She smiled again. ‘I told you what I want; I want a face-to-face interview with Dr Graham Marshall.’

‘Is that really what this is all about? You’ve got Joe just so you can get a crappy interview with someone? Anyway, I’ve told you–it’s not possible. He won’t see you and I can’t make him.’

‘Then arrange for me to see him when he comes into court.’

‘That’s not possible either…’

‘Make it happen.’ She handed me a mobile phone. ‘I’ll ring you tomorrow. I’ll be expecting good news.’

Chapter Fifty-Nine

The cold wind was driving rain into our faces, stinging the skin on our cheeks and turning them red raw. The weather was coming in off the River Forth, and the Docks are exposed. Gusts blew around our legs, spraying water from the puddles up over our shoes; my feet were soaked. Moses pulled me by the arm and dragged me across the cobbles to the quayside. He lifted his legs and straddled the thick black iron chain.

‘No point in us catching our deaths,’ he said, climbing up the gangway to a deserted herring trawler that had been converted into a restaurant. It had failed. Slipping his tools out of his pocket, he slid open the lock. I was beyond caring. Buffeted by the wind, I dared God to do his worst. Our feet clanked against the polished oak floorboards. Moses led his way into the galley as the gale blew the boat against its mooring, bumping it off the side of the quay, jolting my stomach. I suspected we both had the same thoughts. Who was Patsy Barnes? Certainly not, I now knew, a journalist–unless she was also a psychopath. The two weren’t mutually exclusive. And how had she managed to capture and assault Joe, whose very appearance could put the fear of death into Edinburgh’s hardest men?

‘It’s nearly midnight. What the fuck are we going to do, Brodie? You heard what she said. You have to arrange a face-to-face meeting for her with Marshall tomorrow or…’ Although Patsy Barnes hadn’t said what would happen if we ignored her instructions, the threat was clear enough for us to understand. If I didn’t arrange a get-together between her and Marshall, Joe was history.

I had several problems in front of me. The first insurmountable hurdle was that Marshall wasn’t due back in court for another seven days. I could think of no reason the prosecutor would bring him out of prison for any reason other than court. If I tried to arrange for Patsy Barnes to see Marshall in Saughton Prison, he’d refuse to come out of his cell for the visit and there was nothing I could do about it.