She pauses for a moment, and the only sound is the rustle of her suited minions shuffling papers. ‘What would you like to know?’ she asks eventually.

What does he want to know? How Jon managed to give himself an overdose when he’d been shooting up for over twenty years without any trouble? Or is he looking for evidence that it wasn’t the drugs that killed him at all, that it was somehow the fault of that witch with the pretty face. Death by contempt. ‘How he died, I suppose,’ he mutters into the cuffs of his coat.

‘Of course you do. The cause of death is very important; that’s why I make sure that I consider all the evidence before drawing my conclusions.’

‘So it’s not definitely the drugs then?’ he asks, hope escaping through his tone.

The coroner is quiet for a moment, assessing his words. ‘Do you have any reason to think there might be a different cause?’

How does he answer that? Suggest that bitch tutted Jon to death? ‘He was a pro with the smack,’ he chooses. ‘And always used the same dealer. I can’t see him getting the amount wrong, or the gear being dodgy enough to kill him.’ As he says the words, he realises he means them too. Jon dying like that doesn’t make sense.

The coroner’s eyes dart towards the pile of papers, then back again. ‘Drug-related deaths aren’t always overdoses,’ she says. ‘Or the result of impurities, either.’

Mark screws up his face. ‘What?’

‘An error in the way the drug is injected can also cause death.’

Mark’s eyes widen. ‘Is that how Jon died?’

‘If users are under the influence of drugs, or if it’s been a while since their last injection and they’re suffering from withdrawal, shaking hands and so on.’

‘He fucked up the draw?’ Mark blinks.

‘Please don’t …’

Mark shakes his head, an apology of sorts. Then a sense of realisation creeps in. ‘What if he was drunk?’ he asks, standing up and rubbing his clammy hands down his jeans. ‘Could that have caused him to do it wrong?’ He wants to throw the chair across the room, but it’s attached to the floor.

‘Sir, I want to help you make sense of your friend’s death, but I’m afraid I can’t talk about the specifics. If you can make it to the full hearing, I promise you’ll get a much more detailed explanation.’