‘Well yes, but don’t be too quick to judge, DC Stone. Mark has clearly been strangled – there are ligature marks on his anterior neck and the pattern is relatively flat, which rules out hanging. Strangulation causes cerebral hypoxia, which is essentially lack of oxygen to the brain, and this can lead to distress, disorientation and, as you call it, lashing out. If Mark was suffering a bleed on the brain, this could also explain his erratic behaviour. And of course in Mark’s case, his actions could also have been the result of him smoking synthetic cannabinoids. It was impossible for the A&E team to determine which of these were the actual cause without tests.’

‘And now?’ Joe asks.

‘Mark has been thoroughly assessed. He’s got fairly significant bruising on his torso, and two broken ribs. But these injuries are a week or so old, so not related to last night’s attack. Otherwise, he’s been lucky. He’s had a CT scan of his brain and C-spine and that’s come back normal, which means no spinal fracture and no bleed on the brain.’

‘So does that mean you can wake him up now? We’re really keen to talk to him.’

‘I’m not going to extubate Mark just so that you can have a chat, DC Stone.’ Then she softens her tone. ‘The signs are looking positive, but we need to take things slowly. I’m going off shift soon, but my colleague – Dr Melnyk – will be doing the ward round this morning and he’ll decide about the next stage in Mark’s treatment. But yes, he may ask the nurses to hold the sedation so that some preliminary checks can be carried out on Mark’s cognitive function. And if that goes well, the next stage is to wake him up fully.’

‘Okay, thank you.’ But Joe isn’t willing to let her go yet. He has one more question, but he needs to tread carefully. ‘Could I ask your opinion on something?’

‘You can ask,’ she responds, her voice suddenly heavy with suspicion.

‘You said that Mark was lucky. From the impact of the strangulation, do you think someone was actually trying to kill him, or was it more about wielding power over him?’