‘Now listen, young Sam Bailey said the boys over at Dangar put a call through after we left. Andy Jones must have beaten us back up the hill, because he was spotted refuelling his truck in Kippen around lunchtime yesterday,’ Daniel said, looking at his son wrapped up in Bill’s dressing gown. ‘Jamie, if you and I give statements about what happened on Tony’s boat, they may be able to charge him with arson, at least.’

Jamie nodded. Doris had her eyes down like she just couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Yvonne kept looking between everyone.

‘The other stuff is going to be a lot more difficult,’ Daniel said, tapping the file he’d kept in his hand since arriving from the Kippen Police station. ‘There’ll be paperwork. Plenty of it. Doris, you are the next of kin, you and Bill, now that Leanne’s off the scene, and I’ve got the first of it here,’ he added, looking at each of them again. ‘If we want to do right by Tony, we need to act fast.’

Doris piped up first. ‘Don’t show Bill, please,’ she said, looking at her hands. ‘You just tell me what you need us to do, and then I’ll tell him later, in my own way and time. He’s not going to understand any of it at first.’

Daniel was already nodding. His sister-in-law was a tough old bird and she’d always known how to do things right.

‘That’s not a bad idea,’ he said. ‘Tony’s safe where he is for the minute. It’s the investigation we’ve got to get going on, and I’ve already had a chat with the boys. Young Sam will go around to the Joneses’ place today to take statements from Bobby Jones and his dad, about what went on two nights ago at the bridge. Jamie, you need to be ready to tell what you know. Today. Let them come out here and sit with you for an hour and take your statement about all that too, alright?’

His son nodded again, his mouth clamped shut.

But Daniel wanted more. He needed a sign that his son knew he cared, and he reckoned he knew what might cut it.

‘Now about all these other names, Jamie,’ he said. ‘The Fryers moved away long ago, but we’ll look for them. If we can get Mark Beaumont to talk, I reckon I should be able to get a file on the right desk somewhere in the city.’

‘Let me talk to Mark,’ Jamie said. ‘Don’t just call him out of the blue or let anyone in uniform turn up at his door. In some of these cases, it’s the cops who did the bashing.’