‘All the more reason why he wouldn’t be happy, with McDiarmid shagging his girlfriend while the cat’s away,’ Laura suggested. ‘He might not be without means on the outside.’

‘The cat isn’t away,’ stated Raeside with a bitter, bronchial laugh. ‘Fleeting got out couple of weeks back, while you were on holiday.’

‘Bob Cairns busted him for about twenty grand’s worth of smack,’ Catherine said. ‘How the hell can he be out?’

‘Better ask Cairns about that,’ he replied. ‘Although I would imagine it’s a sore point.’

Cairns had left on a call by the time all ongoing duties had been assigned, but Catherine bumped into his buddy Fletcher on the way down to the car park, from where Laura was going to drive her home. Fletch and Cairns had been a mutually reinforcing grumpy double act for as long as Catherine could remember, so even when they weren’t working together, one could usually be relied upon to know what was going on with the other.

It wasn’t all they could be relied upon to know: everybody else’s business was a specialist subject too.

‘I gather you got a wee visit from Abercorn,’ Fletch said, before Catherine could venture any questions of her own. ‘Sniffing around that psycho McDiarmid’s murder. Was he lifting his leg, or just begging for scraps?’

‘Detective Superintendent Abercorn has a unique way of making one appear to be the other,’ Catherine replied, a non-committal response that Abercorn himself would have been proud of. ‘He spoke well of you,’ she added mischievously.

‘Aye, I’ll bet he did. Did he give you the speech about us old throwbacks just swatting mosquitoes while he’s trying to drain the swamp?’

‘Not as such, but I think he alluded to the principle. We discussed the respective merits of the longer- and shorter-term views.’

‘Aye, the long-game speech. Heard that one as well. Cracking excuse for not lifting anybody. Wish I’d thought of it years ago.’

‘Now, now,’ Catherine chided.

‘Cheap shot, I know. He’s making a rod for his own back, though. I’m not such a dinosaur that I cannae see what he’s trying to do, but the problem with the long game is that the game keeps changing. Abercorn’s spinning a lot of plates. It’s my guess he’s jumpy about what you might uncover in case it brings a whole bunch of them crashing to the floor.’

‘Funny you should say that. He seemed keen to ward me away from Frankie Callahan’s mob as a route of investigation, yet the early leads are pointing us towards Gary Fleeting. I thought he was on remand, but I’m informed otherwise.’

‘Aye. Procurator Fiscal’s office have dropped the charges. Bob was spitting feathers.’

‘Was there a technicality? Wouldn’t be like Cairns to drop the ball.’