She stood where she was, poised between the bedroom and the kitchen, as if she was unsure whether to go with him or back to her bed. In the end she wrapped the shawl around her head and led him into the kitchen.

‘I should try to wake George,’ Sandy said. Perez had told him to speak to the man.

‘You’d be wasting your time,’ Grusche replied. ‘You’ll get no sense out of him when he’s like this.’ She stood blocking the door and he saw she was adamant that her husband shouldn’t be disturbed.

‘Does it happen often?’

She shrugged and moved to the Rayburn and lifted the kettle onto the hot plate.

‘Often enough. He needs help, but I don’t think he really wants to change. He’s not been the man I married since he left the lighthouse service.’

‘It must be hard living with him.’ Sandy couldn’t see how this had anything to do with the two murders, but he knew that Jimmy Perez wouldn’t walk away if a witness was just about to speak to him.

‘Not really. He’s a good man. He works hard and he’s always been a good father to Lowrie. He can be the life and soul of a party. He just needs a drink before he can face new people or difficult situations, and then he can’t stop drinking when he’s had a few drams inside him. There are lots of Shetlanders who are just the same.’

Sandy thought that was true too.

The kettle on the hob whistled. Grusche made the tea.

‘What do you think happened to Polly?’ she said. She put a mug of tea on the table in front of him.

‘I’m not sure.’ Sandy sipped the tea. ‘It was very foggy. It’s easy to lose your way.’

‘She’ll maybe have been chasing after Eleanor’s ghost-child,’ Grusche said.

‘What do you mean?’

‘She thought that she’d seen Peerie Lizzie. It seems the spirit appeared to her on the night of the hamefarin’. And then again on the beach the next day.’ Grusche paused. ‘Caroline and I took her out for lunch in Yell and I thought she was kind of obsessed with all that nonsense. I suppose if your best friend is killed, you lose your perspective. It’d be easy to start believing in the spirit world. And she was determined to track the lassie down.’ She paused. ‘Polly seemed rather mad to me, Sandy. I don’t think she’s entirely safe to be left alone. You need to find her.’

Sandy wasn’t sure what he made of that, but he supposed that Willow and Jimmy would be interested in Polly Gilmour’s state of mind. ‘You’ve known her for a long time?’

‘She was one of Lowrie’s friends since they started at university together.’

‘And what did you make of her?’