Page 57 of A Scottish Island Summer

‘How have your tours been going recently, Rob?’ called out Logan, producing a pair of binoculars from his rucksack stowed under the opposite bench to mine. He studied the horizon through them.

‘Aye, all in all, good, thanks,’ belted out Robbie over the engine noise. ‘Managing to keep the wolf from the door.’ Then he frowned. ‘Had a bit of a weird one the other day, though.’

‘Oh?’ Logan squinted back over his shoulder.

Robbie reached up one hand and ruffled his messy crown of hair. ‘It was a bit of a lean day on Tuesday. In the afternoon, I ended up having only one passenger. Bit of an oddball.’ He let out a low laugh, as Logan continued to gaze through his binoculars and I took some more video on my camera. The seal popped up like a bobbing top, before vanishing again. Acqua hide and seek.

I smiled.

‘Oddball?’ asked Logan. ‘The joys of working with the public.’ He grinned round at Robbie. ‘It wasn’t Mrs Forsyth and her cat again, was it?’

‘No, had her and Lothario last week.’

‘A woman brought her cat on one of your boat trips?’ I asked, puzzled.

‘Oh aye. She brings him out every so often for a wee treat and a whirl round the Coral Beach.’

Logan grinned over at me. ‘He pays half price.’

I laughed and shook my head.

‘Anyway, this guy tourist I had was on his own. I didn’t recognise him, so don’t think he’s local. Didn’t seem the slightest bit interested in our wildlife, though,’ Robbie continued as he angled the boat more to the right with practised ease. ‘Don’t know why he bothered booking a trip with me, to be honest. I was being my usual entertaining and informative self but it was wasted on him.’

‘Oh, I’m sure you were.’ Logan smiled, scanning the water with his binoculars.

‘Definitely never seen him before,’ carried on Robbie. ‘He looked like one of those fellas out of ZZ Top.’

Logan suddenly lowered his binoculars. ‘You said you didn’t recognise him?’

‘Nope. Never seen him before.’

‘And he had a beard?’

‘Oh, aye. And then some. Jet black it was.’

Logan shot me a look across the boat. ‘Well spoken?’

‘Sorry?’ asked Robbie, looking confused.

‘This man you’re talking about, he was well spoken?’

Robbie nodded. ‘Yep. Sounded rather posh.’

Logan’s expression was curious. ‘Did he talk to you much, Rob?’

Robbie guffawed as he angled the boat again. ‘Are you joking?! I couldn’t shut him up. Not about the seals or the dolphins though. He couldn’t have cared less about those.’

I could see the wheels turning in Logan’s mind. Was this the same bearded man who had been lurking around Logan’s shop? It sounded like it.

Logan abandoned his binoculars down by his side. ‘What did he talk to you about then?’

Robbie scrunched up his nose in concentration for a few seconds. ‘He kept rabbiting on about that Skye Lovers’ Cross thing, asking me what I knew about it, where I thought it might be, did I think it existed.’

Logan’s light eyes were on the verge of falling out of his face.

‘The chappie was also very keen to talk about Skye’s connection to the Vikings.’

I examined Logan’s preoccupied expression. I could tell he was thinking the same as me. ‘You think this is the same guy who was hanging around your shop and who we saw on the Coral Beach yesterday, don’t you?’