She was tall, she was dark, she was wearing a blood red dress that hugged her body so tight it left little to the imagination, but my imagination got to work anyway. Her matching red mask was stretched so tightly across her mouth I could see her perfectly formed lips moving seductively against the fabric, straining to be set free.

It was a cold December afternoon in Peebles. The church clock was chiming random numbers every half-hour. The wind blew snowflakes against the grimy panes of my office windows. I was thinking about heading down the stairs and over the road to Greggs for a coffee and a sausage roll, but I still owed them for yesterday’s toasted cheese and pickle and my credit was wearing thin. I needed a new case to replenish my dwindling cash reserves before my landlady decided to send in the bailiffs. I was reading over the deaths column in the Peeblesshire News when I heard the sound of high heels coming up the stairs and across the landing towards my office.

It was December in Peebles. A light sleet was falling across my window and down on to the busy High Street below me. Across the road the bright lights from Greggs fell across the pavement and I wondered if I could make it across the road for a coffee and a sausage roll without getting drenched, but then I saw the lunchtime queue of Peebles High School uniforms stretching down the street and I decided to stay in the office.

It was another Wednesday morning and I was on my third coffee of the day. I’d been to see the new Murder on the Orient Express film and had been trying to grow a thick luxurious moustache, but it wasn’t going well. My landlady had been on the phone wanting last month’s rent and threatening to change the locks if I didn’t pay up.

It was another Tuesday morning and I was on to my fourth coffee of the day. My landlady had been on the phone three times already asking when she was going to get last month’s rent so I was sending out final demands on some old bills, seeing if I could scrape enough cash together to keep her quiet. It was raining outside; it’s always raining these days. I looked out across the street wondering whether I could make it over to Greggs without getting drenched. That’s when I spotted her; crossing the street under a bright red umbrella. She stood out from the crowd with that elegant walk, those high heels and a dress that looked like it had been spray-painted on to her body fresh that morning.