‘Get out!’

He grabs me by the arm and yanks me from the phone box. For a moment, I wonder if he’s going to hit me, and then Sheena is next to us, pulling her father backwards with more strength than I would have expected.

‘Dad, stop. Stop.’

And I realise, with horror, that Alec is crying. Great ugly sobs that shudder through his body, bending him almost double.

‘Dad.’ Sheena half hugs him, half wrestles him away. ‘Go on home now. Go home.’

He nods at the ground, suddenly defeated. He turns towards the village, and then stops, turns back to me, his spine straightening. The rage in his eyes is banked but it’s still burning. He points a very steady finger at me, his voice low.

‘Get. Out.’

Sheena waits until he’s gone. Watches me with the same narrowed eyes, her lips pressed thin.

‘Losing Lorne almost killed my parents.’

‘I’m sorry.’

She violently shakes her head. ‘No, you’re not, because you’re still here!’

‘I’m nothing to—’

‘You’re everything to do with it. Don’t fucking lie! You didn’t think coming back here would upset anyone, stir up bad memories?’

‘Sheena, I …’ When I move towards her, she steps quickly back.

‘You have to leave.’

And when I realise that it’s not anger in her eyes, but fear, shining and dark, another shiver runs through me, plucking at my skin.

She swallows, and then turns away. ‘You have to.’

I wait until she’s gone, until I lose sight of her completely beyond the first set of white houses into Blairmore. And then I walk reluctantly back to the road, fumbling with the torch on my phone as I eye the wet gloom of the west with sudden dread.

Something new has occurred to me, something that should perhaps have been obvious before I came here, never mind since Charlie told me about Andrew from Ardshader. I think of his Why the hell else would you ask me which of us were in Stornoway if you didn’t think someone here killed him?

Because what if that really is true? What if someone really did murder Robert? And what if they’re still here? Watching me stumble about with my lies and clumsy questions. Following me in the night and leaving weird dead crows on my doorstep. That’s not fantasy. It’s not projection or overreaction. It’s not even trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

It’s not impossible.

I move my torchlight slowly over the dark, impenetrable entrance to the Valley of Ghosts. And shiver again. Be careful what you wish for. Because it’s not impossible at all.

CHAPTER 11

Robert

I’m on the way to the shop when I hear Charlie shouting my name. I think he’s been shouting it for a while; when I turn round he’s standing in the road with his hands cupped around his mouth. Some days it’s as if Robert was the name I was christened with – I can’t remember ever being anyone else. And other days, I completely forget that I’m him.