He was obviously being a lot more fastidious in his search than I was, though the fact that he hadn’t contacted me on the mobile meant he’d drawn a blank. After meeting Katharine, I ignored everything else and headed straight for the semi-ruined building. It was two days since she’d been out here. I wondered if the stock of whisky was still buried in the mill. If we were lucky, we might even find its owners in residence. The prospect of catching Katharine’s ex-boyfriend drove me forward. The track veered towards the Water of Leith and I could hear its shallow stream trickling away behind a screen of dust-covered bushes to the right. Katharine stopped and sniffed the air. The crows were having a momentary break from choir practice. “Do you smell what I smell?” she asked, giving me a dubious glance. I breathed in and got a faint whiff of something sweet and sickly that immediately made the hairs on my neck rise. “Oh, oh.” I watched as an inky-black bird lifted off from the crumbling wall in a clearing ahead of us.
