‘John came here,’ Belshaw said. ‘To Aith. He drove his car down to the school, so it couldn’t be seen from the main road. He sat for a moment and then he walked back the way he’d come.’

‘To the Fiscal’s house.’ It wasn’t a question.

‘Yes, to the Fiscal’s house.’ Belshaw paused for a moment before continuing. ‘I thought they were having a meeting. Business. Something to do with that water-power scheme they’ve been rattling on about for years. They were still planning it then.’

‘You don’t believe in renewable energy?’ For a moment Perez was distracted.

Belshaw shrugged impatiently. ‘It’ll not provide enough. Not for the whole country! For Shetland perhaps, but we can’t live our lives here in isolation. In the real world we still need oil and gas.’ He gave a rueful grin. ‘Sorry – this is something John and I argued about too.’

‘So you thought maybe John and Rhona were meeting to discuss the water-power project?’

Belshaw considered for a moment. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I would have liked to believe that, but really I knew it wasn’t true. Because if that was why John was there, he wouldn’t have lied. And he’d have parked his car right outside the house.’

‘When was this?’ Perez asked. ‘When did it happen?’

‘Years ago. Neil was still a baby. Too young to play football, at least. And it’s five years since Agnes died.’

Perez was doing calculations in his head. Jerry Markham would have still been living in Shetland then, and Evie Watt could have been a chambermaid at the Ravenswick Hotel. Or still at school. He was trying to work out what it could mean, how it could all hang together, when Jen Belshaw spoke.

‘I saw him occasionally,’ she said. ‘Midsummer, you know, it’s light all night and the youngest bairn could never get the hang of sleeping. So I’d be upstairs in the front bedroom, nursing her. And I’d see John slipping out of the house and running down the street to his car. Eager to be back with Agnes, I suppose. Guilty for having left her alone for so long.’ She looked up at Perez. ‘If I saw him, other folk might have done too. I didn’t hear any rumours, but then people knew we were friends.’

‘You’re in the rowing team with the Fiscal,’ Perez said. ‘She never let anything slip?’

For the first time that evening Jen seemed to lighten up, to be her old self. ‘Rhona? A brilliant woman to row with, but she’d not tell you what she had for breakfast without a court order. No, she gave nothing away.’