‘The days are going by. I feel so helpless sitting here waiting for the phone to ring. I can’t eat. I’m up all night pacing. How long before we have to admit you can’t find him, and we need to involve the police?’

‘If I was unable to find him, what do you think the police could do?’

‘What about INTERPOL and people like that? They have all kinds of ways to help, don’t they? Helicopters and sniffer dogs and things.’

Just what the world needed. Another botched police operation with too many chiefs and not enough Indians, which would send the bad guys running for the hills and virtually guarantee that Boonzie was never found, dead or alive. Assuming that the joint powers of European law enforcement bothered to do anything at all. But Ben couldn’t tell her that. ‘I’m close, Mirella. So close I’m following right in his footsteps.’

‘I don’t know what to do.’

‘It’s your choice, Mirella. Whatever you decide, I will respect it. But I won’t give up.’

‘Another day,’ she said with a sniff. ‘Twenty-four hours. Then I think I’ll call them. I’m sorry, Ben. I’m going to go crazy if I don’t do something.’

‘You do what you feel is right,’ he said with a sinking heart. ‘And call me anytime, day or night. Okay?’

She was still crying when she ended the call. Ben gazed out of the window at the snowflakes spiralling from the grey clouds, and heaved a deep sigh. Twenty-four hours to find Boonzie before his wife pressed the panic button, come what may. Perfect.

There was no time to lose. Ben finished packing his equipment, wrapped up his weapons and then went out to the car and sped off along the now-familiar road out of the village leading towards Loch Ardaich. Now that he knew for certain that he was on the right track, he needed to believe that his second attempt to find the poacher would bear fruit. If the bad guys didn’t find him first.

Whoever the bad guys were. Ben had no idea. But their involvement in this situation offered him a new lead to follow. Whatever information they already had about the poacher, he could use that knowledge to his own advantage by tracking their movements. He was looking forward to meeting them again, especially the rifleman. And he was sure he would. Their next encounter would be a different game entirely.