They sat and Clare said, ‘I’ll come to the point, Val…’ Out of the corner of her eye she saw Chris take out his phone and begin tapping at the screen and she wondered what he was doing. She turned back to Val. ‘Do you know a woman called Melanie Fraser?’

Val raised an eyebrow. ‘Nope. Never heard of her.’

‘Samantha Reynolds?’

‘Nope.’

Somewhere distant there was a faint noise, like tinny music. Chris looked up. ‘I think your phone’s ringing,’ he said.

Val regarded him for a few seconds then said, ‘Not mine, sonny. My kitchen window’s open. It’ll be neighbour’s kids in the garden.’

Chris tapped at his phone and the ringing stopped. Then he tapped once more and, after a few seconds, the tinny music began again.

Clare realised what he was doing. ‘I’m sure that’s a phone,’ she said to Val.

She scowled. ‘You lads got a warrant?’

Clare raised an eyebrow. ‘You might want to answer it. Could be urgent.’

Val smiled, showing her teeth, the front ones yellowed with nicotine. ‘Like I say – kids.’

Clare nodded. ‘Okay. How about this: we believe you are involved with supplying women for parties, that you book people like Samantha Reynolds to drive these women to and from parties and that you are paid for doing so.’

Val shrugged. ‘Not me, love.’

‘Do you deny recruiting women to attend parties on a sexual or non-sexual basis?’

Clare’s phone began to ring but she flicked it to silent.

‘Absolutely,’ Val said. ‘I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.’

Chris’s phone began to ring. ‘I’ll just step into the hall to take this,’ he said.

Clare tried again with Val but drew a blank with every question. No, she hadn’t arranged any women for a party on Friday night. No, she didn’t generally do this. No, she hadn’t heard of any of the four men from the Lamond Lodge party and where the fuck was Lamond Lodge anyway?

Chris stepped back into the room and sat down again next to Clare. ‘Val,’ he began, ‘what do you know about a man called Zac Buchanan?’

For the first time since they’d entered the house Val seemed at a loss. Just for a moment. Then she recovered herself. ‘Never heard of him.’

‘Sure?’

Clare glanced at Chris. What was he driving at?

‘You see,’ Chris went on, ‘our lads back at the station have been doing a bit of digging. And it seems your daughter – Lauren, is it?’

Val’s face darkened. ‘You leave my Lauren out of it, sonny,’ she said, an edge to her voice.

‘It seems Zac’s son Leo and Lauren – they were a couple. Is that correct?’

Val glared at Chris. ‘Why you asking?’

Clare said, ‘We’re anxious to get hold of Zac. So if you – or Lauren – could tell us where we might find him.’