She’d been told by Caroline that Greg was a nice guy, who deserved to be happy. That he would need Joanne’s support during the investigation. ‘That is if you intend to stay?’ Caroline had added.

It was a question Joanne didn’t have an answer to, so she didn’t offer one.

‘He was pretty cut up when Ailsa Cummings went missing,’ Caroline had continued.

‘I thought you were her friend,’ Joanne had blurted out at that point. She’d thought that Caroline was about to deny this, but eventually she’d nodded.

‘Everyone was shattered, the men especially, because they were all under suspicion and everyone was blaming everyone else.’ She’d continued, ‘Greg couldn’t stand it and went away for a while, but he loves this place, so I knew he’d come back.’ She’d said this with a satisfied smile and Joanne had wondered why.

Had he come back because of Caroline? Or did she just think he had?

‘Now it’s all started again.’ Caroline had forced a smile at that point, before finishing with, ‘But not tonight. Tonight is about fun and stovies.’

‘Are you going to tell me what they are?’ Joanne had said, relieved to get off the topic of Greg and the investigation.

‘Sit down and I’ll give you a plate. Plus a malt whisky chaser to go alongside.’

Dragging her thoughts back to the present, Joanne opened her laptop. She’d told Lucy she wasn’t sure about publishing her piece, but that didn’t mean she was going to stop writing it. The story of Ailsa’s disappearance and the subsequent discovery of a body, yet to be declared as the missing teenager, intrigued her. The fact that it was also seemingly linked to the Party House made it even more compelling.

She flipped through the photos she’d taken, finishing with the one of the covered grave site.

If it was confirmed as Ailsa’s body, its discovery occurred almost five years after she’d disappeared. Had the Party House been built then? Had she been killed beside the loch or did the killer take her there later? Who had access to the beach area at that time?

Her mind swam with questions about when Ard Choille had been built and when the slabs at the lochside had been put down. Had the body been buried before the slabs were laid or had they been lifted in order to bury it?

Burying a body wouldn’t be easy. Plus she now knew from her research that a buried body caused the surface vegetation to change and the ground to sink as the remains decayed, but surely the concrete slabs would cover that?

The women at the Party House had told her the body had been wrapped in plastic, but they didn’t know if the victim had been naked or clothed.