‘Went to a bar. Met a nice young man. Didn’t feel like coming home.’ The smirk was lazy, done for show.

‘Well, looks like you got out right on time, dintcha?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Your little stunt last night. Down at the building site. They all got themselves arrested right after you left.’

‘What?’

Sammi would play this expression back to herself over and over again in the coming weeks. She might not be Clio’s biggest fan, but she was pretty sure the shock was genuine. However, as Fran and Mark reminded her when they arrived back on bail the next day, Sammi had not been there.

‘Listen, Frances,’ Sammi heard Clio saying, as their voices reached breaking point through the wall, ‘why the fuck would I call the cops on you? On anyone? This was as much my project as yours – why would I want you to get in trouble for it?’

‘Because you don’t like me!’ Fran burst out. ‘You’re always finding ways to put me down. Maybe you wanted to see me punished because of my background – because you secretly hate anyone who wasn’t born all working-fucking-class salt-of-the-earth?’

Clio’s laugh sounded contemptuous. ‘Not liking one person is not a reason to sell a group of friends out in the middle of a project you believe in. Take stock of yourself, woman. Get a fucking grip.’

‘I think Fran’s just maybe pointing out that it’s a bit convenient, Clio, the police showing up just after you’d left the site.’ This was Mark, seemingly all rational.

‘What? By that logic you should blame fucking Xanthe! She actually left the squat for good that day!’

‘Xanthe’s my friend!’ wailed Fran. ‘Xanthe would never do anything to hurt me!’

‘Come on, mateys. I don’t think Clio gonna call the pigs.’ This was Spider now. ‘Not for anything, but certainly not on her comrades. Int that right? Why don’t we all calm down here a bit, eh?’

Sammi rolled onto her side, pulled a pillow over her head and pressed it down on her ear, tuned in to the fast, fast pace of her pulse, and kept her secret for another day.

NEIL

Glasgow, 23 January 2018

‘Tributes have been pouring in for the musician Clio Campbell, who died yesterday …’

Tributes always poured, Neil thought.

The First Minister, douce and sad, said that Clio had been a great talent and was a huge loss to the country.

Shiv West, hair pulled back, no make-up, apparently on her own doorstep, said she was a great friend and a lifelong inspiration.

Jools Holland, looking harried outside a BBC building, said that he was shaken, that she had been one of the truly great voices in folk music, and that she would be missed by everyone on his show.