Corstorphine shook his head, wondering if Tunnocks teacakes did indeed possess some innate quality that made them close to immortal. Certainly, the ones his mother used to keep in a jar were manufactured before use by dates were even invented. “No, thanks. Got to watch the figure.”

Brian settled back in his chair. “So, James, how can I help you?”

“I was going over the old case notes on the June Stevens suicide. You were lead detective on that.”

“Aye, that’s right. It was a terrible affair, such a young age to want to end it all.”

“That’s the thing, Brian. How certain are you that it was a suicide?”

“Och, there wasn’t any doubt. She’d been behaving very strangely in the last few months of her life, keeping that daughter of hers locked up in the house. There was no evidence of foul play, nothing that forensics came up with. No, it had all become too much for the lassie. Such a shame, these days she would have had help. It was a different time back then.” He took a sip of tea, followed by a bite from his teacake. “No, it was as open and shut a case as I’d ever seen.”

Corstorphine carefully sat his teacup back on its saucer and looked steadily at the old inspector. “There are some things about the case I don’t understand.”

“Fire away. It was some twenty years ago but my memory’s still working.”

“How do you suppose she climbed the tree to fix the rope? I had to climb onto the Land Rover roof before I could get up into the lower branches.”

Brian looked askance at Corstorphine. “She was a good bit younger than you are, James, and fitter.” He looked into some faraway point as if recalling the scene. “Aye, I think she threw the rope over the branch and tied it that way. Sort of thing kids do all the time when they’re making rope swings. I did the same myself as a lad, just need to tie one end to a stone or stick and throw it over the branch.”

Corstorphine nodded. “Aye, I can see that might be possible. Nothing we can validate now without seeing how the rope was tied.”

“No, that’s true enough. Forensics had the rope, of course. I wouldn’t imagine that they’d still have it, but it may be worth checking.”

“I’ll do that. Another thing, what did she use to climb up into the noose? I couldn’t see anything in the photographs taken at the time?”