‘Well, I couldn’t say for the Raven’s, but there must have been a good few dozen in this place saw me Sunday night, and I don’t think you would be casting aspersions on the Bay Tree’s clientele, would you?’

‘Gary was here from about seven onwards on Sunday,’ Callahan interjected with that intense, almost overstated conviction. ‘I’ve still got the bookings list if you want to speak to individual diners. Their contact numbers are on the sheet. I’ll have Gillian photocopy it for you,’ he added, summoning the waitress.

He got to his feet as he gave her his instructions, his body language and demeanour indicating that he expected everyone else to rise likewise, because as far as he was concerned, business had been concluded.

‘There must have been sixty or seventy people saw him,’ he underlined. ‘Regular customers. Local residents. Doctors, lawyers, teachers. I think even Marghrad Bell, the area’s MSP, was in with her family on Sunday. You’re wasting your time here, believe me.’

That neutrality of tone again, that conviction and sincerity. There was no smugness, no goading. In contrast to the walking taunt that was Fleeting, it almost sounded like Callahan was trying to help her here.

Right enough, Fleeting was offering enough smugness and goading for both of them. He folded his arms with a silly smirk as she and Laura stood up from their chairs.

The waitress, Gillian, returned with a copy of the restaurant’s booking sheet from Sunday night. Catherine got Fleeting to dictate the phone number of Saturday’s one-night stand and wrote it down on the same sheet, sparing Laura the task. She looked on the verge of doing or saying something rash. Catherine wasn’t happy either, but she wasn’t done here yet, and she knew to bide her time. Callahan wasn’t getting to manage her from entrance to exit, and nor was he going to succeed in keeping this visit entirely discreet.

She waited until they were in the bar area, ostensibly headed for the main doors, then stopped and turned on her heel with a hammy pirouette, the better to attract the notice of any customers potentially in earshot. She was probably out of range of the dining area, but there were at least a dozen drinkers seated in the environs of the bar, including a tableful of precisely the sort of glammed-up young women Fleeting no doubt enjoyed impressing when he was on the premises.