‘Tell me,’ he said. ‘Is Rhona Laing still the Fiscal here?’

‘Aye.’ Sandy tried not to look too surprised.

‘Ah, a wonderful woman,’ Grey said. ‘She was a junior member of our chambers, you know, when she was younger. She didn’t stay long. Too impatient and too ambitious. She soon moved on. Send her my best wishes, Sergeant. Tell her that Dickie Grey was asking after her.’

Then he too disappeared and Sandy was left with his mouth open, gawping like a fish on a hook.

Sandy arrived at the station before Willow and Perez got back from their trip north. He began phoning the contact details given to him by Annabel. His first call was to the vicar of the church that had hosted the advent course, the man who presumably had watched over Jerry Markham’s spiritual journey. In the background Sandy could hear the sound of noisy children and occasionally the man seemed distracted by them. Once he shouted away from the phone in the middle of the conversation: ‘Sal, will you tell the kids to shut up.’ There was no anger in his voice, though. It was as if he thrived on the chaos of the family.

Sandy explained who he was and what he wanted.

‘Ah, Jerry. A troubled man.’

‘Was he?’

‘He seemed that way to me.’ A pause. ‘He’d never been into a church in his adult life and I don’t think he’d have ventured into one at all if he hadn’t been at a low ebb.’

‘Could you tell me about his relationship with Annabel Grey?’

‘Annabel is a stalwart member of our church. Richard Grey doesn’t attend himself, but he’s been generous to us. He’s a wealthy man. I suspect he’d inherited a private income. And of course he’s had a successful career at the Bar. But those with money aren’t always the most generous.’

Sandy wondered where this was leading.

The clergyman continued. ‘Annabel took to Jerry immediately. There’s something romantic perhaps about a dissolute man in need of rescue and reformation, and from the beginning Jerry was honest about his past failings.’

Another pause.

‘And what did Annabel’s father make of the . . .’ Sandy struggled to find the right word ‘. . . attachment?’ In his dealings with the Greys he hadn’t been quite sure what Richard’s opinion of Jerry had been.

‘Ah . . .’ The vicar hesitated once more. Sandy had the sense that he was choosing his words carefully. ‘Richard was less impressed by Jerry’s charms than Annabel was. I don’t think he considered Jerry a suitable companion. You must understand, Sergeant, that father and daughter were very close. Annabel’s mother left when she was very young, and she has no siblings.’

‘Yet her father came with her to Shetland.’