Ava smiled. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘We have a female victim who restrained herself sufficiently that if she’d changed her mind and decided she wanted to survive, couldn’t have done so. Also, the chronology of the self-binding was complex. If she’d got one thing out of order, she wouldn’t have been able to do the next thing, etc. I suppose my question is, that seems fairly elaborate and incredibly disciplined. She chose a slow death. Is that normal? Only if it were me, and I was feeling that desperate, I’d want out as fast as possible.’

‘Well, the first thing you have to recognise is that decision-making immediately prior to an attempt isn’t always logical, not what you’d deem logical anyway. There are people who’d rather extend death and deal with the psychological trauma of knowing what they were doing but thereby avoiding a dramatic impact. For example, taking sleeping tablets over a few hours to get a good build-up in their system. Ensuring there’s no way to back out isn’t unknown, particularly if a person has had failed attempts in their past; although I’d say human psychology usually tries to build in get-out clauses.

‘If it were me, I’d make an attempt to find out more about your victim’s personality in life and then see if the scene makes sense. You can’t just look at a suicide as an event on its own. Every part of it is always intrinsically linked to the person’s life.’

‘That’s good advice,’ Ava said. ‘How long have you been working in this area?’

‘Fifteen years,’ Maclure said. ‘How about you? You’re a detective chief inspector, so I’m guessing you’ve put in a few years on the job; although I wouldn’t have thought you were old enough.’

‘Some days it feels as if I’ve been in the police forever, and then I see another crime scene and realise the universe thinks I’m still a child who needs to be taught a lesson. I should go, but I’m really grateful for your time.’

‘No problem. Take this …’ He extended a blue business card. ‘The number on there is my personal mobile, not my emergency work line. It’s on most of the time. If you have any questions, day or night, please call me. I’d love to be able to help. Do you know if the information I gave your DI helped at all? There was somebody at the Queensferry Crossing scene they thought might have been of interest.’

‘I haven’t caught up with the ongoing enquiries yet, but I’m guessing DS Tripp who you met will be pursuing that.’

There was a knock at the door, and a stocky young woman with the palest of skin and gleaming ginger hair looked in, stifling a yawn.

‘Rune, you’ve a walk-in. Seems fairly upset. Will you be much longer?’