‘I suppose that’s a possibility.’ Chrissy made a face. ‘That looks like dried blood on it.’

’I believe it is.

Chrissy had moved to study the blue mesh. Expanding the image, she suggested, ‘Could that possibly be the eye window of a burka?’

‘You’re right,’ Rhona said, realizing that was the answer that had eluded her.

‘All of these things,’ Chrissy said, ‘look like bad memories. Things that must haunt her. Why keep them with her all the time?’

‘Maybe she keeps them to remind her of her own survival?’ Rhona said quietly.

Chrissy reached out and took Rhona’s hand, and in that light squeeze Rhona knew she was being reminded that she too was a survivor.

Rhona cleared her throat. ‘There’s something else in the picture.’

‘What am I missing?’

‘Take a look at the chain attached to the tag.’

Chrissy expanded the image.

‘Recognize it?’ Rhona said.

Chrissy shook her head. ‘No. Should I?’

Rhona brought up an image of the necklace they’d found on the clifftop to compare it to and Chrissy’s eyes opened in surprise. ‘The pattern does look similar, but that doesn’t mean it’s from the same chain.’

Rhona nodded. ‘I know. If I could have brought it in, we could have compared them properly.’

There was a moment’s silence while Chrissy considered how all this had come about.

‘You went looking for the Seven girl again? And, by the looks of these pictures, you rifled through her belongings, since I can’t imagine her spreading them out on her groundsheet for you to admire.’

That pretty well summed it up, so Rhona nodded.

‘She’d gone, heading I think for MacLeod’s Tables, although she left the campsite as though she was still staying there. Her food and cooking gear, her sleeping bag and these items were all inside the tent.’

A light dawned in Chrissy’s eye.

‘That’s why you took the dog, in case you needed to follow her scent,’ she said with the hint of an accusation in her voice.

‘Blaze trailed her to the road near Skeabost, where the guy, Archie, who caught me on his drone camera, saw her board the bus for Glendale.’

‘So? She said they were planning on doing survival stuff.’

‘The camp was set up as though she was coming back,’ Rhona said.

‘Well then, she will be. Tomorrow most like.’

Chrissy was talking sense, yet to Rhona’s mind it didn’t ring true.

‘Blaze knew her. I mean really knew her that first time. He was protective of her even then.’

‘Okay. What are you saying?’ Chrissy said.

‘I wondered if that was because she’d been in the clearing he took me to. That it was her blood Blaze detected.’