McNab had no difficulty threading through the throng as they all stepped back to avoid him.

‘Ladies,’ he said cheerfully. ‘Sorry I’m late. And that I’m very wet.’ He halted there, adopting a worried expression. ‘I am still allowed to refer to you as ladies?’

‘Fuck off, McNab,’ Janice told him with a grin. ‘How’d it go with J. D.?’

‘I spoke to Karen alone. She gave me the diary. She’s staying with Smart until she feels better,’ McNab summed it up in three sentences, before turning to Rhona. ‘We need to have words about the jumper, Dr MacLeod. And soon.’

At this point, Paula returned. Rhona watched as Paula and McNab realized who they each were, while Janice winked at Rhona.

‘So,’ said Chrissy, ‘Paula . . . McNab. McNab . . . Paula.’

‘Don’t I get a first name?’ McNab said.

‘You have one?’ Janice retorted, her expression astonished.

‘Yes,’ Chrissy said, ‘it’s Michael. My wee boy’s named after him.’

Paula looked taken aback at this, glancing between them, the question Is he McNab’s? etched on her face.

‘He’s not the father,’ Chrissy put her right. ‘I’m one female he hasn’t bedded.’

‘Hey,’ Janice intervened. ‘Not the only one.’

Rhona kept her mouth shut, as did McNab. And they did so without looking at one another.

Chrissy explained further. ‘McNab saved wee Michael’s life before he was born.’

‘I’ll tell you the story later,’ Janice promised Paula.

‘I’m delighted to meet you, Paula,’ McNab said. ‘And when I get a drink, I’d be happy to toast the pair of you.’

‘So where’s Ellie?’ Rhona enquired when McNab arrived back with more drinks for everyone.

He shrugged his shoulders. ‘No answer to my texts since I stood her up to go to McLaughlin’s murder scene.’

‘You did let her know why?’

‘I did. But a little late,’ McNab admitted.

‘So you went home alone with a carry-out meal and brooded in the shower?’

McNab’s face broke into a grin. ‘You know me too well. What about you?’

‘I stood up two men. One of whom was my son who I haven’t seen in six months or more.’

‘Okay. You win.’ McNab raised his glass to her.

The group had split up as Janice and Paula moved round the room, greeting everyone. McNab glanced over at their progress.

‘You really had no idea?’ Rhona said.

‘Nope. Never thought about it for a moment,’ McNab admitted. ‘I had a notion on Janice when she arrived. That shows you I had no idea.’

‘I remember,’ Rhona said. ‘But then again you’ve been known to fancy all new arrivals.’

She thought McNab might dispute that, but he didn’t.

‘How are things with Ellie?’ she said.

‘How are things with Sean?’ he countered.

The silence from both of us pretty well sums up our relationships, Rhona thought. She moved on to more favourable ground.

‘You wanted to talk about the jumper?’

Rhona listened intently to a fuller description of McNab’s conversation earlier with Karen, including his thoughts that the killer may not have had contact with the confirmation dress at all.