Chris frowned. ‘Did Bill ever get back to you about that photo from the bus station?’

‘The one we asked the Leven cops to look at?’ Clare looked round the room. ‘I kind of forgot about it. Is Bill here?’

‘Don’t see him,’ Chris said. ‘Must be out on enquiries. Want me to give Leven a call?’

‘Please.’

Chris went to make the call and Clare sat back, thinking. Zac was a known car thief. Usually high-end cars, too. And the speed camera that had clocked the BMW was in Leven. Leven, where Zac had been living since release from prison. But the driver in that photo certainly wasn’t Zac. Was she looking for a link that wasn’t there?

‘We’re getting somewhere at last,’ Chris said, cutting across her thoughts. He sat back down next to Clare. ‘Leven reckon it’s Zac, in the bus station photo.’

‘Can you call it up please, Chris?’

He pulled a computer keyboard across the desk and tapped in his password. A few clicks later, the photo from the bus station filled the screen. ‘That’s our Zac, isn’t it?’

Clare peered at it. The hair was the same, the dark tracky bottoms too. Not that they were uncommon, but there was no mistaking the Adidas jacket with its distinctive three-stripes pattern on the sleeves. ‘Same jacket in the cash machine photo. And I think it’s the one he’s wearing today.’

‘Look at his companion,’ Chris said. ‘See the hair?’ Then he picked up the speed camera photo and held it next to the monitor. ‘That’s our speed merchant.’

Clare nodded slowly. He was right. ‘So Zac and the driver of the stolen car arrived at St Andrews by bus on Friday afternoon.’ She squinted at the other man in the photo. ‘Do Leven know who he is?’

‘Abe McLeod. Another small-time player. Did a stretch for reset of stolen goods around the same time as Zac. They were on the same wing, too.’

‘So they’d know each other,’ Clare said.

‘Definitely.’

‘Any sign of Abe?’

Chris shook his head. ‘Nope. Warrant out for his arrest for the theft of the car but no luck so far. They reckon he’s probably in Edinburgh, now. Easier to slip under the radar in a bigger city. But there would have to be two of them, remember,’ he went on. ‘That BMW’s keyless. They’d need two transmitters to get into the car. One at the car and one outside the house.’

Clare sat back considering this. ‘So Zac and Abe get the bus up to St Andrews together on Friday. Zac uses a cash machine. Maybe they go for a few drinks – wait till it’s dark. Then they head across to Cant Crescent, find the car they’re after and drive it away.’

‘And at some point,’ Chris said, ‘Zac gets out.’