"The Bleachfield was losin money and fallin apart, classic cycle of decline; and Colin, by all accounts, was not the man to arrest that decline. If this proposal hadnae come along, he would have needed to sell the place pretty soon anyway. Maybe even been forced to, given the debts it was racking up. His only other assets were some lodges up by the fishing loch, which I think did turn a small profit, so he's hardly gaunny sell a money-makin concern just to shore up one that's bleedin him dry."

Martin's starting to see it now. "So if someone else had their eye on the place, and the rezoning application got the knock-back, then they could pick it up for a bargain shortly thereafter when Colin's got no choice but to flog it. But why would anybody want to buy this dump, and why would they want it so much that they were prepared to go to the bother of nobbling a planning committee?"

Scorty just folds his arms and stares at him, eyebrows raised. It's as though there are things he doesn't want to be heard saying out loud, but amid this also, once again, is that 'are-you-daft?' look.

But Martin now proves he is not. "Because anybody who can nobble a planning committee into blocking one application can nobble them into approving another. After which the site they got for a song will be worth a whole album."

"Aye." Scotty nods. "Funny you never see that on thon Sarah Beeny programme. Still doesnae explain why Colin fast-tracked the Cat-tracks here, but it's somethin to think aboot."

"This is why you relayed Noodsy's request, isn't it?" Martin decides to ask.

"Naw, I did that because Noodsy asked me to, Martin. Simple as that. All the toing and froing on the committee...it's not somethin you give a lot of thought to until two folk are lyin deid."

"Who was it you spoke to at the council?" Martin asks. "Who's your sources?"

"A few second or even third hand, and one very close to the action. He won't talk to you, though. Especially not now."

"But who is it?"

Scot gives him a sardonic look, like he's saying, 'brace yourself. '

"You remember Pete McGeechy?"

And thus Martin understands what the look was about. "Pete McGeechy? That guy who would start an argument with himself? He's in local politics?"

"In local politics? Guy like that was made for local politics."

"Actually, come to think of it, was his dad not involved in the council?"

"Was, aye. Noo he's a fuckin MSP. And meanwhile, back in toytown politics, Junior's heading up the planning committee."

"Jeez. The mind boggles. The guy got an 'F' in his O-Grade tech drawing, if memory serves, and now he's..."

"I think it was a 'D', but I'd be splittin hairs. Bottom line is the usual monkey-plus-Labour-rosette equation."

"He was quite pally with Colin back at St Grace's, was he no?"

"Aye. They were still pally, far as I was aware, but that doesnae guarantee you anythin when politics is involved. Or property."

"So what did he actually say to you about this?"

"It wasnae so much what he said to me as what he wasnae sayin, half the time. I could tell he was feelin the pressure, but there was no way he was for sayin where it was coming from."

"You suspected threats, something heavy?"

"Not necessarily. See, there's intimidatory pressure and there's brown envelope pressure, and the latter can make folk even more jumpy and paranoid than the first."

"You saying he's bent?"

"I'm sayin nothin. As the politicos put it, I'm not rulin anythin out and I'm not rulin anythin in. But in either case, there's a massive disincentive to reveal the source. He wouldnae tell me aboot it, so he's sure as fuck no gaunny tell you."

"True," Martin concedes. "But we're neither of us experts at asking the questions."

"And you know someone who is?"

"We both do," he says, and reaches for his mobile.

Arts of Vigilance Sign of the times: Scot's class, 1S4, are waiting outside registration, Mrs Gordon's home Eeks room, and nobody wants to be at the front of the queue. In all other classes throughout the day, you just pile in and wait for the teacher, meaning registration is the only time there's a line any more, but it's such an unacceptable act of weanishness to be bothered about being first that even the lassie who has ended up there is a good three yards from the door itself. Fat Joanne is these days to be found as near to the back as she can manage, though if you observe her approach, she typically puts almost as much planning and tactical nous into securing a spot at the rear as she used to in hogging the vanguard.

That's not all that's changed about her, right enough. She's not quite as fat, having swapped a few circumferential inches for vertical ones. Plus, maybe she's lost weight due to the fags, as Scot's heard they can have that effect. She's lost her love of telling tales, too, perhaps because doing so would entail actually addressing the teacher with some minor modicum of enthusiasm, and that would come at an extravagant cost to her new image as the Baroness of Bored. She stands around with a permanent petted lip, prime exponent of the Everything's Shite philosophy which seems latterly to be taking the First Year lassies by yawn.

Eleanor has had a stretch, too. There's a joke to be made about bad smells and dirt being associated with growth, but nobody's much inclined to mention these things since she got that bit taller. She was always a bit of a torn-faced creature, but these days she seems simmeringly aggressive, to the extent that Scot once heard Richie Ryan say: "I'd rather fight her than fuck her, and I wouldnae want tae fight her."

Scot's standing with Richie and the two JJs: John-Jo and John-James, who are cousins from Carnock, but might as well be twins, and Siamese ones at that. Nobody's sure how much thought and consideration went into grouping the First Years when they put the three primaries together (or whether it was just names in a hat, as suggested by the bampot-cluster that is 1S5), but if this pair had been assigned to different classes it would have required surgery.

Richie's got a bit of bruising around his left eye, the cause of which is standing a few feet away in the shape of Pete McGeechy, himself sporting a bit of swelling around his bottom lip. Pete is keeping his distance, lots of eyes having tracked his approach given that Richie was already in the line when he arrived. They were all waiting to see what, if anything, would happen after what took place final period yesterday in the home Eeks practical area, not so far from where they're standing now. Pete is a gangly and awkward bugger with all the physical grace of a new-born foal and roughly the same elegance about his social skills. He's not a heidbanger, and he's not (normally) violent, but he's got the shortest fuse Scot has ever encountered, and a tendency to interpret the least contentious assertions as grounds for argument. He talks faster than an Irish racing commentator and says everything so pointedly that even when he's agreeing with you, you feel like you're on the back foot.

It seemed inevitable that one day somebody would lamp him, given the sudden aggression he unleashes without much apparent regard for such possible consequences, but surprisingly, it was Pete who gubbed Richie first. Richie, for all his reputation as a fighter, is normally very slow to anger, which is probably why nobody seemed aware there was any trouble brewing before the pair of them suddenly started panelling each other in front of a double-oven.

Neither was available for comment afterwards, fair to say, having been huckled off tout de suite to the deputy heidie's office for two of the lash to add to their other injuries. This means that the only light shed upon what led to this dust-up in the dough-school came as Mrs Gordon hauled them apart and demanded just what the hell was going on.

"He slagged my sole mornay," was Pete's outraged response.

Provocation if ever anyone heard it.

The two JJs are even more restless than usual, which is saying something. They're both marginally taller than Scot, but he's seldom been around anyone who made him feel so comparatively mature or who could give such a consistent impression of being 'wee guys' as this pair. Scot recently saw a David Attenborough programme that included a bit about spider monkeys, and had reckoned that if you stuck a couple of them in St Grace's uniforms, the two JJs could just dog it and nobody would notice much difference. They are boundlessly energetic, relentlessly chirpy, unremittingly mischievous, frequently amusing and although relatively harmless, you often feel like strangling one of them if they're around you for long enough. They seem jumpy and excited, like they're bursting to tell everybody a big secret, and yet edgily nervous and inclined to squabble, as though afraid the other has just said the wrong thing and given something away.

Lots of people are still going past in the corridor, hastening-or not-to their own registration classes. Scot spots Dom Reilly making his way towards the 1S4 group and gives him a wave. Dom's been off the past couple of days, and Scot had assumed he wouldn't be in today either when he didn't see him in the line. John-James breaks away from the group to go forward and greet Dom, then the pair stop and begin speaking rather conspir-atorially. Scot is wondering why Dom's two-day absence has elicited such an enthusiastic welcome, then rolls his eyes as he realises: it's given them one more unsuspecting numpty to inflict their latest stupidity on. The conversation they are having out of earshot right now will mainly involve JJ enlisting Dom in 'pretending' that despite being from different schools and indeed different towns, they were big pals before coming to St Grace's.

Dom's slightly confused grin mirrors Scot's own reaction when it was his turn. He couldn't see the point of this pretence, but there was something infectious about the JJs' cheerfulness, so he just werit along with it.

"Sure we were mates when we were wee?" John-Jo says, once they have rejoined the line and have, in Scot and Richie, an audience for this wee performance.

"Aye," agrees Dom.

"Sure our maws know each other, don't they?"

"Aye, that's right."

"And we used tae play thegether during the summer holidays, you and me and John-James, didn't we, over the Brae and up the dams?"

"Aye."

"And mind the time we got chased by the farmer because he thought we were chuckin sticks at his sheep?"

"Aye."

"And we ran intae the woods tae get away," John-Jo adds, laughing. "And we aw hid up a tree until he went by in his daft wee motorbike hing."

"Aye," agrees Dominic, now laughing a little, too. "And we were pure shitin ourselves because he had a dog."

"Aye, and then we fun that stream and went guddlin for baggy minnows, an you got that big yin that was aboot the size ay a trout, an you flipped it up for John-Jo tae catch an he tripped over ye and fell intae the water up tae his knees. You mind all that?"

"Aye."

"Naw ye don't, you're a fuckin liar. We never met afore we came here. Cannae believe the shite some folk come oot with."

And everybody decks themselves. Again.

Mrs Gordon should be along any sec. In fact, she's running late, Scot can tell without looking at his watch: the numbers filing through the corridor have thinned out. He sees Danny Doyle coming, walking fast because he's late but trying not to look like he's walking fast because he's one of Boma's mates and therefore too hard to care. He's two years above, but isn't that much bigger than the taller First Years, unlike some of the Third Years who have filled out in the chest and arms and are absolute bears. Nonetheless, he carries himself with a bit of a swagger, that practised hard look on his face as he saunters past the 1S4 queue. He doesn't look at anyone, but it's like he's making a point of not looking at anyone, so they can notice how consumed he is by the serious matters of being Third Year and hard.

Scot turns to comment about this wee display to Richie, but is distracted by a sudden flash of movement up ahead. He looks round in time to see Eleanor knock Danny sideways into the wall with a flurry of blows, having launched herself across the corridor as he went past. He falls to the floor, his back to the bare brick, throwing his hands up to protect himself as Eleanor kicks frantically at his head and chest before being pulled away by her pal Moira Gallacher and latter-day smoking buddie Joanne. Danny Doyle gets to his feet, blood seeping from a cut on the cheek where Eleanor must have got him with her nails or a ring. He looks a little dazed for a moment but quickly hares off when he sees Eleanor straining at the leash for some more.

"Aye, you fuckin better run, ya prick," she screams after him.

"Whit was that aboot?" Richie asks.

"Fuck knows," Scot replies.

"Must be her bad week," somebody mutters. This would be funny if the permanently furious Eleanor ever had a good one.

Noodsy is keeping the edgy at the changing-room door, checking along the corridor so he can let his classmates know if Cook is coming. As the period started about five minutes ago, this is only liable to be if Cook hears sufficient racket to put him off his crossword, or in the unprecedented event of him deciding to start the class inside fewer than fifteen minutes. There's always something going on in the changing rooms during this gap-games of run the gauntlet, dummy fighting, not-so-dummy fighting-so somebody usually has to keep the edgy, which is a risky and selfless task, and therefore one never taken on by the big men like Jai Burns and Gerry Lafferty. The risk element comes from the possibility of Cook or Blake or one of the lassies' teachers-Watson and Manacre-clocking you at it; the selfless part being that you miss whatever carry-on you're on edgy duty to protect.

Today it's not such a sacrifice, as they're playing run the gauntlet, which Noodsy is content enough to avoid. This usually involves lobbing some object around-a ball if there is one, but a glove or shoe will do-with whoever fumbles it having to run from one end of the room to the other while his classmates line up on either side to take wallops at him as he goes past. Noodsy has never understood the appeal because he doesn't see the fun side of hitting people and is damn sure there's no fun side to having thirty fists and as many feet flailing at you in a confined space. He's run it a few times and suffered a few nasty ones. To be honest, most folk just send in a token slap, but there are some vicious wee bastards who love the chance of a free hit and consequently give it all they've got. The big men don't run it very often, mainly because folk are seldom brave enough to lob the object at them. They don't exempt themselves if caught out, however, but nobody ever tries to hit them very hard in case it's noted.

Noodsy is thinking about the mirror on his pet budgie's cage right now, and how useful it would be for scoping down the corridor without getting caught. Maybe he should start packing it with his PE kit. For now, however, he's settling for trying to look while exposing as little of his head as possible round the door frame. He hears a door squeak and jumps back in response, but realises it was too close to be from the PE base. It's right next door, in fact. He pops his head out again and sees Dom Reilly doing exactly the same thing, on behalf of 1S4, with whom 1S3 get PE.

You often see somebody else keeping the edgy, though never for the lassies. Not surprising, really, Noodsy thinks. With them all in there stripping off, they wouldn't need much entertainment beyond the chance to stare at each other's tits. That's what he'd be doing if he was a lassie, anyway.

"Awright, Noodsy," Dom whispers. "Any chance of a doubley-up edgy?"

This would let Dom go back inside, on the understanding that Noodsy would hammer on the wall to let 1S4 know if Cook was coming.

Noodsy doesn't need to think about it long: he's not missing anything, so it's a cheap way to be owed a favour. "Aye, gaun yoursel," he says quietly.

"Cheers, Noodsy." Dom smiles, then withdraws again.

Noodsy returns to his attempts to minimise his visibility. He wishes he could see how it looks from the other end, but reckons there can't be much more than an inch of his face sticking out. There's no way Cook's going to notice anything from the far end of the corridor, not the first second he comes out of the base, anyway, which is all Noodsy will need. He's got one foot holding the door away from him, so he can get inside in a flash. Just need to watch the door doesn't slam on the way in. Oh, and better not forget to chap for 1S4, either. Perfect edgy technique. Should be on the official syllabus. More tricky than the gymnastics they're doing at the moment, though anything's a major fucking improvement on that country dancing torture they were subjected to last mo- "You, boy. Blue tracksuit. In the doorway. Get here, now."

Noodsy just about knocks himself out when he nuts the door frame in sheer fright at the sound of the woman's voice behind him. He turns around slowly and sees Manacre standing just outside the entrance to the main gym hall, ten yards along the corridor in the opposite direction from the base.

Balls.

He walks hurriedly towards her. It doesn't do to be anything less than cooperative, especially if your best bet for a lash-free outcome is to act the innocent eejit. Manacre is tall and skinny, toweling over him. He looks at her long arms folded across her chest, can think of nothing but how big a swing they'd manage with a leather belt.

"What are you doing out of the dressing room?"

"Miss...miss..."

"You know you're supposed to sit and wait until Mr Cook or Mr Blake arrives, don't you?"

Thank fuck, she's not calling him directly on keeping the edgy. Noodsy opts to go with the enthusiastic dafty line. "Miss, yes, miss, I know, miss. I was just having a wee look to see if Mr Cook was coming, because it's been a wee while, and it's gymnastics, and I really like gymnastics, miss, and..."

"What's your name?"

"It's James, miss. James Doon. 1S3, miss."

"Okay, James. I'll turn a blind eye this time, but I don't ever want to see you or anyone else out of that room without permission again. Is that understood?"

Callus. His heart's beating away, but he can feel the relief. Got away with it, and well played, even if he says so himself.

"Yes, Miss Manacre," he confirms.

Her face suddenly sharpens and her eyes go all wide.

"Miss what?" she demands.

James sees it too late. He should have seen it way back, but he's never spoken to her, seldom even seen her, and never, ever, heard anyone address her. Aye, sure should have seen it and worked it out. She's standing there, tall and skinny, arms folded across her chest. Folded across her flat chest.

Manacre, that's all he's ever heard her called. Not Miss Manacre, just Manacre.

Man-Acre. Miss Acre.

Aw, balls.

Two of the lash, coming right up. Yet again.

Karen stops the car at the kerbside in front of Johnny Turner's place, one of a dozen or so large modern houses in what the marketing brochures like to call 'an exclusive development' just off Nether Carnock Road. She played here on her bike when it was a derelict site, rubble and debris from a demolished warehouse appropriated to form an obstacle course of ramps and jumps when BMX was cool. Colin Temple had a proper BMX, she remembers, plus a helmet and elbow pads. She had a Raleigh Commando, its twist-grip gears stuck in third, but it handled the course better than the poor buggers trying to do ramp-jumps on five-speed racers.

There's a wide monoblock driveway leading up to a double garage, in front of which a red Toyota MR2 indicates, as they have heard, that Boma has returned to the family pile-probably to put Papa's affairs in order before the reading of the will. Or to shred some documents and dispose of certain items before the polis get hold of them. Could be either.

"What you smiling about?" Tom asks her.

"Posh digs. I'm just remembering how much abuse Robbie Turner used to dish out to anyone who lived in a 'boat hoose'."

"Maybe we've finally got a motive for killing his old man."

"Sure. "Father, you have brought shame on the family name by your upward mobility, and for committing the ultimate sin of being a fuckin snob, you leave me no choice but to administer the terminal malky.""

"Where did he live when you were a kid?"

"Just round the corner from me and my folks in Braeview. My parents live in Saltcoats now."

"The Shitey Shore."