Ben listened as she told him about Geoffrey Watkins’ arrest for the assault on Ewan McCulloch. ‘Last I heard, they were still working on getting him to confess to it. Except I don’t think he will, Ben, because I don’t buy that he did it. There’s more going on, and the Watkins arrest is a blind. You said this was about money. I think you were right.’

‘And I thought you couldn’t discuss confidential matters pertaining to an ongoing police investigation.’

‘Tactical flexibility is the essence of good strategy. I’m prepared to bend the rules a little here and there.’

‘No bad thing. But why the sudden change of heart?’ he asked.

She pulled off her mittens and held her hands above the heater vents, flexing and unflexing her fingers to get the blood running again. ‘Yesterday in the pub,’ she said. ‘Something you told me stuck in my mind. I kept thinking about it afterwards. It was bugging me all night long.’

‘What did I say?’

‘You said that Ewan had no idea who the poacher was.’

‘That’s what Boonzie’s wife Mirella told me. Ewan received an anonymous call. The poacher was too scared to give away his identity.’

She nodded. ‘But later I remembered that what Boonzie said to me was different. The call was anonymous, yes, but Ewan told Boonzie that he thought he knew the guy. The voice sounded familiar to him, he just couldn’t put a face or a name to it.’

Ben frowned. ‘Go on.’

‘Then there was something else you said last night, that the witness was the key to this whole thing. I wasn’t too sure at the time, because I couldn’t get my head around the idea that Ross’s death was connected to what happened to Ewan. But now the way they’re trying to pin the assault charge on Watkins makes me think someone’s trying to cover up the truth and pretend like Ross’s gold coins never existed. See?’

‘Okay.’

She went on, ‘So this morning I got thinking about all this, and none of it was making any sense to me, so I went into the arrest records. I feel like shit for not having done it days ago. I could’ve helped Ewan’s uncle. Whatever’s happened to him might not have happened.’

‘What arrest records?’

‘Every now and then the Fisheries enforcers catch someone illegally catching salmon on the lochs. In the olden days they used to just beat the crap out of them. Nowadays they have to report it to the police. Which works out much cosier for the poachers, since they don’t get much more than a slap on the wrist. But they still get a criminal record, of course, and it’s all on file.’

‘That’s where you found our poacher?’