There was a moment of silence. Then they heard Jackie slam the front door and the roar of the Audi as she drove it down the track to the road.

‘This is Jimmy Perez,’ Sandy said. ‘He’s my boss. You don’t mind him listening in while we talk?’

There was a pause, a brief shake of the head.

‘Your father knew the men on the Shetland Bus? He built boats for them?’ Sandy had just bitten into a piece of flapjack, it was more crumbly than he’d been expecting and the oats fell out of his mouth as he spoke. He felt himself blushing, wondered what Perez would think of his clumsiness.

Andrew continued to stare at him then nodded.

‘Did he ever talk to you about it?’

‘They built the yoals the Norwegian men used once they got to their country.’

‘Responsible work,’ Perez said. ‘They’d have known the Norwegians’ lives depended on it.’

Andrew stared at him and nodded again. ‘The Whalsay men took the yoals out into open sea to test them.’

‘It must have been scary, out there in a tiny boat.’

‘They were young,’ Andrew said. ‘Reckless. They thought they’d live for ever. And they were all pals together.’ He stumbled occasionally over a word, but he knew what he wanted to say.

‘Jerry was with them too. Mima’s Jerry.’

‘He was just a boy. More reckless than anyone, my father said.’

‘You’ve heard they found some old bones at Setter?’

This time the silence lasted so long that Sandy thought Andrew hadn’t heard him.

‘They don’t tell me things any more.’

‘The lass from the university found them.’

‘The one that died?’ This time the response was immediate and so sharp that Sandy was surprised. He hadn’t thought Hattie’s death had registered at all with his uncle.

‘She found a skull,’ he said. ‘At least my mother found it while she was working there as a volunteer. Then I believe it was the other one, Sophie, who found some bones.’

There was a pause. Andrew raised a mug of cold coffee to his mouth and slurped it.

‘My boss seems to think the bones could come from that time,’ Sandy said. ‘That they might belong to a Norwegian man. Did your father ever talk about that?’

Now Andrew turned towards Perez. ‘Why do you want to know? Why are you still here if the woman killed herself?’

‘Oh, you understand how it is,’ Perez said. ‘There are forms to fill in, boxes to tick.’

Andrew nodded, apparently reassured. ‘Fishing got that way too in the end.’

‘So did your father talk about the dead Norwegian?’