‘And that guy back there was one of them?’

Ben nodded. ‘Looks that way to me. From serving with a top-class regiment like the Paras, to hooking up with the lowest, scummiest bunch of cutthroats money can buy. How and why he managed to fall so far, we’ll never know.’

‘The one who got away. Do you think he was one of them, too?’

‘Makes sense. Same goes for the military-grade sniper who nearly drilled a .308 rifle round into me last night when he mistook me for the poacher, down by the loch. It might have been one of the pair we met today. Or there could be a third player. Or more. There could be a whole gang of Dishonourables out there, working for whoever’s behind all this.’

Grace looked at him. ‘This is the first I’ve heard about a sniper shooting at you down by the loch.’

He shrugged. ‘I survived. What’s behind me isn’t important. My concern is what’s ahead. And right now the one who got away is heading back to base to report to his employers. He’s going to tell them exactly what happened, and describe the man and woman in the black Mercedes who killed his associate. Which means you and I are officially involved in this now. They know we’re onto them and they’ll be hunting for us, too. Same as they hunted for Jamie McGlashan. Same as I believe they hunted for Boonzie, because he was getting involved and asking questions. They’ll go after anyone who stands in their way.’

Grace said in a softer voice, ‘You think they got Boonzie, don’t you?’

Ben made no reply.

Grace fell into her own silence, deep in thought for a long minute. ‘Okay. Let’s say you’re right about all this. In which case, we’ve learned something about what’s going on here. But we haven’t learned anything that can help us. I mean, we have no idea who these people really are, who they could be working for, or anything useful about them. All we know is that whoever hired them is obviously willing to do anything to get what they want. Such as the gold coins that Ross Campbell found, or whatever. But aside from that, we’re back at square one, with nothing to go on.’

Ben had already worked through the same thought process ahead of her, and knew what he had to do next.

He said, ‘You’re right. We don’t know much. But there’s someone else who might.’

Chapter 34

It had now been three days since Boonzie McCulloch’s capture and incarceration inside the dungeon deep beneath Charles Stuart’s castle. Three days of total lack of cooperation from the prisoner. Three days of growing frustration for his captors.