“Where do we land?” she asked, trying to keep her voice steady. When the man answered, she was sure she’d heard him wrong, that the accent had somehow made her mistake his meaning. The second time he said it, she understood, with a kind of sinking feeling, that she’d heard it correctly the first time.

“On the beach,” he said, nodding out the window as the aircraft tipped to make a turn. She could see a long stretch of sand between two needles of rock. “Only at low tide, mind. In a couple of hours, all that’ll be underwater.” He grinned at her before returning to his paper. A second later he lowered it again. “First time, I assume?”

She nodded. “Last time, too, I think.”

He laughed, low and phlegmy.

To distract herself, she looked out the window and almost forgot she was scared. The sun had come out, turning the sea a translucent blue-green, the ripples on the water sparkling silver. The sand was pure white at the edges of the island. It reminded her of the colors of the Caribbean. The island itself was unspoiled, almost devoid of civilization, apart from the airport building, itself a stark reminder that humans had conquered this place, even if the tide was still in control of the flight times. From what she could see of the coastline, apart from the huge white beach that served as a runway, there were no accessible beaches on this side of the island. With probably sixty or more miles of coastline on the eight-mile-wide island, she wondered how she was going to find Ruby. There was no way of ringing. Straight after the badly judged conversation yesterday, Ruby had switched off her phone.

As the plane made its descent, she turned again to the newspaper-reading man. “Do you know where I can hire a vehicle?”

He folded his paper, finally. The plane was low now, the engines loud as it prepared to land.

“Sure,” he said, “I’ll show you if you like.”

“Maybe you have a number?” She pulled her phone out of her pocket and saw that there was no signal.

The man chuckled gently. “Who’s your service provider?”

She told him, and he shook his head. “Nay chance wi’ them, lassie.”

Joanna’s hope wilted a little more. Even if Ruby did turn her phone on, there would still be no way of connecting.

The plane touched down on the sand, and Harper had to hold on tight to stop herself bouncing around as the brakes roared, came to a mighty crescendo, and died away. Finally, the aircraft was still.

“I wonder, can you also tell me where the local police station is?”

The man chuckled again.

“No police on Barra,” he said, standing to retrieve his bag from the overhead locker. He turned and looked her in the eye. “No need. No crime to speak of.”

“That can’t be true,” said Harper.