‘Well, he was a wee bit pissed, to be honest. Kept going on about he’d struck it rich, found the mother lode, all that. Said he was gonnae leave this shitehole, go off to a tropical beach and never come back again. Asked me to come wi’ him. Me. Can you believe that?’ she added with a brief, wistful smile. ‘And then he was dead.’

‘He had just the one coin?’

She shook her head. ‘That’s all he showed me, but he said he had a whole load more stashed away somewhere. I wiz teasin’ him about it, said, “Ross Campbell, where’d you go gettin’ yer hands on a big pile o’ gold?”’

‘And what did he say to that?’

‘Wouldnae tell me. Said it was his big secret, and he was the only one who knew about it. I said, “No much of a secret if ye’re bletherin’ on about it in this bloody place.”’

Ben had forgotten all about showing Holly the picture of Boonzie. This was more important. Now the gold trail led back to Ewan McCulloch’s dead business partner and the whole mystery had just grown deeper. More significantly, the single coin had turned into a whole stash of them. And if Holly’s account was right, it also meant that Ross alone knew the secret of where the gold had come from. Which implied that Ewan had known little or nothing about any of this himself. He might not even have stumbled across the coin until after Ross’s death.

Ben was about to ask her more questions, but he never got the chance. Because at that moment he felt a large, heavy presence come up behind him and a loud voice said, ‘What’s all this fuckin’ shite aboot Ross Campbell?’

Ben turned. The guy with the flame tattoos was back, and he didn’t look very happy.

Chapter 16

The guy with the flames stalked up to the bar and planted two big brawny fists on the counter. His knuckles were coarse and laced with little white scars, from fights. Losing some, probably, judging by the broken nose, but his confident attitude said he’d won some, as well. He shot a hostile look at Ben, then scowled at Holly. ‘Hear me? Nae mair o’ that fuckin’ shite talk, understand?’

Ben felt like asking the guy what his problem was, and advising him to take a step back and cool it. But he said nothing yet. Holly fired back angrily, ‘Watch your fuckin’ language, Angus Baird! And I don’t remember asking your opinion, so don’t you be thinkin’ about causin’ trouble in here!’