‘Piece of cake. Couldn’t have been easier.’ He handed me the Skoda key, now missing the small, flat, circular NeverLoseIt tag from the centre of the attached key ring. ‘Didn’t even have to force his locker. I just pushed the tag through a convenient tiny tear in the linin’ of his overcoat, which he’d helpfully left hangin’ on a peg next to it. He’s very unlikely ever to find it.’

I didn’t ask if Chico had caused the convenient tiny tear in the lining himself. I didn’t care, but I would have to buy Marina a replacement tag.

‘Good. Then we can just let him go. No need to follow. We’ll find out where he’s gone later.’

‘Is it true?’ Chico said. ‘That stuff about you givin’ a package to your solicitor?’

I smiled at him. ‘No, but he’s not to know that, and maybe it would be a good idea to do that anyway.’ Not that I had a friendly solicitor to ask.

We gave Valance another five minutes or so before Chico and I went into the changing room. There was no sign of him.

‘Right,’ I said. ‘Let’s get going.’

We changed into our outdoor clothes and went back to the Skoda. I still looked both ways to make sure that Valance’s goons weren’t waiting for me. Would my warning to leave me alone actually work, or would it make him more determined not to, as it would have done for me?

‘So what now?’ Chico asked when we were back in the car.

‘First, let’s find out where Valance has gone.’

‘His home, I expect.’

‘I hope so. I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to find out where he lives.’

I switched my phone from my own ID to Marina’s, turned on the NeverLoseIt app and selected her tag. Immediately the screen showed a map with the position of it indicated by a small blue circle. The circle was on the move, towards the south-east.

As we watched, the little blue dot doubled back twice, and also went three times completely round the Prince of Wales Roundabout on the A61.

‘He’s trying to make sure he’s not being followed,’ I said with a laugh.

I gave the phone to Chico to hold, while I drove.

After negotiating the one-way system in the town centre, we also took the A61 southeast.

‘He’s stopped,’ Chico said.

Finding him was even easier than I thought. The app even gave us audible directions.

‘Turn left onto Hookstone Road,’ said a disembodied female voice from my phone.

I did as I was told.

‘In two hundred yards, turn left into Oatlands Drive.’

I did that too.

‘In eighty yards, turn left into Park Edge.’

I turned left once more.

‘Your NeverLoseIt is one hundred yards on your left side.’

I drove down Park Edge, a quiet suburban cul-de-sac of very expensive and stylish residences.