“He means were you carsick?” Sinead mumbled, and Tyler bit down on his lip to stop himself saying any more, leaving Sinead to explain. “No, it was mostly just traffic, sir. And we had to get stuff sorted for Harris tonight, so we were a bit late setting off.”

“It’s fine. You’re here now,” Logan told them. He gave Tyler a slightly quizzical once up and down, then set off along the path at a full clip, forcing them to hurry to keep up.

“What’s the situation, boss? We’re hearing home invasion gone wrong.”

“Looks that way,” Logan said. “But too early to make a call. Here’s a shocker for you, though. One of the victims is Archie Tatties.” This drew nothing but blank looks. “Neeps and Tatties. ‘Where’s the haggis?’”

“You had a stroke, boss?” Tyler asked.

“For the love of Christ, I’m surrounded by bloody infants,” Logan grunted, further picking up the pace. “Where the hell’s DI Forde when you need him?”

“As far as I know, he’s headed—”

“Rhetorical question,” Logan told him, then he stepped off the path and picked his way across the bogs and through the heather until he arrived in the vicinity of the cottage.

The place didn’t have a garden, as such. Yes, the ground had been cleared a bit around the building, the marshier bits filled in, and then all covered over with dirt, and sand, and limestone gravel. But it wasn’t a garden. Not by a longshot.

Still, why would you need a garden out here? It wasn’t like you had a shortage of nice things to look at.

“That’s a big hill,” Tyler remarked, indicating the peak rising up behind the house.

“Aye, nothing gets past you, does it, son?” Logan said. He indicated their surroundings with the twirl of a finger. “There’s actually a few of them, if you look hard enough. See how many you can find.”

Paper suits were filing out of the house now, carrying cameras, and notebooks, and sealed plastic bags. Logan could hear Geoff Palmer giving orders, urging his underlings to get a shifty on so they could get back up the road in time for a late lunch.

There were four ambulances waiting in the driveway, one for each victim. The bodies were still inside, then. Otherwise, they’d already be making the journey north so that Shona could do her stuff.

“It’s grim in there,” Logan warned the younger officers. “Got a couple of kids involved. You don’t have to come in if you don’t want to. It’s not necessary.”

Sinead and Tyler swapped looks. Neither look was particularly excited by the prospect, but they were both in agreement.

“We’ll come in, boss. Got to be done, doesn’t it?”

“Aye, well,” Logan replied. “Don’t say that you weren’t warned.”

* * *