Gloria’s fingers didn’t even falter. “And that’s what I’ll tell you now if you ask properly instead of barging in here like a spoilt child,” she said primly. She stopped typing and ran a hand over her blonde hair, pulled back so tightly that in the light from her desk lamp it looked like it had been painted on.

“She’s looking for Moira, isn’t she?” Tamar raged.

“Why don’t you ask Jett? He’ll tell you anything he wants you

Instead, Tamar, who seemed to have sobered up under the influence of so much adrenaline, pushed past me and went back up the hall at a speed I wouldn’t have believed possible on four-inch stilettos. I threw a vague smile in Gloria’s direction and followed her. The cabaret was worth the trip.

I caught up with Tamar on the threshold of what looked like it had once been a Regency ballroom. The plaster swags were still in place. But everything had been painted gold and black. It would have given the National Trust an apoplexy, or a surfeit, or one of those other things they were always dying of way back then. There were no Regency bucks there tonight, however, just a couple of dozen ageing rockers with a fascinating array of bimbettes on their knees, arms or various other parts of their anatomy. It was hard to tell in the dim light.

Jett was leaning on the gilded mantelpiece, his arm round Kevin in a friendly sort of way. As we approached, I could see the unfocused look of a man who is on his way to being seriously drunk. It was quite an achievement for someone who had been in the studio just over an hour before. It must have been some track he’d just laid down. Tamar landed like a cloudburst on his parade.

“Why didn’t you tell me she was looking for Moira?” she hissed.

Jett turned away from us and stared bleakly at the wall. Tamar grabbed his arm and repeated her question. Kevin quickly moved behind her, gripped her tightly above both elbows and stepped back. She had no choice but to move with him. Using the same grip, he turned her round and frogmarched her out of the door. She was so astonished she didn’t say a word till they were halfway across the room. But then her yells caused less of a stir than a mugging in Moss Side. As far as everyone else was concerned, it was just a bit of good clean fun.

I moved closer to Jett. “You wanted a report,” I said. “I’m making progress. I know where she was a few months ago. By tomorrow night, I should have a current address.”

He turned his head to face me. When I got a whiff of the alcohol