‘It happens sporadically in farming communities. No one knows why exactly. The police will find out who it was, in time,’ he assured her. ‘There’s also the matter of what Ava does with the farm, although it seems Erling’s father, Tommy, has stepped in and offered a partnership on running it with Dougie.’

That was good news, which suggested that neither Dougie nor the farm had been Ava’s main concern the previous night.

‘Do you want to take a packed lunch with you?’ Magnus said.

Judging from the view of white horses from the window, the ride out to the Orlova wasn’t going to be pleasurable. Plus the ship itself would likely be pitching a bit. Rhona decided to forgo lunch on board.

‘If Chrissy was with me, her answer would be yes, but I’m happy to wait until I get back,’ Rhona said with a grim smile.

Erling was waiting for her on the jetty, the launch rising and falling alongside. ‘You ready for this?’ he said.

‘Just don’t let me fall in,’ Rhona told him, already wondering how she would get from the launch to the ladder.

The trip over didn’t allay her fears, especially when the pilot told her that Orkney fishermen in the past didn’t learn to swim. ‘Better to die quickly if you fall in, rather than fighting to stay afloat and freeze.’

On that cheery note, they drew alongside the Orlova.

As luck would have it, getting up the ladder seemed less of a trauma than on the previous occasion, although Rhona missed Chrissy’s humorous take on the proceedings.

Safely aboard, Erling led the way past the previous loci and down another level into the hold. Rhona followed him as the Orlova rose and fell, the metal clanging and sighing, the thick smell of unmoving air encompassing her.

‘The hold, we’ve now discovered, has a number of small hidden compartments, possibly for drug running at one time, although now all empty. Of course, when we boarded the Orlova, we weren’t actively looking for drugs, and once we discovered the crime scene, that became our primary focus. Once you alerted us to the possibility of a stowaway . . . Here’s the place.’ He came to a halt in front of a low metal door. Undoing the padlock, he pulled the heavy door open for her.

Rhona peered into the well-lit space.

‘We set up an arc light for you,’ Erling said. ‘Otherwise you would have only had a head torch to work by.’

‘Whoever was here was in the dark?’

‘Some lighting was still functioning when we brought you on board earlier. Remember the mad chorus from the audience in the arena? We switched it off when you’d completed your examination of the computer room victim.’ He handed her a radio. ‘How long will you need?’

‘A couple of hours minimum.’ She began getting kitted up.