‘Not as if we turned up anything, is it? No one’s seen Agnes the Nutbag; someone “thinks” they saw Roy Forman leaving the Green with an unidentified woman, but they reeked of meths and wee, so I wouldn’t trust them to ID their own reflection; and by the time I got back to the front of the queue they were all out of tiramisu.’

‘Focus.’

Rennie blinked at him. ‘Right: Ding-Dong. I sneaked into his briefing and he says he interviewed some Stacey woman last night? Apparently she’s being very cagey about her whereabouts and the death of Anthony Chung. So she’s become a person of interest.’

‘He say what’s happening to her? ’

‘Up in front of the Sheriff at ten for the assault and indecent exposure. You want me to check it out? ’

Logan swivelled back and forth in his chair for a bit. Then shook his head. ‘No: she’s a time-waster, looking for something she can shock Daddy with. Forget about her. And yesterday wasn’t a complete washout, was it? You found your missing tramp.’

Rennie sank even further into the chair. ‘Ah. . . Funny story. . .’

‘Oh, you are kidding me.’

His eyebrows pinched. ‘I had to go running after this guy who rocked up pished and picked a fight with Insch’s bouncers.’

‘Henry Scott was right there!’

‘It wasn’t my fault!’

Logan buried his head in his hands. ‘I swear to God. . .’

His computer made a pinging noise. Then another one. And another – new emails coming in thick and fast. He glanced up at the screen. Three hundred and sixty-two new messages.

What now?

He clicked on the last one to come in.

> From: [email protected]

> To: [email protected]

> Subject: You Sick Basterd!!!1!

>

> WTF is wrong with U man? Ur book is shit and U can’t write 4 shit and Ur a looser!!!

> Wiches is a powr for good in the wurld, an U can DIE!@

There was more of it, but the spelling and grammar didn’t get any better. OK. . . He tried the first one to come in instead. It was from William Hunter’s webmistress in Iowa, apologizing for the huge number of nutter emails she was about to forward to him. Apparently these were all the dodgy messages that had been left through the website.

Rennie slumped further in the seat and flopped an arm across his face. ‘Maybe I could go into private security or something? ’

‘You’re useless at public security, who’d hire you? ’ Logan’s mouse swept across the screen. No way he was going to sift through three hundred and sixty-two emails from random internet crazy people. He used a wizard to set up a rule and forwarded them all on to Dr Goulding instead, along with a short note to check them all for someone capable of necklacing Roy Forman and torturing Anthony Chung.

Look at it as penance for breaking into Dr Marks’s office.