He strode past her, lifted his hand in the air and a taxi pulled into the kerb. The next thing she knew they were kissing, and the smell of his shaving lotion was in her nostrils, their mouths were locked, their hands roving under their coats. She barely had time to notice the wide avenue, the stucco facade of the house they drew up in front of, or the stone steps up to the pillared portico, before he swept her inside and upstairs, where he undressed her slowly. He didn’t appear concerned about Lorna suddenly turning up, so Anna assumed she was away. She wasn’t going to be crass enough to ask. The sex was utterly fantastic. The chest hair, which had fascinated her as a child, was grey now, but just as abundant. She ran her fingers through it and tugged playfully. He grasped her wrist and dragged her against him.

He was getting dressed in the en suite bathroom when the doorbell rang. He told her to stay put, closed the bedroom door and ran downstairs. Hearing raised voices she came out on to the landing to listen. Whoever it was, was male and Angus was trying to calm him down. What she heard was enlightening.

‘It’s against the law, Angus. I can’t believe you’re justifying it.’

‘You’ve got it wrong.’

The man laughed. ‘I don’t have to be particularly intelligent to know dodgy when I see it.’

‘No one’s been hurt. I smoothed profits, that’s all. It’s technical.’ His voice was calm and assured, but there was an edge to it.

‘You paid millions under bogus re-insurance contracts so that you could bring the money back onshore in fallow years. All perfectly legit, if ethically unsound. Then you realized that no one had missed the money paid offshore, and you couldn’t resist the temptation to trouser it. I’ve found it, Angus, including the captive insurance company. Christ, you even made sure it was associated with a Swiss bank. All above board? I don’t think so. It’s sleight of hand.’

Then the door closed, and she didn’t hear any more until the front door thudded shut. She sat on the bed, thinking. It was impossible to know, but that could have been Nick Ritchie. Would he have been either courageous or foolish enough to confront Angus in his own home? Possibly.

Five minutes later, when Angus came back upstairs, he was keen for her to leave. It was a little humiliating, but she understood that he had a problem. She tucked the information away in the back of her mind.

You never know, she thought, as she got into the cab, it might come in useful one day.