He goes to the windows and draws heavy blue jacquard curtains. Only when he’s confident we cannot be seen does he gesture me to come into the room and take a seat on a varnished hard-backed chair – probably Georgian, definitely uncomfortable. He pulls up one that looks marginally more forgiving, inasmuch as it has a bit of upholstery on the base.

‘Sorry it’s so basic. A project of mine. It is a duty to preserve our heritage.’

‘Which means no central heating?’ I say flippantly. Rep ignores me. He has not removed his coat and I don’t even think about taking off mine.

‘I would like to have a conversation that never happened, if you understand me.’ I contemplate switching on the cassette tape hidden in my pocket, but think better of it.

‘That would be fine.’

‘Bob Ringer tells me you are trying to join up some dots. As indeed was your sister.’

‘You spoke to Clare?’ For a moment, the bizarreness of our surroundings melts away.

‘I was very sorry to hear what happened to her. I hope it had nothing to do with our discussion.’

‘That’s what I’m trying to find out.’

‘All I can do is tell you what I told her.’

‘Media Corp,’ I guess. ‘The pension fund.’

There is a trace of a frown; he doesn’t much care for anyone breaking his flow.

‘I take it you are a member of that scheme, as an employee of the FC?’

‘That’s right.’

‘Then I have difficult news for you. It’s bust.’

Bloody hell. I couldn’t care less about my own pension. Retirement feels a lifetime away. But it is gratifying that my instincts were right. ‘How and why?’

‘Breitner used the scheme to fund his adventures. Rather ill-advisedly, he used it to purchase shares in a fashionable technology venture that went spectacularly bankrupt in January.’

A memory is jogged. ‘Albion Super Highway. It was a car crash. But I didn’t know he put cash from the pension scheme into that deal.’

‘It wasn’t the first time he’s used the fund to hide his less successful punts. The problem for Jimmy this time is that the Albion loss is too big to cover up for more than a few months, a year at most. And then he got wind of what Kendall was planning. Or I should say, what your sister had devised.’

‘The dividend tax credit.’ I suddenly feel a chill. ‘Less money for pension funds would have made it harder for him to cover up the Albion loss.’