“Well, if I can’t tempt you, let’s just get out for a minute.” Rebus turned off the ignition, undid his seat belt and pushed open his door.

“Why?” Meikle wasn’t budging.

Rebus leaned back into the car. “Something to show you.”

“What if I’m not interested?”

But Rebus just winked and closed the door, heading around the car and across the grass towards the gateway. The keys were still in the ignition, and Meikle studied them for a good twenty or thirty seconds before cursing under his breath, composing himself and opening the passenger-side door.

Rebus was the other side of the park’s perimeter wall, the eastern suburbs of the city laid out below him.

“It’s a steep climb,” he was saying, shading his eyes with his free hand. “But you were younger then. Or maybe you weren’t on foot—bound to be a mate’s car you could borrow. All you had to tell them was you had something needed shifting.”

“This is about Dorothy,” Meikle stated.

“What else?” Rebus gave a thin smile. “Almost two weeks before she was reported missing.”

“It was eleven years ago…”

“Two weeks,” Rebus repeated. “Your story was you thought she’d gone to stay with her sister. Bit of a falling-out between the two of you. Well, there was no way you could deny that—neighbors couldn’t help hearing the shouting matches. So you might as well turn it to your advantage.” Only now did Rebus turn towards the man. “Two weeks, and even then it was her sister who had to contact us. Never a trace of Dorothy leaving the city—we asked at the train and bus stations. It was like you were a magician and you’d put her in one of those boxes. Open it up and she’s not there.” He paused and took half a step towards Meikle. “But she is there, Peter. She’s somewhere in this city.” He stamped his left foot against the ground. “Dead and buried.”

“I was questioned at the time, remember?”

“Chief suspect,” Rebus added with a slow nod.

“She could have gone out drinking, met the wrong man…”

“Hundreds of pubs we visited, Peter, showing her picture, asking the regulars.”

“Tried thumbing a lift then—you can lose yourself in London.”

“Where she had no friends? Never touching her bank account?” Rebus was shaking his head now.

“I didn’t kill her.”

Rebus made show of wincing. “This is just the two of us, Peter. I’m not wearing a wire or anything; it’s for my own peace of mind, that’s all. Once you’ve told me you brought her up here and buried her, that’ll be the end of it.”

“I thought you weren’t working cold cases anymore.”

“Where did you hear that?”

“Edinburgh’s being shut down, transferred.”

“True enough. But not everyone would be as informed as you seem to be.”