‘Who said I want anything?’

‘I think I just did.’

‘Well, now that you mention it …’

‘Hang on, let me find my mug.’

‘Home or office?’

‘Still at MIT. I had a meeting with Gina Hendry earlier.’

Rebus took a sip of his drink. ‘I think I’ve found part of the reason Francis Haggard could afford the good life.’

‘He was on the take,’ Clarke stated.

‘On top of that, though.’

‘So tell me.’

‘I can’t go into details yet, but I do have something for you – Chris Agnew.’

‘What about him?’

‘He had a bit of a barney earlier with Rob Driscoll.’

‘You’ve been hanging out with Tynecastle?’

‘Maybe I happened to stumble into them.’

‘Well, isn’t that just great?’

‘I never liked it, you know.’

‘What?’

‘The way I was held up as something they should aspire to.’

There was a sharp burst of laughter in his ear. ‘Oh, I think you did, John. I think you lapped it up. You forget how long I worked with you and saw you in action trading on that reputation of yours.’

‘Maybe you’ve a point,’ he eventually conceded. ‘But only because it worked. I collected a few scalps, didn’t I?’

‘And didn’t they look fetching, draped around your neck?’ The silence stretched between them until she sighed. ‘Chris Agnew, you say?’

‘Not Haggard’s biggest fan, according to Driscoll.’

‘I don’t think Haggard had many cheerleaders at Tynecastle.’

‘This seems to go back further though, something more personal.’

‘Meaning what?’

‘The widow, maybe?’

‘Playing away from home? I get no whiff of that at all.’

‘Maybe the sister, then? The two are close, right?’

‘Absolutely.’ Clarke paused. ‘Though Gina did mention a bit of friction.’

‘If there is a connection between Agnew and one of them, and then Haggard gets violent against Cheryl …’

‘Violent against both of them, actually. When he shoved his way into Stephanie’s house, he ended up jabbing a finger at her. She reckons he was warning her that worse was to come.’

‘But worse didn’t come, did it? Instead, he ended up in the mortuary.’

The silence stretched again until Clarke broke it.

‘Is this Tynecastle’s doing? Pushing for a domestic so we stop digging into stuff they need kept hidden?’

‘By sacrificing one of their own? How does that make sense?’

‘Because they’re not so much a crew as a pack of wolves – leave the weak and the wounded behind; always look out for number one.’

‘This is me, Siobhan. Telling you what I saw and heard.’

‘So tell me how Haggard came by all that cash.’

‘Not yet.’

‘You could be put on a charge for obstruction.’

‘Well, that would definitely loosen my tongue.’

‘I’ll bet.’ She gave another sigh.

‘Still working your way through the Complaints files?’

‘There’s a good reason no action’s ever been taken.’

‘Lack of corroborating evidence?’

‘There are times I hate Scots law.’