“Aye. I guessed it was Brian who took her there. I didnae know for sure but he looked out for her. I thought it was out of Christian kindness, but all this has made me question everything.”

“You think he may have been abusing her?” Frankie asked, not really wanting to hear the answer.

The sergeant turned towards her in shock. “Never! He’d never have hurt a hair on any bairn’s head. That’s what I cannae understand, why he’d cover up any abuse. It makes nae sense.” He turned to leave, then stopped. “That’s the thing that’s been bothering me the most. Brian was always going out at odd times during the day and more often than not he was going to the orphanage. It’s almost as if he was keeping an eye on the wee lass, turning up at random times to make sure she was being treated alright. It was like he felt he had an obligation to her, treated her more like a daughter. Does that make sense to you?”

Frankie could see Hamish had been affected by the old DI’s suicide. He’d worked alongside him for longer than any of them and the suicide had hit him hard too. “No, Hamish, nothing makes sense at the moment. Will you be in tomorrow?”

“Aye. The DI wants all hands to the pumps until this mess is cleared up. I’ll see you in the morning.”

She watched as he walked slowly down the road until he rounded the corner and was lost to view. Not everything was making sense, it never did in the beginning, not until enough pieces were found to build the jigsaw.

The DI was sitting at his desk, illuminated by the glow from his computer screen. He looked up as she entered the office.

“Did you manage to get anything more out of Molly?”

“No, sir. She basically went to pieces when her sister and husband arrived. I left them to it, not much else I could do. There was only the one forensics guy turned up and he didn’t stay long. The bullet had passed clean through the skull. He found it embedded in the garage wall. Pretty much an open and closed case from his point of view. He asked where the weapon was. I told him you’d taken it for safety.”

Corstorphine gestured to the only other chair in his office and waited until she’d sat down.