‘It’s crazy,’ he said. ‘I was queuing for a coffee, and I said to the guy, “Hang on, what’s this that’s playing?” and he said, “It’s a Spotify playlist, why?” I said, “No, this track, it’s Jeanie and the Kat, right?” and the guy just shrugged and passed me the iPhone, and they’re on this, like, curated Spotify playlist, Scottish Indie Rock or something, and I said, “I discovered these girls! I launched ’em!”’

‘The wonders of the modern world,’ Dan said.

‘I rang Katriona straight away, she was on a bloody ferry to Stockholm!’

‘Who’s Katriona?’ Rose-Ann asked, newly alert.

‘The Kat, in Jeanie and the Kat,’ Dan said. ‘Duncan’s protégées.’

‘They’re playing a string of gigs – Stockholm, Gothenburg, Oslo, some other places in the frozen north – and it’s all being managed from his laptop by a guy called Gavin, some bod from a music company who’s looking after the royalties and whatnot.’

‘I told you, Dunc,’ Dan said. ‘It’s all there for the taking these days, easy as pie.’

‘Sweden and Norway,’ Katelin said. ‘Why’s that good?’

‘It hardly matters where you catch your break,’ Duncan said. ‘These streaming services, they don’t recognise international borders, there’s this ripple-out effect, it can just spread like a forest fire, and boom, you’re a global indie sensation,’ and Dan smiled and said, ‘Hark at you, Duncan Lomax.’

‘Hey, are we going to make some money outta these girls?’ Rose-Ann asked, perking up, but Duncan said no, no, they were, the two girls. ‘They’re already picking up royalties, this company collects them, keeps twenty per cent, shoves the rest into Kat’s bank account. They’re cock-a-hoop.’

‘So when you say you launched them,’ Rose-Ann said, ‘it was more that you didn’t launch them?’

There was a brief, uncertain silence, then, ‘Anyone want more beef?’ Katelin asked. She was bored by this conversation, and so, in truth, was Rose-Ann, now she knew they weren’t in fact invested in the career of these cat girls, or whatever they were. Rose-Ann looked at Duncan with a flat, dull gaze, and he didn’t answer.

‘Sorry, mate,’ Dan said. ‘I wish it could’ve been. What about the other dude, the fisherman? And Aztec Camera-take-two?’

‘More beef, anyone?’ Katelin was determined now to wrest the subject away from these tiresome men, who never knew when to stop. ‘More carrots? Potatoes?’