Hacker didn’t reply, just showed him the pill bottle they’d found in Boonzie’s pocket. Hacker’s employer glanced at the medicine, then slipped it into the pocket of his cashmere coat. He said, ‘What else have you found on him? Show me that phone.’

Hacker passed him the phone they’d taken from McCulloch. His employer examined it. He spent a few moments tapping and swiping at the screen, then frowned and said, ‘Well, well.’

Hacker said, ‘Well well what?’

‘It isn’t his. This phone seems to belong to someone called Jamie McGlashan. Here’s his Facebook page.’ He tapped and scrolled a bit more, then his eyebrows rose. ‘Hmm. Very interesting.’ He tossed the phone back to Hacker, who looked at what his boss had found. The screen displayed a selfie image of a fat man he’d never seen before. He was standing by what was obviously a Scottish loch, hills and mountains in the background, clad in waterproofs and wearing a big goofy grin because of what he’d just caught and was proudly holding aloft.

Hacker handed back the phone and said, ‘It’s a picture of some pork-chop moron with a harelip and a large, dead fish in his hand.’

‘Yes, Hacker, that’s what it is. But it might also be something more than that.’

Hacker couldn’t give a damn. It was too bloody cold to be standing out here debating. He was here to do a job. One that was currently only half done, as far as he was concerned.

‘So what now?’ asked Bobby Banks, one of the crew who’d arrived from London just hours before. Like Hacker, they were all keen to finish what they’d come here to do, collect their very generous paycheque and be flown home.

‘Shoot him,’ Hacker said.

‘No problem.’ Without hesitation, Banks walked over to Boonzie, bent down and pressed a pistol to his head.

DI Fergus Macleod hovered nervously in the background. Even though he’d been personally present at the drowning of Ross Campbell and taken part in the beating of Ewan McCulloch, he still had no stomach for this kind of thing. None of the others paid him any attention and were not remotely concerned that they were in the presence of a senior police officer. Macleod was in far too deep to be any kind of a threat to them.

As Banks was about to pull the trigger, Hacker’s employer held up a hand and said sharply, ‘No. Wait.’

Banks stopped, lowered the weapon and looked uncertainly at Hacker, who was staring at his boss as though he were an idiot. ‘You said you wanted this man eliminated,’ Hacker said. ‘Properly and permanently.’