Main entrance at the front of the two-storey terraced house. Up a short flight of external stone steps to the heavily studded wooden door. This opened into a small reception area complete with counter, porter’s bell and a telephone. A single doorway stood open beside the counter with multicoloured plastic strips dangling from the top to obstruct the view. A narrow corridor led from the doorway to the bottom of the main stairs and just beyond, two stripped pine doors into the ground floor massage rooms. The stairs led up to a first-floor lounge decorated in dark red and furnished with three leather settees. A corner bar offered non-alcoholic refreshments. Two more massage rooms to the rear. Fire exit.

The damp-carpet smell came from downstairs. Beyond the two ground floor rooms, carpeted steps descended to the cellar. Again with dark red wallpaper. A large pine cabin took up half the room, the sauna blasting heat into the cellar that could not overcome the damp from the Jacuzzi sunk into the floor. White towels were laid around the bubble bath for customers climbing out, but the carpet was still damp. Still smelled. It was mildly off-putting, but McNulty liked to relax in the Jacuzzi before getting down to business. Not the sauna. Always gave him a headache.

A cold line of scented oil ran down the base of his spine and put paid to his mapping of the layout. Natasha had finished with his shoulders and was recharging the oil in the small of his back. She moved halfway down the table and placed both hands at the base of his spine, thumbs in the middle and fingers fanning out so they looked like a butterfly. She leaned forward and pushed her hands all the way up his spine to the shoulders. Her weight forced the air out of his lungs in a gentle sigh. Coming back down his spine, she worked her thumbs into each vertebra one at a time. Then she repeated the process, crushing his lungs and tightening his skin. He twisted his neck so he could look along the table to where she stood. When she leaned forward this time, he watched her breasts sway above him.

Once a cop always a cop. Had there ever been a better assignment in the police force? Not bloody likely. True, it didn’t have the benefit of team spirit he’d enjoyed as a uniformed officer, sitting in the back of a police van swapping jokes or kicking in doors to make an arrest. And there was a definite excitement at murder scenes and serious crimes that the man on the street would never experience. But for sheer hands-on perks of the job this had them all beat.