Grabbing her notes, she strode to the stairs and did her best to run to Overbeck’s office, choosing action rather than considering how badly she’d misjudged Lively’s reaction, not to mention her own culpability. She’d expected Lively to give her some grief, complain about the assignment, but not considered the ethics of asking him in the first place. Police Scotland was a hotbed of ribbing and political incorrectness, but none of it was meant. When push came to shove, she was as sure as she could be that every one of the officers under her command had each other’s back. Lively had given out vastly more abuse than he’d ever had to take, which was why she hadn’t considered the appropriateness of her request. If anything, it had seemed light-hearted and trivial. Now, she saw it for what it was – an abuse of the knowledge of his relationship.

Detective Superintendent Overbeck was exiting her office as Ava approached.

‘If you want me, you’ll have to walk with me to my car,’ she said.

Ava turned on her heel and did so.

‘Give me the good news.’

‘It’s not good news, I’m afraid,’ Ava said.

‘Sarcasm failure, Turner. Of course it’s not good fucking news. You’re coming to see me holding a file. Get on with it, then.’

‘I need to open a crime scene in a public place. Tantallon Castle, in fact, which will mean closing the castle to the public.’

‘Tantallon? I love it there.’ Overbeck smiled wistfully. ‘High fall, right? If I’m not mistaken, that case has been closed. Why are you seeking to reopen it?’

Ava explained as concisely as she could given the time constraints and Overbeck’s dislike of long speeches.

‘All right,’ the superintendent concluded. ‘You can have complete forensics from the scene, interview Stephen Berry’s nearest and dearest, and see if you can establish any other link between Berry and Hawksmith, but no other follies, got it? This is tenuous. Don’t start taking the piss.’

‘Yes. Speaking of which,’ Ava said as they approached Overbeck’s car, ‘I did something I shouldn’t have.’

‘That’s unusually exciting of you,’ Overbeck laughed. ‘Come on then, shock me.’ She unlocked her car and slid into the driver’s seat.

‘I asked DS Lively to approach you to extend the funding. He quite rightly refused. He also … well, he accused me of sexism, and I’m afraid he was right. I wanted you to hear it from me rather than him. I’ve apologised.’

Overbeck’s face contorted, her mouth pursed, then she gave a huge guffaw, clutching the steering wheel as she got her laughter under control.