Grace was shaking her head. ‘It’s not, though, is it? I can’t believe what’s happening. It’s like I’m having a weird dream that I can’t wake up from.’

‘Then let’s prove that we’re not dreaming,’ he said. ‘We can do that with one call.’

‘To who?’

‘I don’t know yet. But I can guess.’ Ben took out the phone he’d captured from Murray Brown. Slid his thumb over the screen to unlock it, and saw that there was just one bar of reception out here in the wilderness. One was enough. He redialled the number Brown had called earlier. It rang several times, then just as Ben was expecting the call to go to voicemail a gruff voice, irritable with lack of sleep, grumbled ‘Macleod. So what’s happening, Murray? Do you have them or what?’

Ben’s guess had been dead right. He smiled and said, ‘Detective Inspector Fergus Macleod?’ As he said the name, he glanced at Grace and saw her flinch as though she’d been slapped.

Grace wasn’t the only surprised one. There was a stunned silence on the other end. A smart guy would have ended the call right away. Except it was already too late, even for that.

‘Murray can’t come to the phone right now,’ Ben said. ‘He’s too busy having a party with all that money you gave him. I presume it wasn’t your own money. You were just passing it down the line, weren’t you?’

‘H-Hope?’ Macleod stammered.

‘Give your boss a message from me,’ Ben said. ‘Tell him that I have something he wants. Tell him that if he’s interested, he can phone this number and we’ll talk business.’ He ended the call.

Grace’s expression was as tight as violin strings, her mouth a thin clamped line. Ben said, ‘So there it is. Sorry, Grace, but your bosses Macleod and Coull are in on this whole thing. Supplementing their police pay by moonlighting for the main man.’

Grace said tersely, ‘Charles Stuart.’

Ben nodded. ‘Ninety-nine per cent for sure. First we find out that a member of the Dishonourables, the gang that killed Jamie McGlashan and tried to kill us, is working for Stuart. Now this. Doesn’t take a fortune to persuade the likes of Macleod and Coull to switch sides. Especially if they’re also mixed up in murder, attempted murder, and maybe kidnapping too. And Stuart has a lot of money. The kind that buys a great deal of influence and protection. With enough resources on tap, you can even own the local law.’

‘We’re living in modern-day Scotland. It’s not the Wild West.’

‘Times change,’ Ben said. ‘But people don’t. Power and money hold as much sway over men’s minds as they did all through history. That’s not my opinion. That’s a fact.’