the end of Summerisle.
So, what does any of this have to do with Sergeant Howie? When interrogated by the police, the villagers confirmed that Sergeant Howie was killed the previous year in the same way. They lured him to the island in order to burn him alive as a sacrifice to the old gods. This explains the large man the pilot saw, and the burned ground the police found on the cliffs.
The brutality of his murder, combined with the massive conspiracy surrounding it, created an uproar. Howie’s fiancee was devastated, and never really got over it. His church lost a pillar of their community.
It's been fifty years since Neil Howie’s tragic death. Today, Summerisle is known as a tourist destination. But the shadow of Howie’s murder still haunts the island even now.
***
Mirren shifted. “You know, people try to contact his ghost.”
“Really?”
“I went to Summerisle last year, and when I was there, a couple of paranormal investigators went to the cliff to perform a seance.”
“Well, did it work?”
“No, I'm pretty sure they got kicked out.”
Elijah pictured a gangly group of people stumbling up the cliff, cameras strapped to their chests. Setting their high-tech equipment on the grass. Hoping to catch a glimpse of the fallen policeman. Would he have appeared whole, in his uniform? Or would his charred corpse have appeared instead?
“Can you imagine how cool that would have been? Or, better yet, if they summoned Lord Summerisle?” he asked.
“Some people said they’ve seen apparitions of him in the castle, but I think it’s bullshit.”
Elijah’s eyes fell on the photo of Sergeant Howie. What he wouldn’t have given to learn more about his last days on Earth. But like many other cases, those details were lost to time.