(1) on 16th March 1996 while acting with others whose identities are to the prosecutor meantime unknown, in Glasgow or elsewhere to the prosecutor unknown, you did assault Michael John Clark residing at 19 St John’s Road, Bridgeton, Glasgow, strike him repeatedly on the body with hammers or similar instruments, burn him repeatedly on the body with lit cigarettes, strike and stab him repeatedly on the neck and body with knives or similar instruments, to his severe injury, and you did murder him;

(2) on date above libelled, while acting with others whose identities are to the prosecutor meantime unknown, you, having committed the crime libelled in Charge One above, namely murder, did convey the dead body of said Michael John Clark to a lane behind the Ingram Hotel, Ingram Street, Glasgow, place said body in a wheeled waste bin, and this you did with a view to concealing the commission of said crime, with intent to pervert the course of justice, and you did attempt to pervert the course of justice;

(3) on 17th March 1996 in Mitchell Drive, Glasgow, you did assault Kevin Patrick Boyle residing at 1 Main Road, Bridgeton, Glasgow, repeatedly discharge a loaded firearm at him, repeatedly shoot him in the head, and you did murder him.

Muirhead reflected for a moment while drawing on his pipe.

‘I’d heard he was on petition for the murder of Boyle. Didn’t hear about the second one.’

‘No, the first two charges came as a complete surprise. They only surfaced with the service of the indictment. Curious thing is, the deceased on charge one actually worked for old man Gallagher. Sort of minder-cum-heavy. I could see they might cobble together a motive for the Boyle killing, commercial rivalry and all that, but I cannot see why Charlie would be involved in killing one of his own people. Nor can I understand what the connection might be between the two killings.’

‘I see that Clark was killed first.’

‘So we can hardly run the line that it was a revenge attack for Kevin’s murder.’

‘Just so. Maybe they are going to suggest that Clark was sacrificed to take the heat off the Gallaghers. Point the finger towards Clark’s family.’

‘You’re a devious bastard, James, but Clark was very much the lone wolf. If he had a family at all, I suspect it was the Gallaghers. I’ll check that out, of course.’

‘What’s the evidence looking like?’

‘Early doors, yet. We’ve got a few preliminary statements but mostly formal stuff. Bob Blythe from Edinburgh did post-mortems for us. Actually there’s some interesting stuff in his reports. I’ve got initial briefs made up, if you want the case. I can get them to you over the weekend. I phoned the Fiscal to get a summary of the evidence but he wouldn’t tell me anything. They’re keeping this one very tight.’

‘Interesting.’

‘I thought you’d like this one.’

‘Consultation, Monday evening.’

‘Absolutely.’