‘Any evidence.’

‘Well, we can always make a start with attempted murder.’ Rebus slipped a hand into his pocket, brought out the phone.

‘Who are you going to call?’ Devlin asked.

‘Don’t you want an ambulance?’ Rebus held the phone up, took a step forwards.

‘Just a couple of stitches,’ Devlin commented, examining the wound again. Sweat dripped from his hair and the sides of his face. He was breathing hard, wheezily.

‘You don’t make the grade as a serial killer any more, do you, Professor?’

‘It’s been some time,’ he agreed.

‘Was Betty-Anne Jesperson the last?’

‘I’d nothing to do with young Philippa, if that’s what you’re asking.’

‘Someone stealing your idea?’

‘Well, it wasn’t exactly mine in the first place.’

‘Are there any others?’

‘Others?’

‘Victims we don’t know about.’

Devlin’s smile broke open some of the cuts on his face. ‘Isn’t four enough?’

‘You tell me.’

‘It seemed … satisfactory. No pattern, you see. Two bodies not even found.’

‘Just the coffins.’

‘Which might never have been connected …’

Rebus nodded slowly, didn’t say anything.

‘Was it the autopsy?’ Devlin asked at last. Rebus nodded again. ‘I knew it was a risk.’

‘If you’d told us at the start you’d carried out the Glasgow post-mortem, we wouldn’t have thought anything of it.’

‘But back then, I couldn’t know what else you might find. Other connections, I mean. And by the time I saw you weren’t going to come up with anything, it was too late. I could hardly say “Oh, incidentally, I was one of the pathologists”, not after we’d already been through the notes …’

He dabbed at his face with his fingers, finding blood issuing from the cuts. Rebus held the phone a little closer.

‘That ambulance … ?’ he offered.

Devlin shook his head. ‘In good time.’ A middle-aged woman made to pass them, eyes widening in horror as she saw Devlin. ‘A stumble down the steps,’ he reassured her. ‘Help is on its way.’

She quickened her pace away from the scene.

‘I think I’ve said more than enough, don’t you, DI Rebus?’

‘Not for me to say, sir.’

‘I do hope DS Wylie doesn’t get into trouble.’

‘For what?’

‘Not keeping a closer eye on me when I was studying the autopsy reports.’

‘I don’t think she’s the one that’s in trouble here.’

‘Uncorroborated evidence, isn’t that what we’re dealing with, Inspector? One woman’s word against mine? I’m sure I can find some plausible motive for my fight with Miss Burchill.’ He studied his hand. ‘One might almost call me the victim. And let us be honest, what else do you have? Two drownings, two missing persons, no evidence.’