Meanwhile, a number of other events began to unfold. The eco-activist Geoffrey Watkins was released from jail with all charges dropped, while Angus Baird and his cronies were heading in the opposite direction. Shortly after Grace submitted her evidence to the police top brass from Inverness, Detective Inspector Fergus Macleod and Detective Sergeant Jim Coull were placed under arrest for their part in the murder of Ross Campbell and the attempted murder of his business partner, along with multiple corruption charges, and more. A growing list of other names quickly became implicated in the affair, including those of constables Murray Brown and Douglas Rennie, who soon broke down under questioning and confessed to their sins. Oddly, the exact details of how Brown and Rennie’s patrol car had come to be set alight on the road between Crianlarich and Glen Orchy remained something of a mystery.

The greatest mystery of all, namely the question of what the hell exactly had happened at Charles Stuart’s estate that night, continued to baffle the authorities. Grace’s story was that she had managed to escape her captors shortly after making her call to the police, and knew nothing of the causes of the fire that had gutted the castle and left dead bodies everywhere. Her superiors might have privately suspected she was hiding something, but had no evidence to prove it.

While all this was going on, more and more criminal charges quickly piled up against the missing millionaire. CCTV footage taken at the Belford confirmed that the man found suspiciously loitering inside Ewan McCulloch’s hospital room by the head surgeon, Dr Fraser, was indeed Charles Stuart. More footage showed the suspect fleeing from the scene, clutching a knife. But it was the devastating confessions of Fergus Macleod and Jim Coull that delivered the greatest damage.

Pending a full forensic inquiry, Stuart was initially thought to have perished in the bizarre incident that destroyed his home – but that theory was dropped when, just hours later, his Rolls Royce was snapped by a speed camera doing ninety on the A830 near Arisaig. Soon afterwards, a major manhunt was launched nationwide. By then, the authorities had learned enough to put Stuart away for the rest of his life.

Eight days had gone by when Ben finally had to tear himself away from Grace and return to Le Val. The parting was difficult.

‘Let’s be honest,’ he told her. ‘What’s the future for a guy like me and a smart lady cop from the Highlands?’

‘We could have had fun finding out,’ she said.