I raised my eyes at him, needing to hear something relevant, or more nonsense that would convince me to cut my losses and get back to the station. ‘I cleaned him up as best I could–and he told me a few things. He was in Edinburgh for business and he’d gone down to the Shore to find a girl.’ Kailash snorted. ‘He’d looked around, saw someone he liked the look of and picked her up in his car. They’d gone to a business park nearby and got started. He said she moved over to her bag to get a condom and brought out a knife instead. The guy was still terrified, Brodie. He said she was possessed; she was slashing away scratching him, trying to cut him, until he finally managed to push her out of the car and get away. He’s not going to make a complaint to the police, is he? In fact, he’s probably well on his way home. I just thought you need to know this stuff–it might help you.’

‘What?’ I snorted, just like my mother a few moments earlier, ignoring the fact that she seemed to be trying to give me information that might aid my case–even though it would harm her reputation if it got out that she wasn’t as discreet as she needed to be about all punters. ‘He’s so bloody traumatized that he still needs to get laid a couple of hours later? If he had the money, why didn’t he come here in the first place?’

‘You’d be surprised,’ said Kailash. ‘Or maybe you wouldn’t. They come here claiming to be upset about their wives dying, or their kids being ill, or their businesses folding–they can always find the money and the inclination for a pretty girl lying on her back. Sounds like this guy–my new lodger–didn’t get what he wanted from the psycho down the Docks, and he realized that later when he’d calmed down, so decided to stop being such a cheapskate.’

‘Why do I need to know all of this?’ I asked her.

‘Because there is someone out there killing punters. Wealthy punters who are in the city for business. Now I’m telling you that someone has tried again. It’s the same pattern, from what I can tell, from what…sources have told me. Now, go put two and two together and see if you can come up with four.’

‘Kailash, you’re always so far ahead of everyone else that half of the time we don’t even know what you’re going on about,’ I told her.

‘You’ll see. Now, it’s time for you to go. I have housekeeping to deal with.’ She fixed a steely glare on Rochelle as Malcolm and I got up. Good luck to the girl, I thought.

Chapter Forty-Nine