Isabel had returned to her table.
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Jamie was ten minutes late. He had been practising, he said, and he had only looked at the clock just before five-thirty.
“But you’re here,” said Isabel. “And that’s the important thing.” She glanced at her watch. “We have about twenty minutes. I thought I might just go over with you how I plan to approach this.”
Jamie listened, eyeing her from time to time over the edge of his beer glass. He remained uneasy about the whole project, but he had to agree that she was well rehearsed. She would raise the issue gently, particularly bearing in mind the apparent rawness of Paul Hogg’s feelings on the matter. She would explain that she was not seeking to interfere, and the last thing that she was interested in was causing any embarrassment for McDowell’s. But they owed it to Mark, and to Neil, who had brought the matter to her attention, to at least take the issue a little bit further. She herself, of course, was convinced that there was nothing in it, but at least they could lay the matter to rest with a good conscience if they had investigated it fully.
“Good script,” Jamie commented after she had finished.
“Covers it all.”
“I can’t see that he would be offended by any of that,” said Isabel.
“No,” said Jamie. “That’s unless it’s him.”
“What’s him?”
“Unless he did it himself. He might be the insider trader.”
Isabel stared at her companion. “Why do you think that?”
“Well, why not? He’s the person that Mark must have been working with most closely. He was the head of his section or whatever. If Mark knew anything, it must have been about the stuff that he was working on.”
Isabel considered this. It was possible, she supposed, but she 1 4 4
A l e x a n d e r M c C a l l S m i t h thought it unlikely. There had been no doubting the genuineness of the emotion he had shown on the occasion of their first meeting, when Mark’s name had come up. He was devastated by what had happened; that was perfectly obvious. And if that were so, then he could not have been the person who arranged to dispose of Mark, which meant that he could not be the person fearing exposure.
“Do you see that?” she said to Jamie.
Jamie did, but he thought it wise to keep an open mind.
“We could be mistaken,” he said. “Murderers feel guilt. They mourn their victims sometimes. Paul Hogg may be like that.”
“He’s not,” said Isabel. “You haven’t met him yet. He’s not like that. It’s somebody else we’re looking for.”
Jamie shrugged. “It might be. It might not. At least keep an open mind.”
PAU L H O G G L I V E D on the first floor of a Georgian town house in Great King Street. It was one of the most handsome streets in the New Town, and from his side, the south side, there was a view, from the top floors at least, of the Firth of Forth, a blue strip of sea just beyond Leith, and, beyond that, of the hills of Fife.
The first floor had other reasons to commend it, though, even if the view was only of the other side of the street. In some streets at least, these flats were called the drawing-room flats, as they had been the main drawing rooms of the old, full houses. Their walls, therefore, were higher and their windows went from ceiling to floor, great expanses of glass which flooded the rooms with light.
They walked up the common stairway, a generous sweep of stone stairs, about which there lingered a slight smell of cat, and found the door with hogg on a square brass plate. Isabel glanced T H E S U N D A Y P H I L O S O P H Y C L U B
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at Jamie, who winked at her. His scepticism had been replaced by a growing interest in what they were doing, and it was she, now, who felt doubtful.
Paul Hogg answered the door quickly and took their coats.
Isabel introduced Jamie, and the two shook hands.
“I’ve seen you somewhere,” said Paul Hogg. “I don’t know where.”
“Edinburgh,” said Jamie, and they laughed.
He led them through to the drawing room, which was a large, elegantly furnished room, dominated by an impressive white mantelpiece. Isabel noticed the invitations—at least four of them—
propped up on the mantelpiece, and when Paul Hogg went out of the room to fetch their drinks, and they had not yet sat down, she sidled over and read them quickly.
