Magnus was barely off the phone before the official call came through. They would be taken by police helicopter to Kirkwall airport first thing, where a police officer would pick them up and take them to Houton Bay and the MV Orlova.

11

On his way home, McNab found himself taking a detour via the tattoo parlour, where it had all begun. Standing in the door of the pub opposite, he let his mind replay the moment he had first encountered Ellie.

When he’d told Mannie, who owned the shop, that he wanted a skull inked over the bullet wound in his back, Mannie had called Ellie in, because apparently inking skulls was a speciality of hers.

McNab recalled the way the dark-haired girl had looked at him, her exposed flesh a painted tribute to her art. Not skulls, but a fairy tale of colour and imagery. Up to that point he’d only really thought of multiple tattoos as a male thing, but had definitely changed his mind at that moment.

She’d taken him into her cubicle and shown him a selection of possible tattoos. His shirt off by then, she’d studied the scar he wanted to cover. He could feel her wish to know the circumstances in which he’d been shot. So he’d jokingly told her it had been inflicted by an angry woman he’d cheated on, and he was lucky she hadn’t shot a hole through his prick.

Laughing at his fictional story, she assured him that they inked penises too. She’d showed him some samples, and then told him a tale of tattooed testicles, which he’d been horrified by.

The chemistry between them . . . Fuck, he could feel it yet.

It was in her cubicle that they’d first made love, but not on that night. In that moment, McNab had thought that life couldn’t get any better.

So why had he messed it all up?

All the fault of the job, of course. Except that was just a cop-out. He’d let Ellie down far too often. And she wasn’t a girl to be messed with. Something he’d loved about her.

I did warn her what it would be like getting in tow with a detective. I was straight with her about that.

And she was straight with you from the beginning. She said if you were going to get together, that you both had to be honest if you wanted to have sex with someone else.

I couldn’t believe that at the time. I didn’t think I would want that. I didn’t think she would.

That was the arrangement. So Ellie hasn’t changed. You have.