Siobhan had a London guidebook, bought for a weekend away which she’d never taken. It took her a while to find it. Meantime Grant booted up the computer and did a search on the Internet.

‘Could be the name of a pub,’ he suggested. ‘Like in EastEnders.’

‘Yes,’ she said, busy reading. ‘Or the Victoria and Albert Museum.’

‘Not forgetting Victoria Station – also on the Victoria Line. There’s a coach station there too. Worst cafeteria in Britain.’

‘You’re speaking from experience?’

‘I bussed it down there a few weekends in my teens. Didn’t like it.’ He was scrolling down some text.

‘Didn’t like the bus or didn’t like London?’

‘Both, I suppose. “Bust” couldn’t mean a drug bust, could it?’

‘Maybe. Or some stock-market crash. There was one not that long back, wasn’t there? Black Monday?’

He nodded.

‘Still, more likely it’s a statue,’ she said. ‘Maybe of Queen Victoria, with a restaurant in front of it.’

They worked in silence for a while after that, until Siobhan’s eyes started to hurt and she got up to make more coffee.

‘Two sugars,’ Grant said.

‘I remember.’ She looked at him, hunched over the computer screen, one knee pumping away. She wanted to say something about the hug … warn him off somehow … but she knew she’d missed her chance.

Bringing the mugs back through from the kitchen, she asked if he’d found anything.

‘Tourist sites,’ he said. He took the mug from her with a nod of thanks.

‘Why London?’ she asked.

‘What do you mean?’ His eyes were still on the screen.

‘I mean, why not somewhere closer to home?’

‘Could be Quizmaster lives in London. We don’t know, do we?’

‘No.’

‘And who’s to say Flip Balfour was the only one playing the game? Something like this, my bet is there’s a website somewhere – or was. Anyone wanting to join in could go there. They wouldn’t all come from Scotland.’

She nodded. ‘I’m just wondering … was Flip bright enough to solve this clue?’

‘Obviously, or she wouldn’t have gone on to the next level.’

‘But maybe this is a new game,’ she said. He turned his head to look at her. ‘Maybe it’s just for us.’

‘If we ever meet the bastard, I’ll be sure to ask him.’

A further half-hour later, Grant was working his way through a list of London restaurants. ‘You wouldn’t believe how many Victoria Roads and Victoria Streets there are in this bloody place, and half of them have restaurants on them.’

He leaned back, straightening his spine. The energy seemed to have leached out of him.

‘And that’s before we start looking at pubs.’ Siobhan ran her fingers through her hair, pulling it back tight from her forehead. ‘It’s too …’

‘What?’

‘The first bit of the clue was clever. But this … this is just looking at lists. Does he expect us to go to London, visit every chip shop and café in the hope of finding Queen Victoria’s bust?’