I stood up. ‘And he wouldn’t tell you where it was unless you changed your report.’

Gerry Cornwell nodded. He continued, ‘I couldn’t let the young boy die, and I knew Milne wouldn’t tell us unless he got his own way. Milne was an expert at manipulating people, including me. I enlisted the help of Lord Edward Hunter and Sam Jones. The police could not track down the boy. He had been missing for over a week and we had to take action. I changed the report, and Lord Hunter spoke to the Court of Appeal judges off the bench. He didn’t tell them the truth–he couldn’t be seen to be giving in to blackmail.’

‘You thought you could control Kevin Milne,’ I said quietly.

He nodded. ‘Kevin’s IQ is remarkably high. His exam results were exceptional, and the Appeal Court had no difficulty in believing he had changed. They couldn’t believe a boy from Kevin’s background could be so intelligent. They knew nothing.’

‘You were wrong,’ I said.

He nodded in agreement. ‘We were all wrong, and now…? Now he’s got Sam.’

Chapter Fifty

Tired, exhausted and sick to death, I decided I’d better stop off at the hospital to see my client. The car park at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary is always busy, but miraculously I found a space near A&E. Rumour had it that they had moved the hospital away from the centre of town to keep the hypochondriacs and time-wasters away–it didn’t seem to have worked if the queue for medical attention was anything to go by A nurse with an armful of files managed to raise a smile in my direction when I walked in the door. I looked like trouble. I carried my battered black helmet under my arm. My scuffed boots were trailing mud through the A&E and she still smiled: maybe they were angels after all.

‘I’m here to see Dr Graham Marshall,’ I said. She was tired, her eyes flicked up to the right going through the duty roster of junior doctors. She was about to tell me there was no such doctor on call when I explained, ‘Police brought him in earlier.’

She rolled her eyes. ‘Ah, him. Are you family?’