Fox showed him the way and waited in the hallway by the front door. He wondered if it was too late to call Clarke and share the news of the man called Crosbie. He decided it probably was. He had someone he was due to see tomorrow, and he planned to take Clarke with him. He could tell her then. He took out his phone and checked there were no texts. The person he’d arranged to visit had got cold feet several times in the past. So far so good, though.

He heard the cistern flush, the taps run, and then the toilet door click open. Not everyone would have bothered locking it in the first place, but then Geoff Dickinson was the cautious type. It came with the territory.

He was rubbing his hands together as he emerged. ‘Time to saddle up,’ he said. ‘I swear there are nights I’d be as well parking up and sleeping behind the wheel.’ He studied Fox again. ‘Might be one of the pitfalls of that promotion that’s in your future.’

‘No pitfall,’ Fox said, pulling back his shoulders.

‘At ease, soldier,’ Dickinson said with a smile.

Morris Gerald Cafferty had his phone held out in front of him as he sat by his telescope. He was dressed in his pyjamas and watching – by no means for the first time – the snippet of video Andrew had forwarded to him. It showed Clarke and Fox and some cops from Tynecastle police station. They were outside Gaby Mackenzie’s club. It was impossible to make out most of what was being said. The voices of others in the queue closer to the phone were too loud. Cafferty, not too long after they’d met, had told Andrew always to follow the money, and Andrew had taken the advice to heart. In fact, he’d gone further – he just liked following people full stop. Once or twice, peering through the telescope towards the Meadows, the young man had spotted someone he fancied the look of, for whatever reason. He’d then dashed out and started trailing them. Later, he would report back, now knowing where they lived, or where they met friends, or where they shopped. And that, seemingly, was enough for him, his itch scratched until the next time.