‘Sir, we’ve got a trace on the car,’ a uniformed officer reported. ‘Last seen exiting the Edinburgh bypass onto the Straiton Road and heading south.’

‘Get vehicles down there, unmarked. Silent approach. Assume he has hostages in the vehicle. We don’t want him spooked,’ Baarda ordered.

‘Yes, sir.’ The officer disappeared, already talking into his radio.

Connie got a map of the area up on her mobile. ‘Let’s go. Harris Povey may not actually be dying, but other people almost certainly are.’

Chapter Forty

‘What’s down that way?’ Baarda asked as they sped through the city.

‘That road goes south, so it’s possible he knows he’s being pursued and he’s fleeing. Although looking at the map, if I knew the area and that were me, I’d have gone another junction along the A720 and taken the A702 down to meet the motorway. Much faster route out of the area.’

‘Assuming he has a reason for taking the Straiton Road then, he would be headed for a specific location.’ He glanced across at her. ‘Come on, Connie, your instincts have been good so far. He’s been in that house his whole life. He’s held hostages before, killed before, but he always went back there. Why set fire to the place this time?’

‘Previously it seemed as if he didn’t remember going through all the same symptoms before. He thought he was dying but didn’t – went home, life carried on as normal for a while. Maybe … maybe this time he’s had enough. Say there were some memories surfacing of the things he’s done, of all those bones. If he knows there’s a chance he might not be dying a natural death, maybe he’s going to make sure of it this time.

‘He doesn’t want to go home. Who wants to spend their life looking out of painted windows? I spent nearly a year looking out through glass with bars the other side. Even I had days when death looked like a luxury vacation compared to what I was living through.’

‘Talk me through the area on the map,’ Baarda said.

The rain began. Huge droplets spattering lazily at first, followed by a more regular shower, then the wind hit them from the side and in seconds, the water was coming at them horizontally and obscuring the view.

‘That’s just great,’ Connie said. ‘So there’s the Pentland Hills Regional Park, which looks like just a huge expanse of green with a few lakes. There’s a university campus. Straiton itself isn’t that big. It has the usual retail park, supermarkets, housing area. There’s a nursery, a secret herb garden …’

‘Poison?’ Baarda suggested.