Willow didn’t know how to reply to that. He always made her feel that she was cold, lacking in compassion. She wanted to talk to Perez about the case, not feel pity for a woman she’d never met. She was thinking about time, how it was slipping away from them, and her concern that at the end of the weekend they’d be forced to leave Unst and set up base in Lerwick. Then there wouldn’t be the same focus or concentration on the investigation. It would be a kind of failure. She’d just started trying to explain when David Gordon came in from the garden. He mumbled something that she could hardly make out: that he would take a tray to his room and wouldn’t see them again that evening. He stood just inside the room and seemed set to grab a sandwich and run. There were smears of mud on his forehead and a rip in his checked shirt. The distinguished former academic had disappeared.

‘Come in,’ Willow said. ‘I was just going to make some tea.’

‘Is there any news?’ Now David’s voice was clearer – demanding, almost aggressive. ‘Do you know who killed Charles?’ He’d taken off his wellingtons at the door and wore thick white socks. He padded towards them and sat down at the table.

Willow didn’t reply directly. ‘Are you up to answering a few questions?’

‘If it’ll help.’

‘We found a digital recorder in the office. It had belonged to Eleanor and we know that it was in her possession on the day of the party. Any idea how it got from Sletts to Springfield?’

‘None. Unless Charles found it somewhere. It certainly has nothing to do with me.’ He looked up at her. ‘Could the woman have dropped it on the island?’

Like her phone. Willow couldn’t believe that. Eleanor wandering round Unst and dropping things wherever she went. Too much of a coincidence. ‘I suppose it’s possible.’ She poured tea and went to join him at the table. Perez was leaning against the bench. She thought again that he had the knack of making himself invisible. ‘More likely, don’t you think, that the two of them met up.’ Our two victims. Charles and Eleanor. Where did they meet, and what could they have had to say to each other?

‘Charles had already told you that he never set up a meeting.’

‘And you told us that you thought Charles was making plans, keeping secrets from you.’ Willow’s voice was sharp. She wanted to jolt David Gordon into a response. ‘Perhaps he was keeping secrets from us too, telling lies, and he and Eleanor got together on the afternoon of the hamefarin’. Are you sure she didn’t come here? She had use of a car and it’s not so far from Sletts.’