‘That’s very unusual in Scots criminal legal practice, Brodie. Didn’t it strike you as odd? Do you usually do this? Ah,’ she sighed, as if a thought had just occurred to her, ‘do the Dark Angels have you on a retainer?’

I didn’t answer her. I didn’t need to. I knew that I could poll my colleagues in the Edinburgh Bar Association and none of them would have a retainer from a criminal client. I put the phone down and rested my head on my arms. Would I never learn? I had to think. The rules had changed. For once in my legal life I hadn’t a clue what to do, and indecision paralysed me. I needed space, and that space wasn’t in the wee small hours in St Leonards police station with the client from hell.

Chapter Forty-Five

I found myself being drawn back to the Grassmarket. I couldn’t work Graham Marshall out. There was no doubt that he had been providing a free clinic there and there was no doubt that he was well thought of. Who was this man? What was he up to, if anything? Even although I had spent barely any time at the Mission on my last visit, I had enjoyed it, so I could reason to myself that I might find out more if I went again.

As I drove there, I couldn’t get what I had read in the files out of my mind. What had happened to little Matthew Cook had been horrific, and the children who had murdered him had revealed a lot about our society and our legal system. But was Graham Marshall really that boy? It was incredible to imagine, but the reports had said that he was prodigiously intelligent and cunning. He had been taken away from the environment that had spawned him and given shelter, food, education. Was it really such a stretch to wonder whether that had been the making of him? Added to that, if it was true, then he had chosen a perfect profession. He could work on himself, or get colleagues to do so, thus changing his appearance. He could make lots of money quickly and live in a world where secrecy and discretion were of the essence. I assumed that, if he was Kevin Milne, he had chosen Edinburgh to get as far away as possible from his original life, whilst remaining in the UK, which was probably part of the conditions. There was certainly no shortage of vain money and easy cash in the capital.

I parked the bike and walked past the bodies at the door of the Mission, none of whom I recognized. As soon as I got into the main hall, Ina was there. ‘Back already, hen? I’ll need to get you a name tag made up at this rate!’ She laughed and grabbed my elbow, steering me through to the kitchen. ‘You know the drill.’