at Pitt Street.
‘I need to speak to Mr Lorimer, please.’
‘Lorimer speaking.’
‘You said to call if I needed … ’
Lorimer sat up immediately. ‘Is that you, Lily?’ he asked, his voice suddenly more gentle.
‘Mr Lorimer. Something bad happened last night. The gritter man said I had to tell you about it. A man …’ The girl’s voice cracked and Lorimer caught the sound of a muffled sob. ‘He came at me. He was, he was goin’ to kill me,’ she whispered.
‘Where are you now, Lily?’
‘At a flat. I sleep over here with some other girls. You can’t come here, though!’ The girl’s voice rose in alarm.
‘I would like to see you, though, Lily. Can you come into town? Meet me at the drop-in centre in Robertson Street, perhaps?’
‘Well …’
Lorimer heard the doubt in her tone. Had that been a bad idea?
‘Could I meet you in the bookshop?’ she asked.
‘Waterstone’s? Sauchiehall Street? The one opposite Marks and Spencer?’
‘Uh-huh. I can be there in about a quarter of an hour. Downstairs in the coffee bit,’ she added.
Lorimer looked at the clock on the wall. He could be there and back within the hour, he supposed; time enough to see the girl before his daily meeting with the press.
‘I’m sorry he’s not available at the moment, may I take a message?’ the woman asked.
Solly paused, wondering. Then, ‘To whom am I speaking?’ he asked.
‘It’s DC Knox,’ the voice replied.
‘Ah,’ Solly nodded to himself. He remembered this enthusiastic member of Lorimer’s team. And surely he could entrust a little thing like this to her?
‘Well,’ he continued. ‘It’s like this.’ And the professor told Barbara Knox all about his two visits to Andie’s Saunas and his unsatisfactory results.
‘Want me to check up on them for you?’ she offered.
Solly beamed, though there was nobody to see his sudden relief. ‘Would you? That would be a load off my mind, DC Knox. Don’t really want to bother your boss, you know.’
The psychologist put the telephone down and immediately turned his mind to his next tutorial session. The subject of dreams had come around once more, he realised with a sigh, remembering a similar session the previous year that had resulted in the strangest and saddest of consequences. A student with red hair, a hit man on the loose and a throwaway remark had all combined to form one of Lorimer’s more notable cases.
Solly raised his glasses on to the top of his dark curls and rubbed his eyes as though to erase the memory. These were different students and he owed it to them to be as objective about the subject as possible.
Barbara Knox sat quietly, thinking about the task she had offered to undertake. The professor had sounded a little uncertain. It was strange how you could always tell how a person was feeling from their voice. A psychologist, especially, would agree with that. She really ought to have permission to tackle this, but, what the hell! Barbara grinned to herself. She was good at showing initiative and besides, if what she had heard about the demise of this unit was true then she needed all the brownie points she could get for her career to maintain its upward trajectory. It would be easy enough to find out what the professor wanted to know and then to dig a little deeper.
Lorimer could hear the hiss of the coffee machine and the undercurrent of chatter as he rounded the balcony. His eyes roved across the customers seated down below until they lighted on the girl. She was sitting hunched up on one of the deep leather armchairs, her head turning this way and that, obviously searching to see if he would come. Lorimer stepped swiftly down the main staircase and strode over to where she was sitting.
‘Oh,’ she said, clutching the arms of the chair with her tiny white hands. ‘You’re here!’
‘Of course,’ Lorimer replied lightly. ‘What can I get you? Coffee?’ He looked more closely at the girl, noting her thin, pale face. Had she even eaten today?
‘Or,’ he continued, smiling his best avuncular smile, ‘how about breakfast?’
He nodded as her eyes lit up. ‘Right, breakfast it is.’
Lorimer sipped his black coffee watching the girl as she wolfed down her food. He’d spent a few quid, wouldn’t miss it at all, but he guessed that for Lily this was a feast. Fresh orange, a large cappuccino and a plate full of pastries disappeared in minutes, the girl’s attention totally taken with assuaging her desperate hunger.
‘Better?’
She nodded, eyes