Tracy

Tracy, (middle name, real name unknown), is a vagrant living in Pilmuir. She is described as between 20 and 25, with cropped peroxide hair, 2 stud earrings in her left ear, and wears a tie-dye t-shirt, tight, faded denims and red basketball boots. Much of her early life is unknown, but in 1989 she moved to a house in Pilmuir with Ronnie McGrath. She began a relationship with him, and he liked to photograph her and keep the photos in his room. However in order to make money she went to Jimmy Hutton's studios, posing nude for him and also giving him Ronnie's photographs for him to copy in his work.

When Ronnie was starved of heroine, he rants at her that he is being chased and throws her out of the house. She returns to find Ronnie curled up in his bedroom, dead. The next morning she calls the police and reports the death, and then in the afternoon gets through to John Rebus and relays her fears that Ronnie has been murdered. She meets him at the Dock Leaf pub, and is taken back to the station to give a formal statement. She is driven home.

The next day Tracy is in Princes Street begging when she is followed by two of Malcolm Lanyon's men. She hides for a while, then goes to Rebus's flat and stays the night. The next morning she brings him breakfast, and he drops her back home and gives her ten pounds. She then tracks down Charlie's house, to talk to him about Ronnie. However they get into a fight, and the police are called. Harry Todd, John Rebus and Tony McCall turn up, and Todd takes her back to the police station to spend a night in the cells. She protests at this.

The next morning, Rebus brings her breakfast and drives her to Jimmy Hutton's studios to question her about her involvement with him. She punches Rebus in the groin and runs away. Remembering that Ronnie had told her where he had hidden his 'life insurance', she goes to the Edinburgh University Library and attempts to get in. However she is stopped by Mr Clarke the guard and Nell Stapleton, and she ends up headbutting Nell and fleeing the scene.

Two days later Tracy ventures to the hospital to apologise to Nell. She blags her way into the ward and explains why she was trying to enter the library. Then she spends the rest of the day wandering the hospital. She leaves and walks to the city's art college but then turns back towards the hospital. Then she is grabbed by the two of Lanyon's men that had been following her, and they put her in an ambulance and drive away. She is injected with heroine and taken to Finlay's club, and put downstairs in the 'Hyde's club' boxing ring. Rebus finds her that night when investigating the club, and she manages to disable Lanyon by punching him in the groin. She is taken to hospital to recover.

After the events surrounding Ronnie's death, she became friends with Nell Stapleton and her boyfriend Brian Holmes. She got a job in the library cafe at the university.