Rebus lit himself a cigarette and drove home.

He sat in his chair and thought about Rhona. They’d shared so much over so many years ... and then it had all stopped. He’d chosen his job over his marriage, and that could not be forgiven. Last time he’d seen her had been in London, wearing her new life like armour. Nobody had warned him about Jackie Platt. His phone rang, and he snatched it from the floor.

‘Rebus.’

‘It’s Bill.’

Pryde sounded halfway to excited, which was as far as he ever ventured.

‘What have you got?’

‘Dark green Rover 600 - I think the owner called it “Sherwood Green” - stolen yesterday evening about an hour before the collision.’

‘Where from?’

‘Metered parking on George Street.’

‘What do you reckon?’

‘My advice is, keep an open mind. Having said that, at least now we’ve got a licence plate. Owner reported it at sixforty last night. It hasn’t turned up anywhere, so I’ve upped the alert status.’

‘Give me the reg.’

Pryde read out the letters and numbers. Rebus thanked him and put down the phone. He was thinking of Danny Simpson, dumped outside Fascination Street around the time Sammy was being hit. Coincidence? Or a double message, Telford and Rebus. Which put Big Ger Cafferty in the frame. He called the hospital, was told there was no change. Farlowe was in visiting. The nurse said he had his laptop with him.

Rebus recalled Sammy growing up - a series of isolated images. He hadn’t been there for her. He saw her in a series of fast jerky impressions, as if the film had been spliced. He tried not to think about the hell she had gone through at the hands of Gordon Reeve . . .

He saw good people doing bad things and bad people doing good, and he tried dividing the two into groups. He saw Candice and Tommy Telford and Mr Pink Eyes. And encompassing it all, he saw Edinburgh. He saw the mass of the people just getting on with their lives, and he saluted them. They knew things and felt things, things he’d never feel. He used to think he knew things. As a kid, he’d known everything. Now he knew differently. The only thing you could be sure of was the inside of your head, and even that could deceive you. I don’t even know myself, he thought. So how could he ever hope to know Sammy? And with each year, he understood less.

He thought of the Oxford Bar. Even on the wagon, he’d stayed a regular, drinking cola and mugs of coffee. A pub like the Ox was about so much more than just the hooch. It was therapy and refuge, entertainment and art. He checked his watch, thinking he could head down there now. Just a couple of whiskies and a beer, something to make him feel good about himself until the morning.

The phone rang again. He picked it up.