‘Come away in,’ Magnus called back. ‘We’re in the sitting room.’

Rory appeared first. ‘Great,’ he said, acknowledging the whisky glasses, ‘we haven’t missed the aperitif.’ He grinned all round. ‘And this must be Ava who went to school with Erling.’ He offered his hand.

Ava looked a bit taken aback but, rallying, said, ‘And you must be Rory.’

Instructing Erling and Rory to help themselves, Magnus requested Rhona give him a hand in the kitchen. ‘Serving up in five minutes,’ he announced.

Once inside, Magnus closed the door. ‘Why did McNab go south or can you not say?’

Magnus had been involved since the beginning, so Rhona didn’t hesitate to tell him.

He listened attentively before commenting. ‘So the Met’s a problem?’

She nodded. ‘Bill thinks they’re likely to request that all evidence in both cases be sent south.’

‘They’re pursuing Go Wild themselves?’ He caught her expression. ‘Or it’s a national security issue?’

‘Could be either – or both,’ Rhona said.

‘Okay, let’s eat.’ Magnus indicated which dishes she should carry through, then led the way to the dining room, where the others were already seated.

Rhona barely registered the food, despite how good it was, all her thoughts centring on Ava. Something had definitely spooked her since they’d last met. But what?

As for McNab’s part in all of this, if Ava had requested he check on Mark’s well-being, Rhona didn’t doubt that he would have done so. Was his non-reappearance this morning in Glasgow due to that? Or had he just reverted to type and gone off on his own tangent?

Ava seemed a different person from the one who’d met with them both in Glasgow. Then she’d been totally committed to discussing and investigating Go Wild in tandem with herself and McNab. Tonight, Ava had chosen to sit as far away from her as possible, although occasionally when Rhona turned her way, she would find Ava studying her.

The conversation hadn’t featured the Orlova until they reached the coffee stage, even though, from where Rhona sat, she could just make out its shadowy presence via the window.

Finally, it seemed, Rory could wait no longer.

‘So they think there was a stowaway on the Orlova when we pulled her into Houton.’ When Erling threw him a discouraging look, he said, ‘What? It’s all over the island and maybe even bigger news than the black guy found on the beach last night, which brought Dr MacLeod back.’

‘What’s being said about this possible stowaway?’ Ava immediately asked.

Erling’s pointed looks weren’t working on Rory, who carried on with his story.

‘That it’s likely a female and she might have seen what happened on board.’

‘So where is she now?’ Ava said.