‘You’re definitely the more interesting half of the crime duo,’ Chrissy said. ‘How’s Paula?’

‘Complaining that I work too much. So I’m taking her out to dinner nearby tonight. Hence my presence here.’ She smiled.

‘What about you?’ Chrissy looked to McNab. ‘You have plans?’

‘Sadly, no. A pint here and a carry-out at home for me. Something that definitely doesn’t smell like fried chicken,’ he said with vigour.

His remark was followed by a short silence, before Chrissy eventually said, ‘There’s no avoiding it, so why not talk about it? Any leads on the victim?’

‘Olivia Newton Mearns—’ McNab halted as a chorus of moans went up. ‘Okay, sorry, but if she was from Glasgow, she would definitely have come from Newton Mearns. However, the owner of the credit cards, Olivia Newton Richardson, who might not actually be our victim,’ he reminded them, ‘apparently lives in North London. Her bank account, according to the Tech guys, is very, very healthy. She’s involved with a business called Go Wild and is a party planner.’

He toasted that with his pint.

‘Some party that turned out to be,’ Chrissy said. ‘Why the hell was she tied up in a tenement flat in the East End of Glasgow?’

‘Exactly,’ Janice said.

‘And the mobile?’ Rhona asked.

‘It looks like the data was deleted remotely,’ Janice told her, ‘before you discovered it and switched it off. So more work to do on that.’

‘Someone is covering their tracks?’ Rhona offered.

‘It looks like it,’ Janice said. ‘First thing is to identify our victim. Find out if she really is Olivia Newton Mearns—’ She halted, a pained look on her face, and pointed an accusing finger at McNab. ‘That’s your fault.’

‘He likes his nicknames, does McNab,’ Chrissy said. ‘He has one for all of us.’

McNab tried to look horrified at such a suggestion, but the three women just laughed.

‘And we have one for you,’ Chrissy said.

McNab looked worried. ‘What is it?’

‘You show us yours and we’ll show you ours,’ Chrissy declared.

‘Okay,’ Janice said, ‘I’m off before this turns into the sort of game we used to play behind the bicycle shed.’

Rhona and Chrissy announced that they were planning to do the same, whereupon McNab made an attempt to persuade them to stay for another drink.

‘I’m off home to see wee Michael, your namesake,’ Chrissy announced.

‘And I’m just off home,’ Rhona said.

‘You’re not staying to talk to Sean?’ McNab asked.

‘I saw him last night,’ Rhona said. ‘You ready to go then?’ she asked Chrissy.

‘You bet.’

They both glanced back when they reached the door to find McNab’s woebegone expression following them out.

‘What did I tell you?’ Chrissy said as they exited. ‘He’s McNab all alone at the moment, which makes a meet-up with Mary all the more likely.’