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now but his trigger finger kept popping off discreet shots, knowing that a fair few would hit their unsuspecting targets.
    ‘How do you know so much about this place?’ Narey asked Addison. ‘All that White Lady stuff.’
    ‘My dad used to bring me here when I was a nipper. He was brought up just a couple of streets away. The place has always given me the creeps. You’ll be loving it, though, wee man. Right up your street.’
    Winter ignored the jibe.
    ‘You ever heard of the Gorbals Vampire?’ Addison continued.
    Winter shrugged but his curiosity was obvious.
    ‘It was long before our time. Nineteen fifty-four. The story went round among the local kids that there was a vampire on the loose and that he’d already kidnapped and eaten two boys. I know it sounds stupid but the whole city was gripped with the idea. The vampire was supposed to be seven feet tall and had iron teeth. You’d maybe think that would be enough to scare kids, but not if they came from the Gorbals.
    ‘Instead, they put the word out. They weren’t going to wait for the vampire to take another of them: they were going after him. As soon as school was out they were to head for the cemetery wall and wait for it to get dark. And the wee buggers were armed to the teeth. The wall is what? Seven feet high? They all got on top of it and, as soon as they got the shout, they piled in.
    ‘Half the kids in Hutchensontown were in the cemetery, prowling between the crypts armed with penknives, stakes, stones, whatever they could get their hands on. The local bobbies were eventually called and they reckoned there were four hundred kids in here, aged from four to fourteen. My dad was one of them.
    ‘He couldn’t get hold of a knife, so he got the biggest stick he could find and whittled the end to a sharp point with a knife he borrowed from his mate, Bertie. He told me he was scared shitless and my old man didn’t scare easily. I suppose it’s different when you’re only six. The cops cleared the lot of them out of the cemetery but they came back the next night and the night after that. My papa gave my dad a whack round the ear and kicked his arse. That was the end of his vampire-hunting days. But the old bugger still brought me in here when I was a kid and told me the story, knowing full well it would scare the crap out of me.’
    ‘Explains a lot,’ Winter said, and smiled at him. ‘No wonder you’re such a miserable sod.’
    ‘That’s rich coming from you. See that gatehouse you passed through on the way in here?’
    Winter nodded.
    ‘The guy who designed it is buried just over there. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust and all that. What comes around goes around.’
    ‘Christ, you’re quite the philosopher.’
    ‘I know. It’s a gift, wee man. Okay, Rachel, what’s your take on this?’
    Narey deliberated.
    ‘One killer. Psychopath. Hates women. Has moral issues judging by the word he wrote. Or else the girls are linked but that seems less likely on the face of it.’
    Addison nodded. ‘Agreed. Anything else?’
    ‘I don’t think Kirsty McAndrew’s ex-boyfriend fits this. I’d say he was genuinely shocked when we told him what had happened to her. And he’s still in custody. But there are obvious similarities in profile between the victims. Age, gender, build, both good-looking, both dressed for a night out.’ She paused. ‘Both vulnerable.’
    Addison looked at her for a moment before replying. ‘Okay, so those are the similarities. What about the differences? The first girl had no shoes, this one does. One strangled with a chain round her neck, this one’s head battered in. The first one had a bag, emptied. This one doesn’t. How many girls do you know that go out without a bag?’
    ‘None. He’s taken it. Trying to cover his tracks probably.’
    ‘Looks that way.’ Addison sighed heavily. ‘Okay, let’s get on with this. First we need to find out who she is and see if there’s any connection with the McAndrew girl. Whatever