‘He’s dressed like a waiter, so we think he may be off the Orlova.’ Erling answered the next question before she could ask it. ‘I don’t think by the state of the body that he’s been long in the water.’

Erling would have pulled enough folk from the sea over the years to be a reasonable judge of that.

‘Any obvious wounds?’

‘Not on his back and I haven’t turned him over as yet.’

She heard a hesitancy in his voice. ‘But?’ she encouraged him.

‘I think there’s a neck wound, but I can only see a little of it.’

‘I’ll be up at first light,’ Rhona promised. ‘Where is the body exactly?’

‘I’ll send you a location reference and you can take a look. It’s on a beach near the Broch o’ Borwick, just north of Yesnaby. The helicopter should be able to land you nearby. I’ll meet you there,’ he promised. ‘Oh, and we plan to check out the Orlova again tomorrow at first light. See if we can find anything that might fit your theory of a possible stowaway.’

Rhona rang off and, fetching her laptop, waited for the incoming arrival of the map reference. Her previous caseload in Orkney had seen her called to the Ring of Brodgar and, of course, Sanday, but she’d only boarded the Orlova once it had been towed into Scapa Flow. The cliffs at Yesnaby, where it had come aground, she hadn’t yet seen.

Opening the map, she noted that the area lay about a half-mile from the Yesnaby car park. It wasn’t far north of Stromness, although the main road that ran along the Loch of Stenness gave way to smaller farm routes leading in the direction Erling had indicated.

Online, photos of the bay showed it as slated stone and gravel with a layer of sand closest to the fields. Which definitely looked flat enough to land a helicopter.

Fetching her food from the microwave, she refilled her glass and settled down to eat. A series of incoming emails from Erling offered a set of initial flashlight photographs taken at the scene, to give her context. The body in the first set was in its original position lying below the high-water mark.

He was on his front, head turned to the right. Dark skinned, with close-cropped black hair, he was wearing a light-coloured shirt, black trousers and shoes. The images were of a high resolution, but lighting had obviously been a factor in the quality of the resulting photographs.

The second set had been taken in his new position above the waterline. They’d managed to maintain the pose and it was obvious they’d moved him just enough to not be encroached on by the incoming tide.