My only saving grace was that Smithy had been put with the Officer in Charge of Suspects and snuck me in on proceedings as much as he could. It was courtesy of his goodwill that I was here at the university, sitting in the Pharmacy Department, listening to him interview the students and staff Rose-Marie knew. The university had always intrigued me, with its mix of stunning Gothic bluestone buildings such as its iconic registry clock tower, contrasting with some sixties’ monstrosities that defied all rules of aesthetics, and several modern cutting-edge glass-and-metal numbers. This building, alas, fell into the monstrosity category and was over by the hospital and Medical School, rather than the central campus. It was so ugly, with its flat, concrete utilitarian walls and inset iron windows in cack-green it was just as well it was tucked back off the street. Probably more fascinating to me was the thought of all that intellectual might going on in the university’s hallowed halls. If you looked past the well-publicised drunken shenanigans of a few students, it was incredible to think of the young people passing through the halls and buildings, striving for higher and greater things. Of course, the fact that none of them seemed to have mastered the art of crossing a road would surely knock back the tally of graduates at the end of the year. That, and the few who insisted on skateboarding down the busiest and/or steepest streets in the city. They were head injuries waiting to happen. In a way, that was another form of Darwinian selection. Those who were dumb enough to do that wouldn’t live to propagate the species. See, I didn’t need a flash paper degree or diploma to prove I had a clue. Still, that didn’t stop me feeling a pang whenever I set foot on campus, wondering if perhaps Maggie had the right idea, after all. Maybe some study could be useful. But no, I’d dedicated myself to being a detective, and I loved this job. I lived and breathed for this job. Which made it rankle even more when the arseholes tried to spoil it for me.