‘Don’t say that about her! It wasn’t like that. I just want to know if she’s okay; she seemed like a frightened rabbit caught in the headlights when she ran off. I just want to make sure she got home okay, that’s all.’ Tony seemed angry at Jake’s suggestion that the woman had been ‘easy’; he put his mug down and started to walk towards the bathroom.

Jake watched him go; he would try and find out who this mystery woman was, but even he knew it was futile. They would all have been drunk; why would they notice anyone having a bit of hanky-panky, outside? Then it struck him. Oh no, he wouldn’t have to go searching for her, she would come to them. This encounter was going to be another ‘kiss and tell’ story for the newspapers! ‘My night of passion with Tony Lambrianu’ – Jake could just see the headlines now.

Jake stood up, straightened his leather jacket and walked towards the closed bathroom door. He could hear the shower was running, but shouted through anyway, ‘I’m going to go and see that publican before he opens, see you later.’

John was outside polishing the car. Jake walked up to him. ‘Hi, John,’ he said, ‘I’ve got to pop to that pub you went to last night with Tony. Any chance of a lift?’ Jake had his own car around the corner, but he wanted to go with John in case he could shed any light on the previous evening’s events.

‘Did Tony seem okay last night when he left the pub?’ Jake tried skirting around the subject as best as he could. ‘I hear there was some misunderstanding with a woman or something?’ He knew it sounded vague but he wanted to get to the bottom of it.

‘Well, between you and me, Jake, he seemed a bit flustered when he got back to the car. He did ask if I had seen a woman, which I had briefly, but I didn’t pay much attention to her. There were loads of people milling around, shouting to each other.’

At last, Jake thought to himself, he had a lead. If John recognised what she was wearing or even knew her, that would be a start, and maybe he could stop her spreading gossip about Tony and making herself a small fortune while doing it.

‘Would you recognise her again? Did you notice what she was wearing?’ Jake waited with bated breath.

‘No. All I saw was some woman running out of the dark; she hailed a cab and jumped in the back of it. I never took any notice until Tony came out asking about her. Why? Is it important?’

Jake shook his head.

He had the same conversation with the publican, and it all came to a dead end. Apparently, Tony was at the bar one minute, having a drink, then he declined another one and just disappeared. The publican did go out of his way to remind Jake what Tony had said about the payments.