“McCuskey,” Clarke echoed, adding the name to her phone.

“As in Patrick McCuskey.”

Clarke looked up at Alice Bell. “The politician?” Bell nodded, and Clarke turned her eyes towards Rebus, who gave a twitch of the mouth in response. Bell was digging her own phone out of a trouser pocket, finding Forbes McCuskey’s number. She recited it for Clarke’s benefit, then asked: “Should I ring him now?”

“If you like.”

But Bell seemed to reconsider. She turned the phone over in her hand and said she would wait till she’d seen them out.

“You’re still going to want to talk to him?” she checked. “And it’s okay for me to warn him?”

Clarke was nodding her agreement.

“All right then.” The student had risen to her feet. Clarke and Rebus followed suit and Bell led them back along the passageway. Rebus was half minded to ask to see Jessica’s room, but knew he didn’t have a good reason. At the door, Bell shook hands with both detectives. She was readying to close the door when Clarke remembered that she didn’t have a contact number for Bell herself. The student reeled it off, then retreated into the flat.

“‘Warn him’?” Rebus repeated.

“Yes, I noticed that.”

“So what do we do?”

She looked at her watch. “I need to go home and get changed for this cut-price dinner.”

“Having given me a lift first, obviously.”

“Up the hill to the Oxford Bar?”

“We’ll make a detective of you yet…”

Bia Bistrot was a small French-style restaurant on Colinton Road. Locals called the area Holy Corner due to a preponderance of churches at the intersection—Clarke counted four, though she couldn’t be certain how many were still active. David Galvin was already at the table. He beamed a smile as he rose to greet her. Tall and slim, he was wearing a dark suit with a white shirt, open at the neck. As she leaned in for a peck on the cheek, she asked if this was as casual as he cared to dress.

“I was going for Reservoir Dogs,” he explained. “Dapper but dangerous.”

“Good try.”

Galvin was only a couple of years younger than her and had been at the Procurator Fiscal’s office since arriving in the city half a decade back. They’d worked together on a case the previous autumn and that was when he had asked her out for a drink, on the pretext of going over some notes. It was now their agreed code, and every week or so he would text to ask if she could spare an evening for “a consultation.”

“I’ve not been here before,” Clarke said, taking in her surroundings.

“I like it—and it’s only five minutes from home.”

“Not for me.”

His smile faded. “I should have thought…”

“It’s fine, David—plenty of cabs around.” She accepted a menu and ordered a gin, lime and soda.