‘I don’t know what I’m doing here,’ the man said. He was English, but not southern English, Perez thought. He thought of Roy Taylor, a colleague who worked out of Inverness. He came originally from Liverpool. Was this man’s voice like Roy’s? Not quite, he decided.

‘We all feel like that sometimes.’

‘Who are you?’

‘Jimmy Perez. I’m a detective. But that’s not why I’m in the Herring House. My friend’s one of the artists.’

‘Herring House?’

‘This place. The gallery. That’s what it’s called.’

The man didn’t respond. It was as if he’d shut down, was lost again in his own grief, as if he’d stopped listening.

‘What’s your name?’ Perez asked.

Again there was no response. A blank stare.

‘Surely there’s no harm in telling me your name.’ He was starting to lose patience. He’d thought this was the night when he could sort things out with Fran. He’d imagined staying at her house. There’d been fantasies which would have shocked the people who knew him, which had shocked him. Cassie would be sleeping at her father’s. Fran had told him this, and that was a good sign, wasn’t it? Usually he found it too easy to be swept up in other people’s emotions. Today he had an incentive to resist this weeping stranger.

The Englishman looked up at him.

‘I don’t know my name,’ he said flatly. No drama now. ‘I can’t remember it. I don’t know my name and I don’t remember why I’m here.’

‘How did you get here? To the Herring House? To Shetland?’

‘I don’t know.’ Now there was an edge of panic in the man’s voice. ‘I can’t remember anything before the painting. That painting of the woman in red hanging on the wall out there. It was as if I was born staring at that painting. As if that’s all I know.’

Perez was starting to wonder if this was some sort of practical joke. It was the kind of prank Sandy would think was funny. Sandy, who came from Whalsay and worked with Perez, had a juvenile sense of humour. The whole team would know the boss was here tonight with the English lady artist and he wouldn’t put it past them to try to wreck his evening. They would think it a great joke.