He looked ready to hug her, but she moved away towards the bust. It sat on a low plinth, pillars either side and sandwiched by tables. Siobhan looked all around, but couldn’t see anything.

‘I’ll tip it,’ Grant said. He took hold of Victoria by her head-dress and eased her from the plinth.

‘Excuse me,’ a voice said behind them. ‘Is something the matter?’

Siobhan slid her hand under the bust and drew out a folded sheet of paper. She beamed at Grant, who turned towards the waitress.

‘Two teas, please,’ he instructed her.

‘And two sugars in his,’ Siobhan added.

They sat down at the nearest table. Siobhan held the note by one corner. ‘Think we’d get any prints?’ she asked.

‘Worth a try.’

She got up and walked over to a cutlery tray in the corner, came back with a knife and fork. The waitress nearly dropped their crockery when she saw the customer attempting, as she thought, to dine on a sheet of paper.

Grant took the cups from the waitress and thanked her. Then he turned back to Siobhan. ‘What does it say?’

But Siobhan looked up at the waitress. ‘We found this under there,’ she said, pointing to the bust. The waitress nodded. ‘Any idea how it could have got there?’ The waitress shook her head. She had the look of a small, frightened animal. Grant sought to reassure her.

‘We’re the police,’ he said.

‘Any chance of talking to the manager?’ Siobhan added.

When the waitress had retreated, Grant repeated his earlier question.

‘See for yourself,’ Siobhan said, using the knife and fork to turn the sheet of paper in his direction.

B4 Scots Law sounds dear.

‘Is that it?’ he said.

‘Your eyes are as good as mine.’

He reached up to scratch his head. ‘Not much to go on, is it?’

‘We didn’t have much to go on last time.’

‘We had more than this.’

She watched him stir sugar into his tea. ‘If Quizmaster placed this clue here …’

‘He’s a local?’ Grant guessed

‘Either that or someone local is helping him.’

‘He knows this restaurant,’ Grant said, looking around. ‘Not everyone who ventures in would bother coming upstairs.’

‘You think he might be a regular?’

Grant shrugged. ‘Look at what’s nearby, on George IV Bridge. The Central Library and the National Library. Academics and bookworms are great ones for puzzles.’

‘That’s a good point. The Museum’s not far away either.’

‘And the law courts … and the parliament …’ He smiled. ‘Just for a second there I thought we might be narrowing things down.’

‘Maybe we are,’ she said, lifting her cup as though to make a toast. ‘Here’s to us anyway for solving the first clue.’

‘How many more till we get to Hellbank?’