I took my place, ready for the AIM presentation or what I guessed would be the Alan Purdy show. I would definitely have to have a word with Alice afterwards.

Once everyone had settled down Mr Purdy was announced as one of Edinburgh’s success stories. He stood beaming and welcomed us all, thanked the two previous speakers for their erudite performances, cracked a couple of jokes which, although not particularly funny, were met by the obligatory laughter – mainly from the younger bunch.

His presentation was slick. There is no doubt about that. Power Point slides with multi-coloured graphs succeeded one another at just the right speed. You had time to absorb the effect of the slide while he pointed out the one or two numbers he wanted you to notice and then on to the next one. There was no way the slide was up long enough for anyone to fully absorb the detail.

The whole thing was very upbeat. Intelligently, he mentioned a couple of investments that had not turned out quite as well as expected but they had not had a major effect on the overall picture.

“We pride ourselves at AIM in our capacity and nerve to take risk – measured risks. That’s where the money is. Perhaps not today but at some point in the future we are sure that the risk ventures will come through.”

He was in command. He had his audience’s full attention. It was a mixture of plain language interspersed with just enough technical terms and buzzwords to sound very convincing. The trouble was it was mostly flannel. He succeeded in convincing everybody that last year’s growth of three point nine per cent and the upside potential of the riskier investments, linked to the likely overall economic indicators for the next few years was an excellent performance – even better than the previous year’s three point five per cent.

A very satisfied Mr Purdy sat down to applause from the audience and congratulatory handshakes from his fellow presenters.

The Master of Ceremonies then announced that Mr Purdy would be happy to take questions from the hall. As always on these occasions there was silence for a few moments. Then an earnest young lady from the middle of the young bunch stood up and asked the first question. It was something to do with the ratio of fixed and variable returns in the portfolio which could have been answered with two or three simple figures, but somehow Purdy managed to spin out his answer to last about five minutes. Definitely a man who liked the sound of his own voice. He’d have been a good game show host.

Another couple of inane questions followed which were summarily dealt with and then our organiser looked at his watch and announced.

“We’ve time for one more question.”

I got to my feet, a couple of sheets of paper in my hand with some numbers on them which I had jotted down the day before.

I noticed Pierre, Steven and Alice all turn their heads towards me.

“I have a question for Mr Purdy.” Purdy was at this point smiling at the taxman sitting next to him, obviously thinking that his job was done. He wasn’t paying much attention to me.

“I’d first like to congratulate Mr Purdy on his very polished delivery.”

That got his attention. He smiled at me and nodded his thanks.

I pretended I was consulting my notes and glanced up and eyeballed him. The smile faded slightly. He started to look a little nervous.

“I’ve been looking at the results of other funds of similar size and the average growth figures I have is seven point two per cent for last year – some hitting as high as ten per cent. I also noted that the year before their average was six point nine per cent. According to my calculations that is a differential of, let’s say, three and a half per cent each year, which, for a fund of fifty million, makes three and a half million pounds over the two years. Can Mr Purdy explain to us where this missing money has gone?”

There was dead silence. You could have heard a budgie burp.

The younger generation looked shocked. The older generation woke up.

The MC jumped in. “Sir, I think your question is out of order.” “I’m sorry,” I replied. “Perhaps I didn’t frame the question correctly. What I meant was that if investors had put their money in other funds they would be three and a half million pounds better off.”

Meanwhile Purdy had rallied from the shock and recovered. He stood up and signaled to the MC that it was ok.

“Mr . . .?”

“Bruce,” I replied. “Thank you for rephrasing your question. You must admit that the way you put it the first time could have led to misunderstandings.”

I smiled at him.

“Let me explain.” He started by trying to cast doubt as to whether my numbers were correct and then veered back to the rubbish he had trotted out during his presentation. He gathered steam and managed to steer people’s thoughts away from the question I had asked.

When he sat down the MC quickly wrapped things up so that there would be no chance of any more questions from the floor, thanked everyone for coming and invited us all to take a drink outside before taking our leave.

A few of the old guard smiled at me and patted my arm as they passed on the way out.

Most of the audience accepted the offer of a drink and were milling about, slowly congregating into groups. I preferred to stand off on the side by the window and observe. The largest group was near the bar where Purdy was holding court. A few of the young brigade were gathered round him, hanging onto his every word. I also noticed with interest that Keith’s lawyer, whom I had met the other day at the golf course, was there too, frowning and making the occasional comment into Purdy’s ear. He must work for AIM as well, I thought to myself.

Steven approached me diffidently and made a show of introducing himself, handing me a business card.

“That was a nasty one.”

“It was meant to be!”

“Do you mind if I write about it?” “No, but keep it factual – as we agreed. Don’t go wild . . . yet. He didn’t like my question at all, but he was pretty good at covering it up. I think something is going on. I’ll tell you about it in a couple of days – ok?”

“Fine.” I could see that Purdy had noticed us chatting. He wasn’t going to come and speak to me in this public environment, that was for sure. But I did expect some kind of reaction to the potential embarrassment I had caused him.

I saw Alice hovering nearby so I excused myself from Steven and welcomed her with a smile as she came forward.

“You seemed to have rather set the cat among the pigeons,” she said.

“Well, that was the idea.” “Bob,” we were on Christian name terms now. “Do you think it would be possible that you could phone me sometime?” She slipped a small piece of paper into my hand, “So that you could advise me on what I should do about my investments? And, in the meantime, can I give you this?”

She handed me a large brown envelope. It felt as if it contained probably about twenty pieces of paper. I tucked it under my arm.

“It’s copies of my dealings with AIM. Perhaps you could look through it?”

“With pleasure,” I replied. Over her shoulder I could see Alan Purdy again glance in my direction. His brow furrowed for a fleeting second as he saw us talking. He turned and made a quick remark to a younger man standing beside him. The man flicked a look towards us and nodded. He immediately detached himself from the group and, accompanied by one of his colleagues, came purposefully over to us.

“Mrs Hetherington, nice to see you here,” said the colleague, taking her by the arm and leading her away from me.

At the same time the other man addressed himself to me. Looking at my name badge which I had not yet had time to hand in he said, “Mr Bruce, may I introduce myself. David Firkin. I work for Mr Purdy at AIM. I hope you enjoyed the conference.”