‘I thought six people had died,’ Joanne said, puzzled.

Kath nodded. ‘Five children, plus my daughter-in-law, Mairi. She was our district nurse.’

‘Oh, I am sorry,’ Joanne said, feeling terrible to have brought it up. She waited a moment, then tried to bring the subject back to Ailsa.

Kath scrutinized her. ‘Aye, I know about the body up at Ard Choille and that it’s likely to be that poor lassie. Bad news blows through Blackrig like a north wind.’

Joanne waited again, knowing Kath would likely say more if given time.

‘It’s a sorry tale. Her parents brought her here to get her away from Glasgow. She was supposed to be going to art college in the autumn. All excited about it she was. We used to take a walk together in the woods now and again. She always had her sketch pad. Would suddenly take a seat and start to draw.’ She paused. ‘She did a lot of sketches of the carvings in the woods. The green woman and green man in particular. Gave me one of the woman as a present, if you’d like to see it?’

Joanne nodded, feeling slightly uncomfortable as the girl she’d only thought of as an intriguing story suddenly began to feel real.

Having left the room, Kath now reappeared with a framed drawing and handed it to Joanne.

The image was so powerful, it made her catch her breath.

‘Good, isn’t it?’ Kath said. ‘I feel I can see the real Ailsa when I look at it. Not those silly selfies she used to take of herself.’

They sat quietly for a moment, before Joanne ventured to ask, ‘What was Ailsa like, really?’

Kath gave a little smile. ‘An exotic butterfly, especially to the local lads. She played them along, of course, though you couldn’t blame her for that. I liked her. I liked her very much.’ Her face clouded over. ‘The police were convinced one of the village boys had something to do with her disappearance, but there were holiday folk here then too. Some thought she’d gone back to Glasgow, maybe with one of the visitors.’

She halted there briefly, before continuing. ‘The whole thing set the village against itself. Everyone was under suspicion, especially the men. The police swabbed them all for DNA, but they never found a body, so they’d no evidence that she’d been harmed.’ She shook her head, apparently remembering the horror of it all. ‘Her poor parents couldn’t stand it here after that and when the searches ended they upped and left. Just like that. The house belonged to the estate. It’s still shut up.’

‘Where is the house?’ Joanne said.

‘Just to the east of Beanach, but not easy to spot from the track. It’s marked Forrigan on the map.’

So it was close to Greg’s place.

Joanne looked up to discover Kath’s concerned eyes on her.