“Oh, I’ll want paying back,” Tom said with a broad wink. “I’ve not got where I am by giving owt for nowt. There’s something I want to discuss with you. What you might call a proposition. Something you can help me with.” He looked around and realized there were eager ears all round. He drew Lindsay close and said softly in her ear, “I’ve had a few drinks, so this isn’t the time. Tomorrow, during the first order-paper. There’s a coffee shop about half a mile down the hill from the conference center. Polly’s it’s called. I’ll see you there.” He stepped back. “I’ll see you later, Lindsay. I know we can do business together.”

Jennifer leaned forward with the look of a prospector who’s just spotted the glister of gold. “Did anyone hear him make this arrangement?”

Lindsay shrugged her shoulders. “I suppose someone could have. There were plenty of people around.”

“Can you think of anyone who was particularly close to the pair of you at that time?”

Lindsay closed her eyes and tried to visualize the scene. She could almost smell the smoke and the alcohol, she could picture Union Jack’s unflinching eyes, but the other figures were unidentifiable blurs. Reluctantly, she shook her head again. “I’m sorry. The room wasn’t well lit, and I’d had a few drinks. It was all I could do to concentrate on what Tom was saying.”

Jennifer tapped her pad with her pen. “What I’m far from clear about is why Tom Jack was in your room later that same night when he’d made an arrangement to meet you the following day.”

“You and me both,” Lindsay said. “I haven’t a clue. Maybe he decided that what he had to say to me wouldn’t wait. Or maybe he was on that floor for reasons that were nothing to do with me. After all, there are another dozen or so delegates with rooms there. He might have had an assignation with any one of them.”

“But wasn’t your door locked?” Jennifer asked, with that tone of despairing incredulity that lawyers reserve for clients who appear to be clinically brain dead.

Lindsay shrugged. “Probably not. The lock was really fiddly, so half the time I didn’t bother. I wasn’t the only one who’d been having a problem. It was the main topic of conversation at breakfast on Tuesday once we’d all exhausted Conference Chronicle. I just took to carrying my passport and traveller’s checks around in my bag.”

Jennifer began to look as if she wished she’d stayed in bed and let someone else have the joy of handling Lindsay Gordon’s little problem. She massaged the back of her neck with one hand. “Okay, let’s go back to this ceilidh. What happened after you and Jack had arranged to meet?”