“You keen to be on your way?”

“Keen to pick up a cup without dropping it.” Or a phone, he thought. “Besides, there’s got to be someone out there needs the bed more than I do.”

“Very public-minded, I’m sure. We’ll have to see what the doctor says.”

“And which doctor would that be?”

“Just have a bit of patience, eh?”

Patience: the one thing he had no time for.

“Maybe you’ll have some more visitors,” the nurse added.

He doubted it. No one knew he was here except Siobhan. He’d got one of the staff to call her so she could tell Templer that he was taking a sick day, maybe two at the most. Thing was, the call had brought Siobhan running. Maybe he’d known it would; maybe that’s why he’d phoned her rather than the station.

That had been yesterday afternoon. Yesterday morning, he’d given up the fight and walked into his GP’s office. The doctor filling in had taken one look and told him to get himself to a hospital. Rebus had taken a taxi to A amp;E, embarrassed when the driver had to dig the money for the fare out of his trouser pockets.

“Did you hear the news?” the cabbie had asked. “A shooting at a school.”

“Probably an air gun.”

But the man had shaken his head. “Worse than that, according to the radio…”

At A amp;E, Rebus had waited his turn. Eventually, his hands had been dressed, the injuries not serious enough to merit a trip to the Burns Unit out at Livingston. But he was running a high temperature, so they’d decided to keep him in, an ambulance transferring him from A amp;E to Little France. He thought they were probably keeping an eye on him in case he went into shock or something. Or it could be they feared he was one of those self-harm people. Nobody’d come to talk to him about that. Maybe that’s why they were hanging on to him: waiting for a psychiatrist with a free moment.