‘Aye. I wasnae sure who’d be coming with the parcel and he caught my eye, like. So I wandered over. Just in case it was him.’

‘And he had a guitar?’ Chris asked.

‘Aye. Well, guitar case actually. I’m guessing the guitar was inside. Anyway, he said it’d been a wild night and could he bum a fag. I’ve been there myself, ye ken, desperate for a smoke. So I lit one up, took a couple of drags and gave it to him.’

‘And then?’

‘Said thanks, said I was a braw lad and went on his way.’

‘And that’s all you can remember?’

Zac creased his brow. ‘There was one thing,’ he said. ‘Bit odd…’

‘Yes?’

‘He was wearing gloves.’

‘Gloves?’

‘Aye. Thick woolly ones. And I remember thinking it was a bit odd. Height of summer and that.’

Clare sat thinking for a moment. Was there some reason this man stopped to ask Zac for a cigarette? Was this part of a plan to set Zac up by making sure he was in the town the morning Russell Fox was shot? Whether it was or not, they couldn’t ignore it.

‘Would you help us put together a photofit of the man? It might be important.’ She sensed Chris shifting in his seat but she ignored this. ‘Zac?’

He sat back and folded his arms. ‘Strikes me, Inspector, I’ve been put to a hell of a lot of trouble. If I do your photo thingy I’ll probably miss my bus back to Leven.’

Clare raised an eyebrow. ‘Strikes me, Zac, we’re not charging you in connection with the theft of a rather nice BMW.’ She scraped back her chair. ‘You help us with the photofit then we’ll talk about how to get you back to Leven.’

Outside the room Chris said, ‘You want to catch me up?’

Clare stood thinking for a moment. ‘Might be nothing. But, what he said about the man with the guitar…’

‘Guitar case.’

‘That’s my point. Quite big, aren’t they – guitar cases?’

‘And you’re thinking the case could actually… contain a gun?’ Chris said slowly.

‘Chris, it would work. Our sniper has the gun in the guitar case. He knows Zac’s been set up so he wanders by to check Zac’s there, as per the message. Then he goes on his way, safe in the knowledge Zac was in the town around the time Russell Fox was shot. He probably knows Zac would head for the bus station when the parcel bloke doesn’t appear. And we’d see him on the bus station CCTV.’

Chris fell silent for a moment. Then he said, ‘I dunno, Clare. It’s a bit far-fetched. He could just be a bloke with a guitar.’

‘There’s only one way to find out. Let’s get him working on a photofit and see if we can identify our tramp with the guitar.’

Chapter 28