He soon found the spot where he’d left his car. The tyre tracks leading to the hiding place were mostly snowed over, as he’d been betting on for concealment from less benign eyes than Grace’s. He parked her Landy next to the Mercedes, and they switched vehicles.

‘Life saver,’ Grace sighed as they set off towards Kinlochardaich and the blasting heat started to permeate the inside of the Mercedes. She snuggled back into the soft leather seat like a cat draping itself over a warm radiator. ‘Nice car. I could get used to such luxuries. Whatever they pay sort-of-teachers in France, it’s obviously way more than my meagre police wages.’

‘It’s not mine,’ he said.

She looked at him. ‘Please don’t tell me you stole it.’

‘I nearly had to. The rental companies don’t like me too much.’

‘Why not?’

‘Long story.’

Ben glanced at the dashboard clock. Their diversion to switch vehicles had delayed them a few minutes and it was now 2.23 p.m. He was anxious about the passing of time, fretting over Mirella’s deadline for calling in police involvement from her side and hoping he was about to finally meet the man he’d been trying to find for two days now. His one consolation was that, thanks to Grace’s digging, they were a step ahead of the others searching for Jamie McGlashan.

Ben was soon to discover he was wrong.

He drove faster, the big car’s traction control gadgetry effortlessly tackling the wintry conditions as they sped towards the village. The sky was leaden with cloud and the snow was falling more heavily. He flicked the wipers to full speed to clear the screen.

‘Cold winters you get up here,’ he said.

She nodded. ‘Getting colder year on year, too. Not like you’d think it, from all the climate change crap on the news saying we’re all about to roast to death.’

‘I have a solar physicist friend who’d tend to agree with you,’ Ben said.

Grace raised an eyebrow in surprise. ‘Is that what you teach, solar physics?’

Ben had to smile at that. ‘Not exactly.’

At 2.26 p.m., as the first village houses were coming into view up ahead, Grace pointed at a minor junction cutting off to the left, the edges of the road hard to distinguish from the verges. ‘Turn left here.’ Then shortly afterwards, she pointed to the right and said, ‘Take that one.’ He could see she was directing him around the edge of Kinlochardaich.

Minutes later, as they were heading beyond the village outskirts and the dash clock hit dead on half past the hour, Ben glimpsed the lone, sad trailer sitting in the middle of a snowy field ringed by a barbed-wire fence and an old blue Subaru Forester parked beside it, and knew he was looking at the McGlashan residence.

‘So you weren’t bullshitting me. He lives just where you said he did.’