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“Robyn?”
I recognised Pam’s voice from our phone call.
“Hi. It’s good to finally meet you.”
“You too. Come and sit down. You must be hungry.”
She led me to a reserved table by the window with a gorgeous view of the loch.
“Did you have a good journey?” she asked.
“Yes. Joseph hasn’t told me where we’re going, though.”
“I asked him not to.”
“Why?”
A waitress came to our table before she could answer. I ordered a tea and a baked potato with cheese and beans, deciding that comfort food was what I needed to deal with all the suspense.
Pam already had a coffee in front of her, although she didn’t seem to have touched it.
“Your match is in an unusual situation,” she said once we were alone again.
“Is that why he couldn’t meet me in Glasgow?”
“Yes.”
“Is he ill?”
“You’re a nurse, aren’t you? I’m not surprised that’s the first thing you think of. But no, not exactly.”
That didn’t sound reassuring.
Pam folded her hands on the table. “A few weeks ago, one of our clients found a man he believes is his best friend. They’ve been separated for a very long time. As he found his match through us, he asked me to do the same for his friend.”
“And you think he’s my match?”
“Your test results suggest that he might be.”
“Suggest?”
Pam sighed. “Usually, our accuracy rate is almost 100%. Our algorithms have been trained on thousands of samples and we find new matches every single day. However, these two men are a little different. We’re not sure if our system works for them. Personally, I believe it will eventually, but we’ve not been able to feed it with enough data.”
“Different?” I repeated.
“I know I’m being frustratingly vague, but there’s a reason for it. It’ll make more sense when we get there.”
Our food arrived. Pam waited until the waitress had walked away before continuing.
“I know this must sound strange. You don’t have to go any further if you don’t want to. Joseph can take you to the hotel, or drive you home.”
“Where is this man?”
“Kilchurn Castle.”
I stopped with my fork halfway to my mouth.
“Why? Why is he in a ruined castle rather than joining us here for lunch?”
