They’d reached the Pier Hotel which sat on the south side of the harbour. Alvis held open the door to the little room, where luckily one of the few tables was free. After the frosty air, the place was snug and warm, which made Rhona suddenly think of Seven somewhere out there on a frozen hillside.

‘What’ll it be?’ Alvis said. ‘I’m having a dram,’ he added by way of encouragement.

‘That’s fine for me.’

Settled with their drinks, Alvis broke the silence. ‘How are your knuckles?’

‘You saw me,’ Rhona said, ‘punching the tree?’

He nodded. ‘I thought you might have been aware of that.’

Rhona contemplated deflection but only briefly. If she was to succeed in convincing Alvis that things had changed, she would have to be honest, so she was.

‘I get flashbacks from the sin-eater case. An exacerbated claustrophobia. The plantation, the closeness of the trees . . .’ She ground to a halt.

‘Were like your prison,’ Alvis nodded. ‘I understand.’

‘It passed. They all pass, but working within a confined space, which I have to do at times, might prove difficult or maybe even impossible,’ Rhona voiced her fears.

There was a moment’s silence before Alvis responded. ‘After the boat with the children, I experienced a similar response. Almost every time I heard a child cry,’ he said, his voice strained. ‘I found myself avoiding places where children might be. Even Marita’s grave, because it lies next to a child’s with an image of the boy on the gravestone.’

‘I didn’t realize,’ Rhona said.

‘No one likes to admit to their failings.’

‘I distrusted my own judgement. I missed so much that I should have spotted.’

‘Blaming yourself for what you didn’t see. What you didn’t do. A feeling we have in common. McNab suffers from it too, I believe. Who doesn’t who works on the front line? The line between life and death. The what might have been.’ Alvis took a sip of his whisky. ‘So, you trust your judgement a little better now?’

‘The girl in the plantation—’ Rhona began.

‘May prove to be the key to all of this,’ Alvis finished for her.

‘You think that too?’

‘When I was out on Raasay, I found myself replaying that scene in the clearing many times, and every time I did, I was even more convinced that she was afraid. That’s why the dog reacted the way that he did.’

Rhona passed Alvis her mobile with the image of the mementos.

‘She had these hanging from the tent roof almost like a talisman.’

Alvis studied them, his face serious. ‘Then I was right to do what I did.’

‘Which was what?’

‘I have some contacts in the Norwegian military. DI Wilson spoke to me after your MOD’s limited help on information regarding Private Galbraith and the missing month.’

‘And?’ Rhona said.