The desk sergeant continued. “It was several months after he’d started school when there was a bit of a stushie. He’d told one of the teachers that the minister had been ‘touching him’. There weren’t the same procedures to follow back then, and the whole thing was dismissed as a malicious prank. DI Brian Rankin, your predecessor, carried out an investigation and found nothing in it, nothing at all. The minister was quite upset for months afterwards, had a few meetings with Oscar’s parents and the teachers. Oscar was given a fair larruping by his dad – they were members of the congregation, so Oscar’s behaviour must have been mortifying for both his parents at the time. The thing is, I always had my doubts about it. No smoke without fire as they say. Not that there was ever any evidence,” he added quickly.

Corstorphine nodded in response, child abuse was not something that anyone would believe of a minister back then – how times change.

“What I’m trying to say, sir, is that nobody believed the wee five-year-old boy at the time.” He looked at Corstorphine in a way that reminded him of someone seeking contrition. “With all the stories you hear today, I’ve sometimes wondered, what if he was telling the truth? The minister’s dead now, so we’ll never know, but Oscar was a fine wee lad when he started school and after that he turned into what he was. I’d hate to think we had a part to play in that, sir, by never believing the wee lad.”

“As you say, Hamish, it’s too late now. If you want my opinion, Oscar was a bad apple from the start – I wouldn’t put it past him trying to get the minister into trouble just for the hell of it.” He stood up, signalling the end of the conversation.

“If you say so, sir.” The sergeant got to his feet, doubt still evident on his face. “And it doesn’t really help you though, does it? Oscar would have been the one looking for revenge, but he’s already dead.” He left the detective’s office, heading back to his habitual position at the front desk. Corstorphine sat in silence, the sergeant’s words repeating on a loop inside his mind. It was a tenuous link at best.

Oscar could have sawn the beam in the bell tower, although he’d have had to get past the locked bell tower door. But then the gears, in both murders. If there was a connection, who would have wanted them both dead? More to the point, what if there were other people on the killer’s list? Corstorphine was already facing an unprecedented crime wave. Any more deaths and his team would be put under the microscope.