In Sletts, Willow took charge. She and Caroline were two strong women together. Jimmy and Sandy let them get on with it.

‘You’ll have tried to phone Polly?’

Caroline nodded. ‘Of course, but we’re getting no answer. She made one call to Marcus while we were waiting to collect our coats, but then his phone cut out. You know what the reception’s like here.’

‘What did she say?’ Willow asked.

‘Marcus couldn’t really make any sense of it. Something mad about looking for Peerie Lizzie. There was such a noise all around us in the boat club. He tried to call her straight back, but he couldn’t get through.’

‘Tell us what happened this evening.’

‘It was their last night in Shetland,’ Caroline said, ‘and we wanted to mark it in some way. There was a charity dinner at the boat club. Food and music. We thought it would be better than letting them sit in here, brooding. And local people had wanted to express their sympathy, so we knew they’d be made welcome. That they’d be treated with proper sensitivity.’

‘You walked?’

‘We took the path along the cliff, yes. It’s not very far.’ Caroline shifted uneasily in her seat and Sandy thought the walking had been her idea. She’d be a great one for the benefits of exercise and fresh air.

‘Did you think that was safe in the fog?’ Willow kept the question polite, but Sandy could sense the hostility between them. It crackled like electricity. Two strong women, but otherwise different in every way. Willow would have been the rebel at school and Caroline the perfectly behaved head girl.

‘It wasn’t so bad when we set out. Besides, Lowrie has been playing on the cliffs here since he could walk. He wasn’t going to get lost.’ As if Willow was stupid for suggesting there might be any danger.

‘But Polly did lose her way?’

There was a silence. Caroline couldn’t seem to explain the fact that Polly was missing. ‘Polly ran off on her own after the meal,’ she said at last. ‘We couldn’t have expected that. Marcus thought it was some sort of panic attack. She was there watching the musicians and then she’d disappeared. Eleanor’s death has made her kind of flaky.’ Sandy thought the woman had already picked up some of the accent. She’d turn into one of those soothmoothers who became more Shetland than the Shetlanders. He imagined her as a member of the parish council, fighting on behalf of the other crofters. A pillar of the community.

‘You’re sure she went of her own volition?’ Willow asked.

‘Well, she wasn’t kidnapped in front of an audience of fifty people!’ Caroline’s voice was sharp. The prefect was reasserting her authority.

‘Did you see her leave the room?’