‘Badly damaged windpipe and I gather he’s considering early retirement, but he’ll recover.’

‘And the other sick little fuck who distracted you? What was his name?’

Ava ignored the jibe. ‘You mean RJ Bott, ma’am?’

‘Yes, him, I want that bastard doing life for making us look like a bunch of incompetent dicks. Tell me he’s been charged.’

‘He has, in fact. There were a number of offences relating to the possession and distribution of snuff videos, and some unlawful gambling offences.’

‘Is that all? Could you not have done any better than that?’

‘Bott has a disturbed and frankly disgusting obsession with death and murder, but that’s it. He was just a voyeur. There’s no evidence he ever got involved in anything himself. He used the girl at Reach You for his own purposes. We believe Vicki Rosach was innocent in the whole thing. Stupid, but not culpable.

‘Having spoken to the witnesses from the charity, they say it’s not a terribly unusual thing. Suicide prevention groups attract people with an unhealthy fascination for death. When Vicki joined RJ’s football club, it must have been an absolute gift for him. Not to mention a way to boost the number of his online followers.’

‘Ban the whole fucking Internet, I say. Well, if that’s really the best you could come up with …’ Overbeck let the insult hang in the air for a few seconds. ‘More importantly, are we going to be sued?’ Overbeck asked, standing and straightening her jacket.

So that was the real reason she was there. MIT’s liability. The potential exposure to criticism. The long-term damage to her career. Ava almost wished Janet Monroe was going to take legal action against the department.

‘Janet Monroe will also make a full recovery,’ Ava said. ‘It was obviously a serious mistake that the units watching her flat were called away to the RJ Bott arrest scene, but everyone believed we’d found the perpetrator and that Janet was no longer in danger. It was extremely fortunate that Lance Proudfoot turned up. It looks as if he delayed Janet’s attempted murder long enough for us to get there.’

‘Fucking idiot, getting involved in police business. What the hell was he thinking?’

‘Well, right now he’s probably thinking he’s glad to be alive. Technically speaking, he died. Paramedics revived him; although he’ll be in hospital a while longer. They think he allowed Janet to pull all the slack from the bungee cord so she could live. The man’s a hero.’

‘But is he a litigious hero? That’s what I want to know.’ Overbeck walked to the door.

‘No, he’s not,’ Ava replied, retaking her place behind her own desk. ‘How are things between you and DS Lively? He’s barely spoken all week.’