Scot was the ultimate deal-maker; he loved risk and lived for adrenaline. He had a moral code, for sure, but I always suspected that his business deals flew close to the wind. Two months ago, I sat down in my London flat and opened an email that forced me to consider just how close that might have been. The subject line said “Noelle Reno”, and inside the message read: “Good morning from Kiev … the devil has come for his dues and what Scot owed us, of course.” The person or group who sent it was demanding five bitcoins, the equivalent of £50,000, which they claimed Scot owed them when he died on December 8, 2014.

It was a week after the poisoning of Sergei