“Brian, you’re the only person I told about reopening the Stevens case.” It helped to slip in the occasional white lie, keep them guessing what was fake and what was real.

Brian sat quietly as the car drove along a road of identical houses. Corstorphine tried another prod. “I’ve talked to Hamish about the Stevens crime scene. He’s adamant that there was nothing she could have used as a step under the tree when he found her. How do you suppose she managed to climb up into the noose, Brian?”

“Are you accusing me of something, James?” The old detective’s voice was quiet, controlled.

“I’m just trying to get to the truth. Somehow that case is connected to these two recent murders. I don’t think her death was a suicide, Brian, and I want to know why someone like the Assistant Chief Constable is trying to stop me looking into the reporter’s suicide before I even get started.”

“Let me out here, James.”

Corstorphine pulled into the side of the road, watching his ex-boss intently as he struggled to release the safety belt and open the door. He was attempting to appear calm whilst desperately trying to escape Corstorphine’s company. Finally freed and out on the pavement he stood facing him down. “If you want to talk to me again, James, you’d better do it officially. Don’t bother paying any more social calls.”

The door slammed and the old detective walked towards the shops, back held straight despite the pain he had been experiencing just two days ago.

Corstorphine watched him go, trying to work out if Brian was furious, frightened – or a mix of the two. The short conversation had decided him. June Stevens’ death was going to be re-examined in the light of recent evidence from the attending officer. It wasn’t going to make him a popular man, especially having received an unequivocal message from the ACC. It appeared increasingly likely that the reporter had been murdered twenty years ago. Could the same murderer be responsible for the deaths of Oscar and the minister? And what motive could connect the three deaths after such a long time? If there was a link to historical child abuse, then the female reporter’s death didn’t fit the narrative.