Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle enters the story less as a visited landmark than as an image repeatedly captured and examined. Photographed in sharply different weather and light, it remains bleak in every view; those pictures also connect a neglected room in Pilmuir to Brian Holmes’s search for Tracy.

The Castle in the Photographs

Among the pictures pinned to the walls of a sleeping room in a run-down house in Pilmuir, John Rebus finds original photographs forming what seems to be a portfolio. Several show Edinburgh Castle on damp, misty days; others show it in bright sunshine. The change in conditions does not change the impression: the Castle looks bleak in both. Rebus, who regards himself as untrained in photography, nevertheless recognizes the pictures as well taken.

Images as Investigative Leads

The Castle photographs appear alongside pictures of a girl whose age is difficult to determine. She is posing but grinning broadly, as if she does not take the occasion seriously. Later, Brian Holmes carries photographs of Edinburgh Castle in his inside pocket. He notes their unusual angles and quality, but the girl’s image gives him a more immediate investigative problem: he knows only her name, Tracy, and has no clear way to find out more about her.

The Castle’s Narrative Function

The contrast between the Castle’s changing photographic backdrops and its unchanging bleakness gives the images a quiet persistence. They are not merely views of a familiar Edinburgh landmark: within the investigation, they travel from a room marked by neglect into Holmes’s hands and accompany his effort to identify Tracy. Holmes considers seeking further information at the local daily, hoping the Castle’s unusual angles might offer a way into that work. The photographs thus make the Castle both a repeated visual subject and part of the chain of clues leading from a hidden portfolio toward a person whose identity remains uncertain.