‘I plan to run the whole Go Wild thing past him. If the incidents in Orkney and here in Glasgow are connected, the boss will want to know.’

As he rung off, Rhona exchanged looks with Chrissy.

‘He’s lying,’ Chrissy said. ‘Sandra says his injuries suggested he was in a fight.’

‘Over Ellie maybe?’ Rhona voiced her thoughts out loud.

‘Exactly what I was thinking.’

25

She’d left before Dougie got up. His reaction the previous evening to being told she was off to London had been one of anger. So there had been little point in saying goodbye.

Ava realized then that by offering to help with the investigation, he’d been trying to prove that she didn’t need to leave the farm to do her work.

‘Mark has something to show me,’ she’d insisted.

‘He can show you online.’

At that point she’d stopped arguing because she didn’t want to tell Dougie that Mark had been reluctant to do that.

During the brief stopover in Glasgow, she’d rung Mark’s number but it had gone to voicemail. She’d tried again on landing, but still had had no luck. Mark had told her not to email. Just in case.

Looking around the packed Underground carriage, the myriad voices and the sheer number of people reminded her how long she’d been away from London. From Kirkwall airport to Glasgow to Central London it had just kept on multiplying exponentially.

When she’d first departed Orkney for London, she’d revelled in the city’s hordes, not missing the wide sky and empty landscape of the islands. Coming back now felt different, as though she were an insignificant ant among an army flowing around her.

Mark had arranged to meet her in a coffee shop in St Martin’s Lane, after she’d spoken to David Morris, her editor. If Mark didn’t turn up, what would she do?

Emerging from the Underground, Ava made her way to the cafe, and wasn’t surprised to find she was there first because she’d factored in time for a longer meeting with her editor than the one that had taken place.

At the onset, David had appeared keen on the emerging Orlova story, until she’d brought up Mark’s imminent involvement. That’s when things had changed.

‘You didn’t mention Mark when we spoke on the phone,’ he’d said.

‘I hadn’t talked to him at that point,’ she’d begun.

‘Mark can be a wild card,’ David said. ‘Treads on a lot of important toes.’

He didn’t give an example because he didn’t have to. The British government preferred to be seen as the good guy in the Middle East in particular. Mark’s various investigations there had tarnished that image.

‘He gets results.’ Ava had found herself rising immediately to Mark’s defence, even though what David said was true.