‘I pulled Baird off the job. Perhaps a little rashly, I’ll confess. But I didn’t trust him. The man’s an inbred cretin. And knowing what we now know about McCulloch thanks to our sources in local law enforcement, I was worried that he might spot Baird, catch him and make him talk. That would have been an unmitigated bloody disaster.’

Hacker nodded in agreement. ‘If you recall, I did advise you not to hire Baird in the first place. That goes for all these local yokel morons you’ve picked up. What did you do, put an ad in the paper saying “Henchmen wanted”?’

‘All right, all right, I get the point.’

‘More than just a moron, Baird’s also a coward with a big mouth. You’re right – McCulloch would probably have made mincemeat out of him, if he’d got too close. But it would still have been worthwhile letting Baird stay on his tail, at a discreet distance. Do we have any idea where McCulloch is now?’

Hacker’s employer threw up his hands with a sigh of exasperation. ‘None. He’s dropped completely off our radar. If he’d given up and gone back home to bloody Italy, we’d have known about it. All we know is that he’s driving the nephew’s camper van, because Baird saw him leaving the house in it. But there’s been no trace of him since. It’s as though the wily old bugger has disappeared into thin air.’

‘It’s not entirely surprising. Men like him are trained to do just that.’

‘And men like you. You’re one of their kind. You know how they operate, how their minds work.’

Hacker’s own past history was known to very few people outside of this room. ‘Was one of their kind,’ he corrected his employer. ‘Only I was better. Still am.’

‘Exactly. Why else would I have brought you all the way back here and risked letting a third-rate bandit like Kang shaft a property deal I spent months setting up? Just tell me you can deal with my problem.’

Hacker considered for a long moment, watching his employer’s eyes and seeing that he was serious. Hacker’s boss was not the wealthiest business tycoon in the world, but his net worth nonetheless extended comfortably into nine figures and he was the kind of person who would pay whatever it took to get things done. He was also not someone to be trifled with by refusing his wishes. Not even for Hacker, who was more direct with him than any other man in his employ.

Hacker nodded. ‘I can deal with it.’

‘Excellent.’

‘But we have to catch him first. From what you tell me, McCulloch could be anywhere in the western Highlands. We don’t have the resources to track a tough target like him over thousands of square miles of wilderness. Unless …’