“I don’t believe you, Billy,” Logan pressed.

“I… I have receipts! I can show you he came in. I can show you!”

“I’m not doubting he came in then. In fact, after a discussion with a colleague of mine, I’m convinced he did come to see you then, and that you did fix his phone for him.”

Billy looked up from his cup. His eyes, red from stress and swollen by the lenses of his glasses, blinked twice. He glanced for just a moment at DCI Filson, but the quality and intensity of her eyeballing quickly proved too much.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

Logan smiled. It was not one designed to put the suspect at ease. Quite the opposite. “We’ll come back to that, Billy,” he said, then he leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “It’s been niggling me since we came to your shop earlier. Something didn’t feel quite right. Felt off. You know what I mean?”

Billy shook his head. “I don’t… I’m not sure…”

“Nor was I. There was nothing obviously wrong with anything you said, exactly. But… I don’t know. Something just niggled. You ever get that, DCI Filson?”

“Something niggling away?” Heather asked, her gaze still drilling its way through Billy’s skull, millimetre by millimetre. “Aye, I’ve experienced that a few times.”

Logan wasted a moment trying to work out if this was some sort of dig at him, but then brushed the thought aside and continued.

“So, it’s niggling me all day, but I’ve no’ got time to think about it too much. Too much on. Too much to do,” Logan explained. “But then, your name comes up in another context, and I give it some more thought. I run back over it. Tick, tick, tick. What you said. How you said it. Trying to find the niggle. Trying to figure it out.”

On the other side of the table, the solicitor made a show of checking her watch. “Is there a point coming here, Detective Chief Inspector?” she asked. “I’m sure we’ve all got homes we’d like to get to at some point tonight.”

Logan ignored her and kept the focus on Billy. “So, two men walk into your shop, identify themselves as polis, then tell you they’ve got some bad news for you. What’s your first reaction, DCI Filson?”

“Concern,” Heather said. “I’d be worried about my family. I’d assume something bad had happened.”

“Sounds like a reasonable reaction,” Logan said. “Would you say it was fair to assume that most people—or even just men in relationships, let’s say—would react in a similar way?”

“Far be it from me to second-guess how men may or may not choose to behave in a relationship,” Heather said. Another dig, more blatant this time. “But I’d say that was a fair assumption to make, yes.”