Of course, none of that was possible if Karen had disappeared again.

When Rhona reached the lab, Chrissy was waiting for her, freshly brewed coffee at the ready. Sniffing the air, Rhona thought she also caught the aroma of filled rolls, but didn’t remark on this for fear of jinxing it.

‘Good, you’re here,’ Chrissy said. ‘Have you heard the latest?’

‘McNab called me first thing,’ Rhona said, assuming Chrissy was discussing Karen’s recent appearance and subsequent disappearance.

Chrissy looked puzzled. ‘I mean the result on the DNA sample you sent. It was a match for Mary, which means she did wear the dress.’

‘Sorry,’ Rhona said, pouring herself a cup of coffee. ‘I saw that last night.’

‘So that wasn’t why McNab called?’

Rhona explained about Magnus locating Karen’s home address and turning up to find her gone in what looked like suspicious circumstances.

‘Bloody hell,’ said Chrissy. ‘Shouldn’t we be there?’

‘McNab says the local team is on site. He’s checked it out himself, plus all samples will come here.’

‘So what was suspicious about the scene?’ Chrissy said.

‘Blood in the kitchen, her mobile left behind and she didn’t take the car. Photos should be through soon. And I intend giving the CSM there a call.’

‘If we had a sample of Karen’s DNA . . .’

‘We could compare it with the unknown female,’ Rhona finished for her.

‘Emma did say there was more than one girl in the grave,’ Chrissy reminded Rhona.

‘Well, there wasn’t, not literally.’

‘Perhaps she meant the dress had been worn by two girls,’ responded Chrissy, who was a keen proponent of Emma’s powers, having seen them in action before.

At this point, she produced the filled rolls, which felt like a minor miracle, so Rhona accepted hers without comment, for fear of prompting the return of the porridge pots.

‘Any results from the aerial scan?’ Chrissy said once she’d consumed her roll.

A hyperspectral imaging camera could pick up anomalies not consistent with the general ground terrain, which might in turn indicate the possibility of another grave.

‘No anomalies, at least not enough to send in the cadaver dogs or request an excavation,’ Rhona told her. ‘When I was talking to J. D. Smart about that . . .’

Chrissy interrupted her. ‘I can’t believe J. D. Smart was there and I never got to speak to him properly.’

‘So you are a fan?’ Rhona said, with a smile. ‘I thought you were having McNab on.’

‘I like his crime podcasts. He examines old unsolved cases and—’

Rhona stopped Chrissy there. ‘He’s not made a podcast of the Mary McIntyre case?’

‘No,’ Chrissy assured her. ‘Although it might have been useful if he had.’

Rhona reminded Chrissy about her chat with Bill after the author’s departure, and their perception that J. D. was in fact attempting to control the proceedings.

‘So McNab has a rival,’ Chrissy said with a smile and a shake of her head. ‘I look forward to seeing that pair go head to head.’