He turned and lifted his hand, attempted a half-smile, then returned to face straight ahead. As they drove away, Fiona looked back in the mirror. The winding road from the village up the glen was still steeped in the lingering mist. She saw the two figures disappear into the hotel and the wooden door shut.

‘So, here we go, off to stay with Granny and Pa. Excited?’

Fiona glanced at her son’s features, rigid with indignation, and put on the radio. It was the same Radio 4 programme she had heard four weeks before when she discovered Pete had gone.

She had given up trying his mobile and had had nothing back from his email. She had spoken to the two guys he knew in Alyth who insisted they knew nothing and, strangely, she believed them. There was one other person she was going to try once they were settled in Dundee, but until then, she had her son to consider.

The previous day had been the last day of school and she had been so proud as Jamie crossed the little stage in the hall to collect the prize for art again. He had smiled when the teacher had given him his prize but that smile had become rare. Ever since Pete had left, Jamie had been quiet, often morose. She hoped that living with her parents would bring him out of himself. When they had stayed at the house in Magdalen Yard Road for a weekend, he had loved playing with Jack next door. Perhaps the long summer holidays would help him move on from their life up the glen. She wished she too could move on, forget about Pete. Had he just taken her for a ride for three years? Told her he loved her even though he didn’t? Did she ever really know him? She shivered as she contemplated the fact that he might be a criminal. If you steal a car and remove £3,000 from a joint account, what else could you be hiding? Every waking moment in the past month, she tried to go over everything he had ever said, searching for a clue about why he might have gone. Nothing.

The only good thing about living back in Dundee was that, once Jamie was sorted and at his new school, she could start work again. She had missed going out and doing something for herself. There had been no chance of finding work as an art curator in or near Glenisla, but in Dundee, with the new V&A opening in a couple of years just along the waterfront, she had hopes of a proper job. Besides everything else, she needed the money.

Fiona slowed the car down as they approached the ring road in Dundee. Jamie, whose eyes had been shut, feigning sleep, sat up. ‘Did you remember to pack my skateboard, Mum?’