“The Burry Man versus the Green Man, selkies versus mermaids…I remember the selkie in that film Local Hero.”

“Wasn’t she a mermaid?”

“Maybe she was.”

“Sounds like you are reading it, though.”

“Told you.” He peered out towards the swell of the sea. Dolphins? Not tonight. And selkies, shape-changers? Not in a million years.

“Is there any…progress?”

“A bit,” he conceded.

“Do you have to keep it secret from me?”

“It’s more to do with Annette McKie.” Rebus thought for a moment. “Did you get a chance to ask Sally’s friends?”

“None of them remembers anyone out of the ordinary visiting the Friends Reunited page.”

“It was always a long shot.”

“Long shots seem to be my specialty.”

“Mine, too. I’m a long way from giving up on this.”

“I hope that’s true, John.”

“But it might help if you didn’t mention my name to the media.”

“Oh?”

“Doesn’t go down well with the other troops.”

“I didn’t realize.” She paused again. “I seem to keep letting you down, don’t I?”

“You weren’t to know.”

The call lasted a few more minutes. It seemed to him that despite the presence of her brother in her life, the woman was lonely. Friends had probably fallen away as her range of interests had narrowed. He was relieved when his phone beeped, telling him the battery was about to give out.

“Any second now, my phone’s going to die,” he explained to her.

“In other words, you’re fobbing me off.” Her tone had stiffened.

“Nothing like that, Nina.” But she’d already hung up on him. He exhaled noisily and began to reverse out of his parking spot, but then stopped again and reached for the road map. Durness was on the A838, which ran along Scotland’s jagged northern coastline. To get there, all he had to do was follow the A836, the same road that ran through Edderton. How long that journey might take was another matter. His phone summoned up just enough life for an incoming text from Siobhan Clarke:

Dear David Bailey, hard to tell—looks promising though x

He headed back into the center of Dornoch and saw that the hotel opposite the cathedral was brightly lit and inviting. There would be beer there, and a good range of malt whiskies. Hot food, too, if he was lucky. He had filled his wallet before setting out, knowing a night away was probable, so he parked the Saab directly outside the hotel’s front door and got his bag from the backseat.

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