And then, just as he got back in the minibus, he saw him: a man walking on the opposite bank of the river, a mobile to his ear. Scope squinted to see him better. The man was in profile and a good fifty yards away but, even from this distance, Scope could tell he wasn’t a local. Wanting to get a better look at him, he reached into the glove compartment and rummaged round until he found a pair of binoculars that Jock liked to use for birdwatching.

The man had his back to Scope now as he mounted a flight of steps on the other side of the bridge, but as he reached the top and climbed into a four-by-four that was illegally parked on the side of the road, his face came back into view again, and Scope noticed two things. One, he was using a satellite phone rather than a mobile, which was extremely unusual in these parts, and two, he had two faded scars, which looked like knife wounds, on his face.

Scope watched him drive away, wondering who he was, because there was something about him he didn’t like.

He put the binoculars away and, as he picked up the mobile, it rang in his hand.

It was the office and he smiled at his own paranoia. Bad things didn’t happen up here in this stretch of the Highlands. It was one of the reasons he was here.

‘Hey Jock, I’ve been trying to get hold of you. The canoeists haven’t turned up.’

‘That’s why I’m calling,’ said Jock. ‘They came out early.’

‘Where?’

‘Down near Cawler Rapids. Can you get back here?’

Scope frowned. ‘Are you all right, Jock? You don’t sound too good.’ He didn’t. His words were being delivered slowly and with effort, as if he was in pain. Scope knew he’d had some trouble with his heart a couple of years back, and he had to watch his health.

‘I’m okay, but I need some help here. Now.’

‘But what about the canoeists?’

‘They’re here. We’ll get the canoes later.’

‘They’re all right, though?’

‘Yeah. Fine.’ It was clear he wanted to get off the phone.

‘Sure,’ said Scope, wondering what was wrong with him. ‘I’m on my way.’

Eighteen

THE RECEIVER FELL from Jock Calvey’s hand, and the intruder replaced it in its cradle on the desk.

‘How long will it take him to get back here?’ the intruder demanded in a thick Middle Eastern accent.

‘Fifteen minutes,’ whispered Jock. He felt sick. He’d tried so hard not to betray Scope. The man was a friend more than an employee. Scope didn’t give a lot away in conversations, and Jock could tell he had a past that was tinged with tragedy, but he was a good man – the type who would do anything for you if it was within his power. And now he was bringing him here to his death.

In a life spent entirely as part of a small, close-knit rural community, Jock had never been in a situation anything like as terrifying as this; never once thought that violence would come knocking on his door as it had done today.

‘You did the right thing. And now your family are protected. That is good, yes?’

The intruder was smiling, looking pleased with himself. He’d been smiling when he’d arrived at the office too, trying to look friendly as he pointed to an Ordnance Survey map in his hand, but straight away Jock hadn’t liked the look of him. The smile looked fake. And it had been. As soon as he’d opened the door, the intruder had punched him hard in the face, knocking him over.

Jock wasn’t a big man, and at 64 his best years were a good way behind him, so he’d been in no state to resist as the intruder had dragged him to his feet, holding him with one hand while punching him in the face and gut with the other – the whole time never making a sound. Finally, he’d been flung back down in his office chair, and the intruder had handcuffed him by the wrist to one of the chair legs so that he was sitting at an extremely uncomfortable angle. The whole thing had lasted barely twenty seconds.

And then the questions had started. Who else was here? Who else had he hired canoes to today, aside from the family with the two girls? Who was meant to be picking them up at the other end of their trip?

Jock had no idea why he could possibly want all this information. And he certainly couldn’t imagine what anyone could want with Tim and Jean Robinson, and the two girls with them. The little blonde one reminded him of an older version of his only grandchild, Grace, and he prayed nothing had happened to her. She’d seemed so sweet and full of life.

Although Jock was in no state to mount physical resistance, he was a lot tougher inside than he looked, and at first he refused to answer the questions, telling the intruder to take what he wanted but leave him alone, silently thanking God that his daughter and his granddaughter weren’t visiting, and that, whatever happened, he was the only one who was going to get harmed.

But his bravery hadn’t worked. The intruder had produced a knife. And that was when the torture had begun.

Jock felt faint now. His left thumb was missing, as was part of his right ear. His nose had been slit down the middle, and it was still dripping blood down his chin and onto his throat. The pain from his nose was excruciating, much worse than from his ear and the jagged stump where his thumb had been, but it hadn’t been this that had made him betray Scope, a man he’d been determined to protect if he possibly could. It was when the intruder had picked up the photo of Grace, taken by Jock himself on her fourth birthday, that he knew it was over. The bastard had smashed the photo on the floor and told him calmly and matter-of-factly that he worked for a large organization full of men as heartless as him, and it would only be a matter of time before they found his granddaughter and cut her head off. Unless Jock started answering the questions fully and frankly, that was exactly what was going to happen, he explained, while all the time grinding the ruined photo into the floor with his boot.

The terrible thing was, sitting there in the little office he’d always loved so much, with its view out to the river, Jock had known that whether the man was telling the truth or not, he simply couldn’t risk anything happening to Grace, or to his daughter, Mary, who was bringing her up alone.

So he’d told the intruder everything. And now, by phoning Scope and getting him to come back here, it looked as if he’d condemned an innocent man to death.

Jock looked up at the intruder. He was a young man, early thirties at most, not even that bad looking if you ignored the coldness of his features, and yet there was a blackness in his heart that seemed to have come straight from Hell. Jock knew, just as he’d known right from the beginning of the attack, that he was going to die. His time had almost come two years ago when he’d had a massive heart attack while sitting at the bar of The Farmer’s Arms. He’d been revived then by a junior doctor – up from Glasgow on a walking holiday – who’d been in the pub at the time, and ever since he’d appreciated every day that God gave him.

And now those days had come to a sudden and bloody end, and Jock felt an overwhelming sense of loss.

The intruder looked back at him. He was smiling, the knife still in his hand.

Jock thought about begging for his life. But he knew it would do no good. In twenty minutes he’d learned a great deal about the evil that existed in the hearts of certain men.

Instead he closed his eyes and prayed the end would be quick.

Nineteen

Today 17.44

IT WAS BEGINNING to get dark and Scope was on his guard as he drove through the open gate into the yard and parked next to Jock’s battered old Nissan Micra.

The office of Calvey Canoe Hire was a wooden, single-storey extension sticking out from the front of Jock’s rambling brick cottage. The light was on but Jock wasn’t sitting at his desk, which was unusual, given that he wasn’t in the yard either. But the lights were on in the cottage and Scope remembered that he hadn’t sounded too good, so maybe he’d gone back inside to rest.