Jasmine surprised herself by remembering to answer ‘Sharp Investigations?’ rather than the tentative ‘Hello?’ that she would have managed had it been her mobile.

A woman’s voice asked if Jim was there.

‘Can you tell me who’s calling?’

‘It’s Anne Ramsay,’ the voice replied.

Jasmine felt herself stiffen, as though her senses were making themselves more alert.

‘He said he might have some news for me early in the week. I didn’t hear from him yesterday, so I’m just phoning to see if he’s got …’

She sounded barely more optimistic than Jasmine, somebody who was used to being disappointed. Jasmine could feel those same senses lapse as though being ordered to stand down. The caller was in the same boat as herself, someone expecting to hear from Jim who was wondering why he hadn’t got in touch.

Nonetheless, now that she had her on the line, she should try and find out a bit about her case, as it appeared to be something Jim had been working on without making any mention of it to Jasmine. Was this, in fact, the case that was ‘a wee bit sensitive’ and that had thus led to Jasmine being given the day off on Friday?

‘I’m afraid Jim isn’t in the office just now.’

‘I know. It was his mobile number I was calling.’

‘Oh, I see. Well, he’s got it on divert at the moment. Can you tell me what it was regarding?’

‘It’s Anne Ramsay,’ the woman said, a little insistently. Jasmine was just slightly too late in interpreting from her tone that this alone was supposed to answer her question.

‘Yes, but can you tell me what your case was concerning?’

This time there was little chance of Jasmine missing any nuance to her manner.

‘Christ alive, you have got to be kidding me,’ she hissed, sounding caught between anger and tears. ‘You have got to be bloody …’

There was a brief silence, during which it sounded like her words had choked in her throat, then the line went dead. She had hung up.

Way to go, girl, Jasmine thought. At least it proved she was becoming more autonomous in her work. Even with Jim not around to help her, she was able to obtain the same result: Jasmine screws up.

She pushed the red button to disconnect her end of the call and went back to listing the numbers. Anne Ramsay’s was now top, and would have automatically bumped the tenth most recent from the memory. She realised that her own diverted calls to Jim’s mobile would have accounted for another two, and was grateful she hadn’t let it ring out every time she had tried him.