Rhona knew Donald was trying to lighten the tension, which didn’t make it any easier to turn him down.

‘Thanks. But I’d rather pick up the jeep first and head down there myself.’

‘Fair enough.’ Donald nodded, having suspected, Rhona thought, that that would be her answer.

The site eventually appeared in the headlights. As soon as Donald eased the vehicle into the car park, Matt appeared at the door of the container and waved at them to come inside.

‘Can you explain to Matt?’ Rhona said to Donald, heading instead to the jeep. ‘I should get this stuff to the police station.’

Rhona felt bad about abandoning Matt and Donald without further explanation, but the same would have happened at the discovery of any potential crime scene. Her responsibility was to report her findings to the police and let them decide how it should be handled.

13

Portree was huddled under a laden sky. As she approached, a shaft of lightning split the dense rain clouds, followed swiftly by a thunderclap. Around her, house lights went off, suggesting the power surge had flipped a few trip switches.

The rain turned to hailstones cracking against the bonnet and roof of the jeep as she drew into Somerled Square. The Isles Inn too had had a power outage, although the image of flickering lights suggested candles were being lit.

As she parked, she noted the presence of Alvis’s vehicle, covered now in ice pellets. Wherever he’d walked today, she was relieved to see he was safely back. Emerging from the vehicle, Rhona made a dash for the police station even as its own lights flashed back on.

Entering the station, it was obvious by the moans around laptops that in the few seconds between the power going off and the backup generator kicking in, a few folk had lost whatever they’d been typing.

The desk duty officer tried to speak to her but was suddenly drowned out by a bellow of thunder directly overhead.

‘Sergeant MacDonald in?’ Rhona shouted back.

He nodded and waved her through.

Lee looked up from his laptop as she entered. ‘Rhona, you’re brave venturing out in this.’ He glanced at the full backpack. ‘Ah,’ he said.

‘Alvis told you what I was planning?’ Rhona said.

‘He came by last night.’

From Alvis’s expression as he’d left, Rhona had suspected that was exactly what he would do. She didn’t blame him for that. Had their positions been reversed, she might well have done the same.

‘I bet McNab called?’ she said.

When Lee gave an apologetic nod, Rhona laughed.

‘And I thought I could get away from it all if I came to Skye.’

‘You should have known better,’ Lee offered.

‘Well,’ Rhona said. ‘Someone was definitely injured.’