‘Someone’s reported seeing Archie with Watson?’ She repeated Lee’s announcement to make certain she’d heard him correctly. ‘How did they know it was Archie?’ she said.

‘The description matches Archie perfectly. Down to the drone. He’s a distinctive figure,’ Lee said.

‘And Watson?’

‘Same. Even down to the facial features which we now know.’

‘And Archie was alone with Watson? On the clifftop?’ Chrissy said.

‘Yes. According to the witness, a tourist, who’s now left Skye.’

‘How did he know Archie?’ Rhona said.

‘Met him when he was working his drone, got talking to him about the scenic images he took. Was following the police Twitter feed and saw the call-out for any sightings of Watson in the area near Kilt Rock.’

Rhona fell silent. Archie had been honest about his hatred of the so-called Snowman. Even to the point of wishing the drug pusher dead. Why do that if he’d met him on the cliffs? It didn’t make sense.

‘You’ll bring Archie in?’ Chrissy asked.

‘Have to,’ Lee said, his concern at this showing.

‘Is there any footage of this meeting?’

‘The tourist says no.’

‘Who is this guy?’ Chrissy demanded. ‘Can he be brought in for questioning?’

‘We’ll have to find him first.’

‘It’s too convenient,’ Rhona came in then. ‘We still don’t know the names of the other medics and now we don’t know the identity of a possible witness.’ She looked to Janice. ‘Everyone associated with this case is like a cipher.’

‘True, but an anonymous call doesn’t mean a witness is lying,’ Janice said. ‘Most folk want to help the police. They just don’t want to get involved and end up having to go to court.’

‘When exactly did this tourist see them together?’ Rhona said.

‘Mid-afternoon on the day we think he went over the edge,’ Lee said. ‘Archie was using his drone to take footage of the cliffs, apparently.’

‘And Archie never mentioned this in his interview?’

Lee shook his head.

Whatever way Rhona looked at the scenario, it didn’t ring true. Though, if they’d already written Archie out of the equation, then they would dismiss a sighting like this. There was a danger in only paying attention to evidence which matched the current interpretation of events.

‘Can we trace that call at all?’

‘We can try,’ Lee said doubtfully.

‘We should also check Archie’s footprints against those Chrissy collected from the clifftop,’ Rhona said.

‘Agreed.’ Lee looked to Janice. ‘I called Archie as soon as the message came in. He’ll be here shortly.’

Rhona thought of McNab’s fury yesterday when he’d spotted her comparing notes with Donald and Jamie. His annoyance at how close the police and the public had become on the case. How he’d pointed out that either man might yet turn out to be a suspect. Something Rhona had immediately dismissed.