They had reached a small break in the tree cover. Rhona registered the sound of a burn running somewhere close by. A bird rose with a hoarse call that startled her, raising her heartbeat.

As she drew alongside the dog, it turned to lick her hand, whining a little.

‘What is it, boy? What’s wrong?’

Everything, the answering whine told her. Everything about this place is wrong.

‘Show me, Blaze. Show me what you’ve found.’

A worried Jamie met Rhona at the gate. ‘We thought you’d got lost!’

‘No, although Blaze did take me a fair distance into the woods.’

‘Is something wrong?’ Jamie asked, taking note of her perturbed expression.

Rhona didn’t know what to tell him, because she wasn’t sure herself if anything was wrong.

‘I need to speak to Matt and Donald.’

‘They’re in the office.’

‘What’s up?’ Matt looked up from his laptop when Rhona appeared in the doorway.

Rhona got straight to the point. ‘Did someone get hurt recently in the woods?’

‘You mean during an airsoft battle?’ Matt said, with a worried expression. He looked to Donald, who shook his head, as puzzled it seemed by her question as Matt was. ‘We’re dead quiet at the moment. Just one group yesterday. Soldiers on leave. They really went to town, but they all left unhurt. Why?’

‘Blaze took me directly to a spot in the woods he was obviously interested in, just like a police dog would.’

‘He catches game. Might he have killed something up there? He’s dragged me to a couple of places he’s made a kill and buried it for later,’ Donald offered. ‘Oh, come to think of it, he did ask to be let out late last night.’

‘That could be it,’ Rhona said, to ease their concern. ‘But I’d like to come back with my forensic bag. Take a proper look.’ She’d said this almost to herself, then realized that Matt and Donald were looking at her, slack-jawed.

‘Forensic bag?’ Matt repeated, stunned.

Jamie came in then, speaking directly to Rhona. ‘Do you want to talk to Sergeant MacDonald? We could call in at the station on our way back.’

Rhona wasn’t sure she did. ‘I’ll take another look first. Check if it’s human blood.’

‘There was blood?’ Matt repeated, horrified.

Rhona ignored his panicked expression. ‘I’d like to protect the area until tomorrow morning,’ she told him. ‘D’you have a tarpaulin I could use?’

Jamie was silent when they eventually exited the site after stretching and securing the tarpaulin, although Rhona knew he really wanted to question her further. The problem was she had nothing to tell him, nothing concrete anyway. Just an informed feeling about the scene.

‘You really think something bad happened there?’

Rhona tried to make light of it. ‘I think I’m maybe missing my work.’