I level my gaze on his face, push the bag with the paper across the table and speak directly at him. ‘That’s concrete. Just check, please.’

‘I’ll run the prints to clear him because frankly Mrs Scott I don’t want you to lose your job over a suspicion.’

‘Thank you. That’s all I wanted.’

The girl at the counter calls Simms’ name and sets the takeaway coffee down on the counter.

He stands and walks over to collect it. I follow him. He takes a sip, then turns back. ‘I’ll call you when we’ve cleared the prints. This is totally unorthodox, but I can see it’s troubling you. I would also add that even if the prints match, as unlikely as that is, it only proves he touched the print-out, not necessarily that he threw the bottle.’

‘But you would know it was him.’

‘We would think it was him, yes. We’d bring him in and talk to him.’ He reaches for the bag. ‘It’s not always easy to pull prints from paper, but I’ll see what I can do. I’ll be in touch.’

•

On the way back to the office my phone rings. It’s an unknown number.

I answer.

‘Margot,’ the voice says. I recognise it immediately by the accent. ‘I’m glad I caught you.’

‘Cormac, how … how did you get this number?’

‘I never would have called,’ he says. ‘It’s an emergency.’

My skin prickles with irritation. ‘I’m hanging up unless you tell me how you got my number?’

‘You called me when I didn’t turn up.’

I had called him, but normally my phone is set to private. ‘I’m going to end this call now and you are going to delete my number.’ I keep my voice even, trying to mask my annoyance.

‘Look I just wanted to talk to someone. My sister has disappeared.’

‘Sorry?’

‘My sister, she’s disappeared, and, well, I thought maybe she had run away or was doing her own thing somewhere, but the man in the alleyway is gone now too. He used to come and go but it’s been days since I’ve seen either of them. Am I imagining this?’ My mind wanders to the scratch on Joe’s neck.

‘Cormac, I can’t counsel you. Go to the police, tell them what you know, give them the description of the man in the alleyway. I shouldn’t tell you this, but we’ve had issues with another client at my clinic. I can’t say anything else but he fits the description.’

‘Right,’ he says. ‘Well, thanks for the heads up. I don’t know what I will do if something has happened to her.’ He pauses. ‘Would you be up for meeting me for a chat. You left in such a rush the other night.’

‘No, Cormac. I can’t meet you.’