‘How can you know that?’ Ava said.

‘I just do.’ His mouth formed a stubborn line.

‘That’s not enough, Dougie. Not nearly enough. You bring a girl here that the police will undoubtedly be looking for—’

He cut her off. ‘They have no idea she was on the ship. They searched it and didn’t find her.’ His voice rose to a higher pitch.

‘What do you know about our cattle?’ Ava demanded, the terrible thought replaying that Dougie might have killed them to keep her there.

He was avoiding her eyes, hesitating, as though he couldn’t say the words. Eventually they emerged quietly through gritted teeth.

‘I pissed a bloke off. Didn’t pay him for dope. He did it to threaten me.’

Ava stared at him in disbelief. ‘If that’s true, you have to tell Erling.’

‘Fucking Erling. He’s your answer to everything.’

At that point they heard Nadia’s footsteps on the stairs.

‘Do what you promised,’ Dougie hissed at her. ‘And if you breathe a word about her to Erling, I’m out of here for good.’

If Nadia had heard any of their exchange, she didn’t show it on entry. Dougie immediately jumped up and offered her some breakfast, asking if she’d slept well.

Ava attempted a smile too. There was no point freaking the girl out any further than she obviously was already.

‘After breakfast, I want to tell you my story,’ Nadia said, her voice determined. ‘Before anything happens to me.’

Ava felt a surge of guilt in case she’d heard them arguing.

‘You’re safe here, Nadia. We won’t let anything happen to you,’ she tried.

‘You don’t know these people. They’re everywhere, even in the police, and they’re very powerful. I’ve seen what they are capable of.’

They all jumped as Ava’s phone suddenly buzzed loudly on the tabletop.

‘It’s Erling,’ she said, reading the screen. She hesitated, wondering whether she should let it go to voicemail.

‘Answer it,’ Dougie ordered.

Ava drew the phone towards her. ‘Erling, hi. How are things?’ She listened in studied silence, trying to form suitable replies to what he was telling her without alerting her audience to the horror of it. ‘Okay. I’ll see you then.’

‘What?’ Dougie demanded as soon as she ended the call.

‘Dr MacLeod is back on Orkney. Magnus has invited me to have dinner with her and Erling at Houton tonight.’

Dougie’s alarmed reaction matched her own. ‘Why is she back?’

‘A body came ashore, they think from the Orlova. An unidentified black male.’

Nadia’s face drained of all colour as she sank to a chair. ‘It’s Guido,’ she said. ‘They threw him overboard.’

47

He was drowning in his own vomit.

The realization that the nightmare was, in fact, true forced McNab to turn over, crawl to his knees and disgorge the bile that had stopped the breath in his throat.