When the tape-recorder was switched off, Gallagher was desperate to tell the police just what he thought of them. He decided to bide his time. They were bluffing. They didn’t have anything on him. They had to be bluffing. His father would get the lawyer and he would sort it out – at least he would get him bail. If Charlie had applied any rational thought to his predicament, he would have remembered that in Scotland, people charged with murder are kept in custody until their trial. He would not get bail – as he would very soon find out.

Later that afternoon he was taken from his cell for an interview with his solicitor. Despite his high hopes, matters did not improve. He expected to see Jack Morton, but instead he was greeted by one of his minions. Morton was out of town. This was a piece of news Charlie did not want to hear.

‘Then get the bastard back here, fucking now!’

‘I have spoken to him on the phone and he knows the situation. He will see you tomorrow before you appear in court.’

‘Look, wanker, I want to see him now. He gets paid plenty. I want the organ grinder not his bloody monkey.’

‘There is nothing he could do just now. But tomorrow he will explain what is likely to happen. You will be put through a judicial examination before a Sheriff and Mr Morton will advise you...’

‘Likely to happen! I’ll tell you what IS going to happen. What is going to happen is that you are going to get back on that fucking phone and tell him to get me out of here.’

Jack Morton’s assistant wanted to tell this arsehole what to do with himself, but his job paid well. He also thought of trying to explain that getting out was not really an option since the following day the court would follow normal practice and remand him in custody for a week to allow the Crown to carry out further inquiries. Thereafter he would be taken back to court and fully committed: in other words, locked up in Barlinnie until the trial. He wisely decided that he had spread enough gloom for one day. The boss could deal with it. As the client had succinctly put it, Morton got paid plenty.

Had he chosen the gloomy path, he would have had the satisfaction of knowing that everything he had prophesied came to pass. Despite his many vociferous and violent denunciations of the police, the courts, the law, lawyers and anyone else he could think of, Charlie Gallagher was fully committed for trial on a charge of murdering Kevin Boyle.