‘We’d talked it inside oot, and I’d been into Central and walked myself through it a few times. It was all set. Thing is, Tommy never got in touch on Wednesday. Never heard fae him, couldnae get haud ay him. Tried him again Thursday morn. Still nothin’. I thought maybe it was aff, but I went to Central anyway, just in case. Tommy could be like that: he could drap aff the radar. I thought I might be wasting my time, but at those stakes it was worth a punt, you know?’

‘At six figures, yes, probably worth hanging around Central on the off chance,’ said Catherine.

‘Anyway, as you know, turns oot Tommy’s on the money. There’s an announcement on the tannoy and they’re evacuating the place, so I sticks to the script. Soon as I heard the announcement, I nicked into the card shop, and while everybody was starting to file out, I dived in between these two display gondolas like I’d planned: they were back to back, leaving a wee crawl space to hide in. I heard the polis come in and make sure everybody was leaving, including the staff, while I just sat tight. Once everybody was gone, I bailed oot the back door, into the wee enclosed area behind the shops where they keep their bins and packing crates and that, then in through the back of the jeweller’s. In an’ oot, matter of seconds. Bang, bang, bang.’

He had an uncertain look and helped himself to another bit of dead skin from his index finger. He should have been recalling a moment of triumph, but he was reaching the part where it all went wrong in a way he couldn’t have anticipated.

‘The plan was to slip away once the crowds came back in. I was at the far end of the enclosure behind the shops, waiting and keeping an eye out. I was expecting to see the bomb squad or whatever coming in first, but instead I heard a car coming up the ramp, you know, past platform eighteen?’

Catherine nodded. There was a horseshoe of road just beyond the escalator leading down to the low-level trains. The entrance was on Hope Street, and allowed cars to drive right up alongside platform eighteen to drop off passengers, then come straight back out again.

‘There was two guys and a dug. Polis. I keeked over the top of the fence and ducked doon again. I was shiting myself in case the dug sniffed me oot. Dug wasnae there aboot me, but. One of them led it away intae the station while the other yin stayed at the motor with the engine running. He went tae the left luggage, then a coupla minutes later I heard him coming back. I had another wee keek and saw he was carrying this big fuck-off rucksack. Piles back intae the motor and zoom, they’re away.