‘Special adviser,’ Fox elucidated. So they stayed in the car and Clarke phoned the parliament.

‘Mr Lloyd?’ she checked when the call was answered. ‘I’m Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke. I’d appreciate a few minutes of your time. In person if possible.’ She listened for a moment. ‘We’re not far away, if that helps. Can we meet outside the main entrance? Saves the hassle of security …’

There was a car park alongside the Palace of Holyroodhouse, so they left the Astra there. For a change, no demonstrations were taking place outside the Parliament, and only a few people were around. The security guard at the entrance looked bored, and Clarke didn’t blame him. The young man who appeared through the doors sported a trimmed beard, black-rimmed glasses and a checked shirt. Multiple lanyards swung from his neck, each holding a laminated pass of some kind.

‘Mr Lloyd?’ Clarke held up her warrant card.

‘What’s this about?’

‘Two nights ago, your phone was used to make an emergency call. That phone has since gone missing, is that correct?’

‘Not missing as such, she just didn’t give it back to me.’

‘“She” in this case being the person who actually made the call?’

Lloyd nodded. ‘It’s the murder, isn’t it? You don’t even have to answer, I saw it on the news.’

‘Maybe we can rewind a bit,’ Fox interrupted. ‘Who is this woman?’

‘I didn’t catch her name. I mean, she must have told me, but I’d had a skinful.’

‘So we’re not talking about an acquaintance?’

‘It was a party at a flat on the Shore. In Leith?’

‘We know where the Shore is.’

‘It all got fairly boisterous. Like we’d survived the apocalypse or something. I was dancing with her and then we were drinking in the kitchen and then we were … well …’

‘You didn’t take her back to your place, so I’m assuming you went to hers?’

‘Sort of. I don’t really know.’ He saw that the two detectives were happy to wait in silence for him to clarify. ‘She said she knew a flat we could use and it was walking distance, so off we went.’

‘To Constitution Street?’

Lloyd nodded. ‘When we got there, she unlocked one of those key box things and took the keys out, and that was us inside. I was chatting away – probably too much, knowing me – and then I noticed she wasn’t there any more. She’d disappeared into one of the flats. I started to follow, but she burst out again, grabbed my phone, demanded to know the passcode, and started heading down the stairs like the devil was on her tail.’

‘You didn’t happen to look inside the flat?’ Lloyd shook his head. ‘And just so I’m clear, the flat she came out of wasn’t your intended destination?’