‘So what do you plan to do now?’ he said.

‘Take some photographs and samples. Examine his clothing,’ Rhona told him. ‘And write up my findings in my notebook, as usual.’

‘In here?’ he said, aghast.

Rhona pointed at a nearby chair. ‘Over there.’

‘I forgot about your creepy side, Dr MacLeod.’

‘Why don’t you get yourself a coffee and check back with Portree?’ Rhona suggested. ‘I’ll text you Jamie’s number and you can ask him what you want to know.’

Now alone, Rhona set about her task. Assuming Peter Galbraith had agreed to the voluntary collection of his DNA, there shouldn’t be much difficulty in getting the MOD to allow them to check it against the climber, since the whole idea for storing the DNA of personnel was to allow the identification of remains.

What they couldn’t do was use the MOD database for interrogation purposes with respect to a crime.

Alvis had viewed the group in the pub, but for the most part from a distance. Donald had briefly encountered one of them in the toilet. Bringing Alvis with them this morning would have been useful, but any attempts she’d made to contact him on Raasay had been unsuccessful so far. As for Donald, she could at least show him the image of Private Peter Galbraith and establish that he had been one of the medics that had stayed in the hotel.

If they could only locate all the members of the team, she thought, then the mystery could be solved. From the silence since they’d departed Portree, that obviously hadn’t happened yet.

Seven might be somewhere on the Duirinish Peninsula, because of Archie’s sighting of her getting on the bus for Glendale. Although she may have switched buses at Dunvegan and headed east instead. As for the others . . .

Rhona finished what she was doing and, leaving the mortuary, went to look for McNab. Reporting that she’d finished and that the body could now be sent to Glasgow, Rhona asked if the dark-haired girl had any idea where Detective Sergeant McNab was.

Smiling prettily, she said that the detective had left a message to say he would meet Dr MacLeod in the first coffee shop he came to. ‘He’ll send you a text when he gets there,’ she added.

By the young woman’s star-struck expression, Rhona had to assume that McNab had played the charm card during their exchange. Once outside, Rhona checked her mobile to find McNab was just down the road in Cafe Sia.

By his expression on entry, McNab’s earlier mood had definitely brightened.

‘Good news?’ Rhona said.

‘Ellie hasn’t dumped me.’

‘And she was planning to?’

‘It’s a long story,’ McNab told her, ‘and not a pretty one.’