They’d left the houses behind now and were heading for the Queensferry Crossing.

‘Maybe Russell wanted advice from someone he wasn’t so close to,’ Chris said. ‘Fellow businessman – that kind of thing. Who knows?’

‘Okay. So Gaby and Luke are away at the wedding.’

‘Can you be sure they were there? Early Saturday morning, I mean?’ Chris said. ‘You’ve only got their word for it they stayed Friday night at the hotel.’

‘Good point, Chris. I’ll get someone on to checking that. We can’t take anything for granted.’

‘Okay, then we have the three friends,’ Chris said. ‘Steve Christie spends the night with Melanie Fraser and she gives him an alibi. But he is the only one with a link to firearms.’

‘Albeit a few years back,’ Clare said.

‘Once a thug, always a thug.’

‘Gawd, I hope not.’

They were approaching the bridge now and Chris slowed to join a queue of cars.

‘Doug Gerrard and Eamon Ferry have no precons,’ Clare said, ‘and, from what we can tell, none of the three has a motive.’

‘I’ll tell you what we’ve not considered.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Who else benefits from Russell Fox’s death? We know Gaby inherits the money, but could he have an estranged wife tucked away somewhere? Kids? Anyone who could potentially contest the will?’

Clare nodded. ‘Good point.’ She fished out her notepad and scribbled this down to check later. ‘Then,’ she continued, ‘we have a minibus with a driver and five women probably booked by Val Docherty. Samantha Reynolds, the driver, remains in the house for the evening.’

‘Samantha drives four of them home,’ Chris said, ‘around two, we think, and Melanie Fraser stays, spending the night in Steve Christie’s room.’

‘And then there’s Mark Mooney,’ Clare added. ‘He leaves his post around eleven at night for a quickie round the back of the house.’

They had crossed the river Forth now and the sun which had been so bright all day passed behind a cloud. ‘Going to rain tonight,’ Chris said.

‘Yeah, I saw that. Ach, we’ve had a good run of weather. Anyway, while Mark Mooney is otherwise engaged, an unknown person could have climbed the fence and slipped into the house.’

‘We can’t be sure about that,’ Chris said.

‘I know. But it would have been easy enough for someone to wait in the bushes, see him head off round the back then slip into the grounds. And if Russell and co were partying hard he could easily have nipped into the house and up to that room at the top – bide his time until Russell appeared in the morning.’

‘So Russell Fox was killed by person or persons unknown,’ Chris said.

Clare was silent for a moment. Then she said, ‘It looks that way. The question is who? And how did he know Russell would be up on the walkway the next morning?’

Chapter 20