And, turning to Mr Kinnoul, where had he been this morning? Business meetings, he said. Meetings with potential partners and potential backers. He was trying to set up an independent television company, though he’d be grateful if the information went no further. And the previous evening? He’d spent it at home with his wife. And they hadn’t seen or heard anything? Not a thing. They’d been watching TV all night, not current TV but old stuff kept on video, stuff featuring Mr Kinnoul himself . . . Knife Ledge. The on-screen assassin.

‘You must have learned a few tricks of the trade in your time, Mr Kinnoul.’

‘You mean acting?’

‘No, I mean about how to kill . . .’

And then there was Gregor Jack . . . Rebus kept out of that altogether. He’d look at any notes and transcripts later. He didn’t want to get involved. There was too much he already knew, too much prejudgement, which was another way of saying potential prejudice. He let other CID men deal with Mr Jack, and with Ian Urquhart, and with Helen Greig, and with all Elizabeth Jack’s cronies and cohorts. For this wasn’t merely a case of the lady vanishing; this was a matter of death. Jamie Kilpatrick, the Hon. Matilda Merriman, Julian Kaymer, Martin Inman, Louise Patterson-Scott, even Barney Byars. They’d all either been questioned, or were about to be. Perhaps they’d all be questioned again at a later date. There were missing days to be filled. Huge gaps in Liz Jack’s life, the whole final week of her life. Where had she been? Who had she seen? When had she died? (Hurry up, please, Dr Curt. Chop-chop.) How had she died? (Ditto.) Where was her car?

But Rebus read all the transcripts, all the notes. He read through the interview with Gregor Jack, and the interview with Ronald Steele. A Detective Constable was sent to Braidwater Golf Course to check the story of the Wednesday afternoon game. The interview with Steele, Rebus read very carefully indeed. Asked about Elizabeth Jack, Steele admitted that ‘she always accused me of not being enough fun. She was right, I suppose. I’m not exactly what you’d call a “party animal”. And I never had enough money. She liked people with money to throw around, or who threw it around even if they couldn’t afford it.’

A touch of bitterness there? Or just the bitter truth?

To all of which Rebus added one other question – had Elizabeth Jack ever left Edinburgh in the first place?

Then there was the separate hunt, the hunt for William Glass. If he had gone to Queensferry, where would be next? West, towards Bathgate, Linlithgow, or Bo’ness? Or north, across the Forth to Fife? Police forces were mobilized. Descriptions were issued. Had Liz Jack spent any time at all at Deer Lodge? How could William Glass simply disappear? Was there any connection between Mrs Jack’s death and her husband’s ‘night out’ at an Edinburgh brothel?