Put those problems together, and it added up to a highly tempting activity. So tempting, that the authorities had even had difficulties preventing their own enforcement personnel from catching fish on the sly. Even more strongly drawn to the freshwater bounty were criminal gangs, whose members had been known to attack or threaten the Fisheries enforcers at knifepoint when caught in the act.

Ben didn’t think that the mystery poacher was one of those. More likely, he was just some local guy putting food on the table or perhaps making a few quid on the side. For legitimate anglers the official salmon season had ended in October and wasn’t due to start again until January or February, after the spawning season had replenished the stocks with a teeming new generation of young fish. But a dedicated poacher who didn’t feel the need to abide by the rules and was hardy enough to brave the rough conditions could feel free to harvest the lochs and rivers unimpeded all through autumn and winter.

Which meant there was a reasonable chance of finding the guy out there on the loch in December. The problem Ben faced there was the same one the enforcers faced: that of geography. He closed down his search and jumped over to Google Maps, which told him that Loch Ardaich was twelve miles from west to east. That was a lot of water, and an even larger area of shore, for one man to patrol in search of a small, moving target. Ben would have felt inadequately equipped even with a four-man SAS team and air support.

But again, there were ways to even the odds. According to what few obscure news reports Ben could find online, Ross Campbell’s body had been found near the eastern end of the loch, not far from the new Highland Manor golf resort development where his surveying duties had taken him that day. And that enabled Ben to drastically reduce the area of loch he’d need to cover. Ben had hunted many men, during his time in the army and since. He was exceptionally good at it, because he had the ability to put himself in his quarry’s mindset, think like they thought. So he closed his eyes now, let his mind drift and thought the way the poacher would think.