A further word search on McLaughlin’s name just repeated in some form what had gone before. Rhona abandoned McCreadie’s notes and, fetching a coffee, now began to peruse the photographs she’d taken of the victim at the scene of crime.

The results of the taping of the body would be looked at more closely tomorrow in the lab, followed by the further tapings done at the autopsy. As well as the severed penis, evidence of anal penetration (although no semen deposit) had also suggested a sexual motive in the death of McLaughlin, which might be a revenge attack for the rape of three minors or earlier sexual assaults that he hadn’t been brought to justice for. Or even all the way back to what he’d been up to on that street forty-five years ago.

According to McNab, there had been a number of attacks on McLaughlin’s life in prison, and once he’d made his presence known to the outside world via the tabloid story, anyone who wanted revenge knew where to find him.

Rhona didn’t envy the investigation team their job. In her case, the forensic trace evidence she found and identified didn’t involve truth or lies, just facts with their associated probability. For the team on Mary’s murder, McLaughlin’s death just added a further complication.

It would also involve many more man hours, which officers would rather have seen used in the search for Mary’s killer. Assuming that killer wasn’t McLaughlin himself.

Rhona transferred her thoughts to the image currently on the laptop screen. A close-up of the throat showed a homicidal wound to the neck. Deeper on the right, suggesting perhaps a left-handed killer, it was classically asymmetrical, with no tentative marks.

There were also no defensive marks on McLaughlin’s forearms, hands or fingers, so he hadn’t been attempting to defend himself at the time. A forensic pathologist would report how this might have been played out.

Rhona’s unpleasant mental picture was of McLaughlin forced onto his hands and knees before both wounds and the rape were inflicted. A man of his age, bulk and mobility would have been unlikely to have had the strength to resist.

Unless, of course, it hadn’t been rape, and he’d adopted that position willingly.

As for the size and shape of the knife, and the direction of the cut, the forensic pathologist would register their opinion on that at the autopsy.

From a trace point of view, the killer had engaged with McLaughlin’s naked body. Perhaps also his clothes. On average, human beings lost 50 to 100 hairs from their head per day. It was no different with pubic hair.

The killer had spent a considerable time with his victim, and every contact left a trace.

They just had to identify that trace.

47

Since she’d left the cottage, she’d begun to fill in the blanks, although she wasn’t sure what was the actual truth or what she imagined to be the truth.

She remembered her childhood as happy, yet bad things had happened. Her time with Mary she remembered as good. They’d laughed a lot. Or Mary had made her laugh. Mary knew about the world. How, Karen didn’t know, but Mary knew more about it than she did. Mary had told her there had once been a volcano in Edinburgh. How could that be right? Volcanoes were in other places in the world, not in Scotland. But she’d believed her.