‘Nature’s the beast, not the beasts themselves. You can’t tame the wildness that comes from within. Tigers kill for sport. Coyotes make an art of it. Cats play with mice for hours before killing them.’

‘Is that what you did with Stephen Berry?’ Dr Fox asked.

‘He was the easiest of them all. We went to Tantallon Castle as therapy. I told him he’d feel more alive if he took controlled risks, let himself feel wild. We climbed a fence, climbed a wall. He fell for it all so easily. Then he refused to let go. He clung on and cried and begged, just like I knew he would. He was weak like all of them. What part of natural justice do you not comprehend?’

‘What about the farmer, Jon Moffat? How did you come to cross paths with him?’ Dr Fox continued.

‘He was the patient of a former colleague of mine for several years. I saw him coming and going, never improving, occasionally making an attempt at ending his miserable existence, but he couldn’t even get that right. That one really was a mercy killing. In the wild, a creature that badly injured would be left to die. Why do human beings insist on patching people up, on prolonging life when it would be far better simply to let nature take its course? Moffat was burned beyond recognition. I saw the photos of him from before. You can’t tell me it wouldn’t have been a kindness for him not to have survived the fire.’

‘But how do their deaths benefit you, specifically?’ Dr Fox asked, making notes.

‘How does eating a meal benefit you? Explain this. One of the few natural threats to the crow is the fox. Is that why they sent you, Doctor? You’re not at all what you seem in your white coat and your shiny stethoscope. Was that supposed to hypnotise me?’

‘Because of my name?’ Dr Fox asked. ‘That’s just a coincidence …’

‘His stats are going wild,’ one of the students interrupted. ‘His brain function’s not normal, at all.’

‘Which has been documented before in clinical lycanthropy cases. These patients are so convinced that they’ve become another animal that their brain actually begins to function in new ways,’ the professor said, changing position in the room to get a better view of Maclure.

‘So what causes delusional misidentification syndrome?’ another student asked.

‘We believe it’s right hemispheric lesions,’ the professor replied, distracted. ‘What’s Maclure doing?’