‘Yes.’

‘Well, you should start with that creepy guy McLaughlin who lived up the street. They jailed him, you know, for raping children.’

‘Just write down anything that’s relevant. Plus the contact details for your husband,’ McNab stressed.

The eager look disappeared and they were back with annoyance.

‘Can’t that wait until he gets back?’

‘We need to make arrangements for him to come in and give a DNA sample,’ McNab said.

Annoyance became anger.

‘Why on earth would he do that?’

‘All men associated with the street at that time will be required to do the same,’ Janice said.

‘What about the dead ones?’ she said sarcastically. ‘There’ll be quite a few of them.’

‘We can always exhume them,’ McNab said to annoy her. ‘Just one more thing. We did locate your sister, Karen, in Stirling. However, she has since disappeared in suspicious circumstances.’ When he checked Eleanor’s face for her reaction to this, McNab found it, for once, completely blank. ‘We fear for Karen’s safety. Should she try and get in touch—’

‘She won’t,’ she said. ‘Karen won’t get in touch with me.’ As if dismissing both the suggestion and them, she picked up the pen and began to write.

44

Midway through the afternoon, the rush hour had already begun, although it seemed most of the vehicles were intent on leaving Glasgow, rather than heading there.

As she drove, Rhona went over what she’d discovered at the cottage, establishing in her mind the possible interpretations the context of the scene had appeared to offer.

In any investigation, there was always a danger of fitting evidence into your own theory of what may have happened. Of seeing patterns where none actually existed. It even had a name. Pareidolia. Rhona liked the word, but not what it inferred.

Having studied the context of what had happened at the cottage, she’d come to a possible theory, but not a conclusion. A careful study of the pattern of the blood splattering and spotting, at close quarters in the lab, might suggest something entirely different.

The bird footprints were certainly solid evidence of a crow having been in the house. When exactly it had been there, she couldn’t determine. However, the bird footprints could have been there for days.

Therefore, the theory that the crow had caused the accident was just that, a theory.

Plus, it didn’t shed light on why Karen had left the cottage, leaving her mobile behind. The reason for her speedy departure lay, Rhona thought, in her current state of mind, which didn’t bode well for Karen’s safety.

It was perfectly possible to imagine Karen in her traumatized state attempting to cut herself at the sink. Failing in this, she could have left, to find another way to more easily and speedily end her life. There were plenty of places to do that nearby.

The castle rock being one.

Off the motorway now, Rhona drew into a petrol station, filled up the tank and bought herself a coffee. Back in the car, she parked up and checked her phone to discover a couple of missed calls, one from McNab, the other from Chrissy.