Dr Johnstone carried with him a glass of whisky but did not offer one to his visitor. Raven didn’t interpret it as impolite; more that it had slipped his mind that he ought to. Perhaps his wife had been the one who played host in such times.

‘The housekeeper told me your name, but I have quite forgotten it.’

‘I am Dr Will Raven. I am Dr Simpson’s new assistant.’

Dr Johnstone nodded, briefly closing his eyes. ‘Of course you are.’

His tone was irritable, on the cusp of annoyance. Raven inferred that he had little margin for error before he might be shown the door.

Dr Johnstone strode purposefully across the room, proceeding past him to the sideboard. He produced from it several newspapers and journals, which he slapped down deliberately hard to emphasise their collective heft.

He was telling Raven there was no need for him to state his business. He was also telling him precisely how welcome he was.

‘My wife’s death has become a mere football kicked around in a game between men who ought to know better.’

Raven spoke softly. ‘Believe me, Dr Johnstone, sir, there is nobody who regrets that more than Dr Simpson.’

Johnstone opened one of the journals and stabbed a finger at the page.

‘I’m sure that … Professor Miller and Professor Henderson were they here would profess their regret too.’

‘Not with any sincerity. While I have no doubt that they would profess regret, I believe there is an unseemly alacrity with which they have seized upon your wife’s demise. They are men who have various grudges against Dr Simpson. You are right that it has become a game, but one which Dr Simpson has been too courteous to play. Which is why I am taking it upon myself, unbeknownst to him, to ascertain the truth of the matter and hopefully put an end to it.’

Dr Johnstone fixed him with a sour look.

‘You are not the first. There was a woman here recently, asking the same thing.’

‘Mrs Banks,’ Raven stated, to confirm they were working together. It felt like a retrospective attempt to confer some credentials upon her, as he could now well imagine how she must have been received.

‘Yes, though I didn’t see the point. These are complex medical matters, so how could she have understood them? In truth I was relieved to learn that Dr Simpson didn’t send her, as it would have shown a level of disrespect I would consider beneath him.’

Raven was surprised by the strength of his urge to correct Dr Johnstone on Sarah’s knowledge and capabilities, and felt disloyal that he chose to suppress it. However, he was trying to get the man to open up, and ruled it an occasion when discretion was the better part of valour.