Lam smiled, and shared a big grin with Furnell. ‘We did, Harry. Last week. The whole lot.’ He looked very pleased with himself. ‘I can read the tea leaves. And this one is not going to end happily. Not happily at all.’

Harry sat up. ‘You had better tell me what you know.’

‘What I know is that your company is in to Nosh2U, big time. I just wondered how you got the money?’

‘My late father knew the founder. The stake is in the trust. Hardly cost a bean all those years ago.’

‘No no no, Harry. I’m not talking about the stake held by the trust. There’s been fresh buying from you guys in the last few months. That’s what my contacts are telling me.’

Harry just stared at him.

‘How much borrowed money have you sunk into Nosh2U now, Harry? A hundred million? Or is it more?’

The door opened behind them and Morag Fairburn walked in.

‘Ah, here comes the cavalry,’ Johnny said, as he stood to face her. ‘Morag, how are you?’

‘Busy enough not to need these kind of shenanigans,’ she said, exchanging a firm handshake with Lam. She glanced briefly at Harry. ‘Johnny, don’t you think that any offer you have to make should be put in front of the entire board?’

‘Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.’

‘Well, you’ve had your answer then, haven’t you?’ she replied.

Harry cleared his throat and interrupted. ‘Morag, look, it’s not quite as straightforward as that.’

‘What you mean?’ Morag rounded on him.

Lam looked from one to the other, grinning at this apparent breaking of ranks. ‘Are you going to tell her, or should I?’

‘Tell me what?’ Morag said, scowling first at Johnny and then at Harry.

Johnny Lam clicked his fingers, and Furnell heaved the heavy briefcase onto the table, opened the combination lock, then pulled out a wedge of documents. ‘Today is Monday, right? Shares suspended. On Tuesday morning, tomorrow, Nosh2U Plc is going to release this document to the stock market.’ He tapped the printouts.

Harry snatched them up and started scanning through, his eyes flashing rapidly back and forth. ‘What do you mean “accounting errors”?’ he scowled at Lam.

‘Harry, speak to me,’ Morag said. ‘What’s going on?’

He ignored her, and muttered to himself as he leafed through the document. ‘I warned him, I bloody warned him.’ He looked up at Lam. ‘Where did you get this?’

‘Is this about the stake in the trust?’ Morag asked. No one seemed to be listening.

Lam was smirking to himself. ‘The Nosh2U accounts are the biggest work of fiction since War and Peace. It’s been losing money on every single delivery, and borrowing to fill the gap. Those shares could fall by 90 per cent when this gets out, Harry.’

Morag snatched the paperwork from Harry. ‘This can only be about the shares in trust, can’t it, Harry?’

‘No, Morag, it’s worse than that,’ Lam said. ‘Ask Deepak Tripathi.’

‘Deepak? What’s it got to do with him?’ She turned from Lam to Harry. ‘What’s going on, Harry? What haven’t you told me?’ She folded her arms.