‘When are you coming back?’

The silence that followed unnerved her and she wondered if somehow he already knew about her brush with Aidan.

‘Sorry, I got held up and now Malcolm needs me to help set up for the ceilidh. There’s stuff in the fridge if you’re hungry. Or . . .’ He hesitated. ‘I could come up for you?’

She tried to read his tone but couldn’t. Did he want her to come down there or not?

It was really for locals. A private party. But he’d said earlier it would be okay. Maybe Caroline had told him not to bring her and that’s why he was being so weird?

‘No need to come for me,’ she told him. ‘I might take a walk down later. It’s a lovely evening,’ she added, glancing out at a clear sky.

‘Okay, I’ll see you then.’

She heard Caroline’s voice calling to him as he hung up, suggesting she may have been listening in to their conversation and that was why he’d sounded so lukewarm.

Fuck it! Why worry about any of it, she told herself. Aidan, Greg, Caroline. She’d be gone from Blackrig soon enough, and even quicker should Richard discover from Aidan that she was here.

Greg

Caroline was looking at him, a concerned expression on her face.

‘Everything okay?’

Since she’d obviously been eavesdropping on his conversation with Joanne, he’d been expecting a re-enactment of the scene earlier in the shop.

‘Everything’s fine,’ he said cautiously.

‘Okay. Let’s get bottling and you can tell me exactly what happened at your police interview, so we’re on the same page when it’s my turn.’

‘All right,’ he said, wondering how long Caroline’s new persona would last.

In fact, her friendly demeanour persisted the whole time they were stocking up the bar together. When he told her exactly how the interview had been played by DI Snyder and DS Reid, she’d smiled.

‘Ah, the female touch. So she’s good?’

‘She is,’ he admitted. ‘They make a good team.’

‘So do we,’ she said, touching his arm.

He wanted to say, We did make a good team once, but that’s in the past, but didn’t because in that moment he remembered how good they had been together. Before Ailsa, before the virus, before the deaths.

Malcolm appeared. ‘You two ready?’ he said with a swift look from one to the other.

‘Fully stocked up and raring to go,’ Caroline assured him.

‘Right, the band’s ready too.’ He gave the young folk on the stage a thumbs-up. ‘Once we open the doors and get enough of a crowd, I’ll say a few words. Then it’s party time.’