The female voice asked, ‘Who did this to you?’

When McNab remained silent, she said to her partner, ‘We should inform the police about this.’

‘No,’ McNab managed to say. ‘I just need patching up.’

He realized the moment to declare himself a police officer had come and gone and he’d chosen not to. Despite the pain and the scrambled brain, McNab knew why.

57

‘Why is she calling you?’ Dougie demanded.

‘Because of Mark’s death,’ Ava tried again. ‘Mark told me to tell Dr MacLeod and DS McNab that a Met officer who wasn’t to be trusted was being sent north. This was all before you brought Nadia here.’ She paused to emphasize that fact. ‘It’ll raise suspicions if I stop talking to them now. Plus,’ she added, ‘DS McNab went to London to check on Mark, and Mark’s been found dead. They can’t locate McNab now, which means . . .’

She stopped there. It wasn’t the whole story, but it was enough to get them thinking.

‘So it’s not all about you, or me,’ she said directly to Nadia. ‘Don’t you want the people who killed Guido and your other friends to be caught?’

‘That’s why I gave you my story,’ Nadia said, her voice suddenly tired. ‘You said you would publish it.’

‘And I will,’ Ava said. ‘But I need to do it in a way that doesn’t lead them here to you.’

Finn padded over at that point, but instead of nuzzling Dougie, he put his nose in Ava’s hand. It made her want to cry, all the sorrow at Mark’s death welling up inside, threatening to swamp her.

‘Sorry,’ Dougie suddenly said. ‘I’m sorry for all of it.’

Ava’s heart ached for him. ‘None of this is your fault. None of it,’ she repeated. ‘But what happens now will be down to us.’ That much she did know. ‘Which is why I have to talk to Dr MacLeod, and in private.’

Dougie eventually nodded. ‘Can we go down to the boathouse with Finn?’

The tension in the room had eased. She may even have made some headway, but there were decisions to be made and a route to publication decided. One thing was certain, Mark would not thank her for taking time to mourn him now. His first desire would be for her to finish what they’d begun together.

‘Do that,’ Ava said, relieved at the thought of no longer being under constant scrutiny.

She told them to go straight to the boathouse and stay there until dark. ‘Nadia shouldn’t really be outside in daylight. Orphir folk have long-range vision. Here,’ she said, grabbing her own jacket from the rack. ‘Put this on and pull the hood up. If anyone spots you from a distance, they’ll likely think it’s me. Now go. Scram. And let me make my phone call.’