‘We’ll leave it there just now, I think, but we’ll come and see you on Monday morning before the trial starts. Please remember, when you are in court, just sit there and listen to the evidence. Do not react to it in any way. No outbursts. Do not even nod or shake your head. If there is anything you remember you have not told us, just attract Mr Anderson’s attention. He will be sitting very close to you. You can assume we know everything we have discussed, so do not, please, call him over unless there is something new. I do not want the jury to think that we are making the script up as we are going along. Take it easy over the weekend and we will see you on Monday morning. OK?’

Gallagher stared at the table in front of him.

‘OK?’

‘OK. Just get me out of here.’

‘I’ll do my best.’

The lawyers left the interview room. They walked in silence across the prison yard to the main gate. Once outside, Morton summed up the situation.

‘You’re on your own with that one, Mr Muirhead!’

Anyone watching might have thought it curious that three eminent legal figures would leave a prison and almost immediately burst into laughter. The comment had reminded each of them of a case they had been involved in some years earlier.

A man had entered a bank in the centre of Glasgow intending to rob it. He was wearing a Balaclava. Unfortunately it was an open-face Balaclava and did virtually nothing to conceal his identity. On approaching the young female teller he pretended to have a gun in his pocket and demanded money. As he did not have an account, his request was denied. He then endeavoured to climb over the bandit screen, but when he had one leg on either side of the glass the young lady grabbed his leg, pulled hard and refused to let go. Only with considerable difficulty did he make good his escape in the getaway vehicle which bore more than a passing resemblance to a Glasgow Corporation bus heading to Easterhouse. Needless to say he was arrested. Jack Morton, Donald Anderson, and Muirhead had all gone to see the client in Barlinnie. Muirhead reviewed the not inconsiderable body of evidence.

‘Eight witnesses identify you as the robber.’

‘They’re mugs, Mr Muirhead. You’ll destroy them.’

Muirhead noted this helpful contribution.

‘In your house, the police found a Balaclava mask identical to that worn by the robber.’

‘It belongs to my wee boy, he wears it in the winter.’

Reasonable. It was noted.

‘When you were arrested you were examined by a police casualty surgeon who found that the insides of your thighs were covered in bruises and abrasions and your genitalia were swollen to twice their normal dimensions.’

Sweat was beginning to appear on the client’s furrowed brow. This was proving a bit tricky.