“I told her I was at House of Bruar,” Rebus went on.

“Seems she wasn’t taken in. My orders are to escort you to the A9 and stick with you as far as Daviot.”

“I’m being run out of town by the sheriff?”

“That you are, Hopalong.”

“I didn’t grass you up, Gavin.”

“I know that. But if she set her mind to it, it wouldn’t take her five minutes to work out I’m the one who got you that visitor’s pass.”

“Well, we’d better get you into her good books pronto, then.” Rebus rose to his feet and reached for his jacket. “But if you should happen to hear anything on the grapevine…”

“You’d be grateful for a tip-off?” Arnold guessed with a smile. “Tell me, is it possible for anyone to come to know you without them always feeling they’re slipping their neck into a noose?”

“You’d have to ask my legion of friends.”

“Do you need to settle up?” Arnold nodded towards the teapot.

“Already done,” Rebus assured him.

“We’re ready for the off, then.”

Rebus stopped in front of him, their faces mere inches apart. “Kenny Magrath did it, Gavin. I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life.”

“Then we’ll catch him,” Arnold said.

“Will we, though? We don’t always, you know.”

As they passed the reception desk, Rebus thought of Sally Hazlitt and the alternative identity she’d created, far from friends and family, spending her life always in motion, never quite able to trust or settle or drop her guard.

Arnold’s patrol car stayed on Rebus’s tail until the Daviot signpost, then dropped back, flashing its headlights a couple of times as if to say a final, defining farewell.

Part Six

Woke up this morning, I had snow in my eyes
And I’ve been sleeping under terrible skies…

64

Nothing happened.

Rebus went into work each day and watched as more and more boxes were decanted. Men in overalls came with trolleys to take them away, and someone from the Crown Office Cold Case Unit arrived to thank them for their work and offer assurances that none of the cases on Lothian and Borders’ books would be forgotten. This man seemed already to know Daniel Cowan, and the two of them disappeared for a long lunch. Afterward, Cowan’s cheeks were rosy and he had a wide smile for everyone in the room.

“You got the job, didn’t you?” Elaine Robison asked, while Rebus and Peter Bliss feigned a lack of interest.

“Nothing’s official yet.”

“You did, though,” she went on, and Cowan’s smile grew broader.

SCRU was being wound up at the end of the week, but by Wednesday the shelves were empty. An IT technician went through their computers, saving files onto a single portable hard drive before deleting everything.

“Means we can recycle the units,” he explained.

Watching, Rebus was reminded of the scene in 2001, the voice of HAL slowing down inexorably.

“To think of all the blood, sweat and tears,” Bliss commented.