Tyre tracks in the long grass proved her right. It would be just a few short steps from the vehicle into the house, completely hidden from the road. Firefighters had bashed in the back door, and a kitchen table was just visible, as was the edge of an ageing cooker. The house was ideally positioned. Not far from the city as the crow flew. No close neighbours to get suspicious. The sort of thick farmhouse walls that lent themselves to natural soundproofing as long as the windows weren’t accessible. Connie stepped further away from the house and looked up to check. There were no obvious signs of life behind the upper-floor windows. In fact, there was nothing visible in the upstairs windows. She shielded her eyes. No curtains, no wallpaper. Just darkness behind each pane of glass. As if …

‘This is it,’ she whispered to herself. ‘Definitely fucking it.’ She pulled her mobile from her pocket, getting voicemail in response to dialling Baarda’s number. ‘Baarda, you’ve got to get here right now. I’m at Tamar House, Whitehill Road, Niddrie Mains, and it’s on fire. I have no idea who’s inside.’

Firefighters began sprinting from the back door, waving at paramedics. Connie approached as near as she could without causing an obstruction, trying to catch the conversation. A stretcher was being taken inside, but there was much shaking of heads and shrugging. An oxygen face mask was carried through, and paramedics stood by tense, ready to act.

Connie could wait no longer. She had to know if this was the right house.

‘Excuse me, they only took one stretcher in,’ she said to the paramedic. ‘Does that mean they only found one body?’

‘You are?’ the paramedic asked.

‘With the police,’ Connie replied.

The paramedic nodded, her eyes on the back door of the property. ‘Just one, a male. They’ve done a full sweep now. It’s proving difficult to get him out, and they’re concerned about the level of smoke inhalation. The police certainly won’t be able to speak with him tonight. We’ll have blues and twos on getting him to hospital. If he survives, you can expect him to be there several days, and that’s before we assess any burns.’

‘So no one else at all in there?’ Connie sighed.

The paramedic gave her a sharp look. ‘Not that we know of, thank God. Just one victim in a fire like this is something to be pleased about.’

‘Oh, I didn’t mean …’

The paramedic strode away to talk to a firefighter. Connie stared up at the house. The flames had been extinguished, but a river of smoke ran from every window on the ground floor.