“Corstorphine,” he announced, blearily checking the alarm clock again for confirmation that it really was just after 6:00 a.m.

“Inverness CID here, DCI McCallum.”

Corstorphine struggled to match a face to the name, his memory eventually returning a tall, gaunt fellow that he remembered thinking didn’t seem to like him very much. “DCI McCallum. Sorry, sir. I’ve just woken up.”

“Well, you’d better finish waking up and get yourself down to the station, sharp, because I need you to run through some CCTV footage I’ve just sent you.”

“Can I ask what this is about, sir?” He climbed out of bed, reaching for fresh underwear with one hand whilst holding the mobile securely against his ear.

“The Assistant Chief tells me you warned Lord Archibald Lagan an attempt might be made on his life last night?”

The silence told Corstorphine he was expected to make some kind of a response. “That’s right. I advised him not to go to the Inverness Ball. When he made it clear that he wasn’t minded to take my advice, I asked the ACC to put a few uniforms on the ground, just as a precaution.”

He could almost hear the DCI on the other end of the line processing his comments, the silence extending to a few seconds before a response came back down the line.

“Shame he didn’t listen to you. His body was found this morning by a farmer at four o’clock. Driven his Jag into a hedge and died with the car stuck in a ditch. It looked like a heart attack at first sight, then we spotted a needle stuck in the back of his neck. Forensics are on it now, but they mentioned your name.”

“Why? What have forensics found?” Corstorphine had a sinking feeling that he knew what was coming next.

“It’s a strange one. Looks like the headrest has been tampered with. Some sort of timing mechanism has been put in there that jabbed a needle into Lagan’s neck after he’d been driving for a while. Forensics can explain it to you in more detail, but we need you to look at the camera footage. The CCTV picked up a woman breaking into his car whilst it was parked at the Strathcarron Hotel. Quality isn’t great at that distance, but you may recognise her as someone you’ve been looking at in connection with all this.”

“Certainly, sir. I’ll check the footage at the station.”

“Get back to me as soon as you’ve seen it – the Chief Constable is going ballistic.”