‘There’s something else,’ she said eventually. ‘Mark gave me all his evidence. He’d told me to hold it back, when I met him in London, because he feared the police would bury it if he handed it over. I alluded to it in my piece, but there are images, videos, interviews conducted with participants in these games. It could be explosive, because of who is in there. I think that’s why he was killed.’ Her voice tailed off as she tried to collect herself. ‘So do I wait here for Dougie to come home or come to Glasgow and hand over this evidence?’

Now Rhona knew the true nature of the call. Ava was basically asking, what job should she put first? Her professional one or the personal?

Rhona thought briefly of her own situation. How often she had put the job before her private life. Her work before her son, before Sean.

‘You’re asking the wrong person,’ she said, in all honesty.

‘I suspect I know what you would do,’ Ava said. ‘I’ll book a flight to Glasgow as soon as possible, and let Erling know my decision.’

Rhona cut in at this point. ‘If that’s what you want, then you’re welcome to stay here with me.’

‘You would do that? I suspect, like up here, I’ll have to have some sort of security.’

‘I’ve had police minders before,’ Rhona assured her. ‘It occasionally comes with the job.’

‘Okay, thanks,’ Ava said, her voice certain again. ‘I plan to ask that DS McNab does the interview. Mark trusted him and so do I.’ And with that, she rang off.

Rhona went through to the kitchen, Tom following her, rubbing himself against her legs. From the window, she would watch the sunrise, because going back to bed no longer seemed an option.

She put on the coffee and made herself a bowl of cereal, pouring some of the milk into a dish for Tom, something he had been hoping for, as displayed by the joyous sounds he was now emitting.

Despite her carefully chosen answers, she’d been thrown by Ava’s last question. She’d often admitted to herself how work obsessed she was, but it was more difficult to admit that to others.

She poured herself a coffee and sat on the window seat to watch the sun come up.