Well, here I am in Berlin. There’s a real buzz here, it feels like a place that’s doing well for itself. Which, as we know, is always a good breeding ground for the more sophisticated sorts of crime!

I’ve not made contact with TR yet – that’s scheduled for tomorrow night, when we see if Petra’s strategy will work or explode in our faces. I know you said you thought it was psychologically sound, but I’m still feeling very nervous about it. Now that it’s so imminent, I’m a basket case. I can’t eat and I know I’m going to struggle to sleep tonight. I’m having a few glasses of wine to take the edge off, but I’m not convinced that’ll make any difference. Petra has been working me intensively, and I suppose that should give me some confidence. I can’t say that it has, however. Although I feel I know TR pretty well, I’m not sure I know who Caroline Jackson is … Let’s hope I don’t fall flat on my face at the first hurdle.

Anyway, talking about this is only making me more nervous. And the real reason I’m writing to you tonight is actually nothing to do with my undercover.

When we saw each other recently, you seemed to be suggesting that you would welcome the chance to use your skills in criminal profiling again, if the right opportunity came along. Well, I think I might have the very thing for you.

The basic scenario: definitely two, possibly three murders that we know of. Two males, one female. All the victims have been psychologists working as university academics. They have all been found lying on their backs, bound hand and foot to their desks. Their clothes have been cut away, leaving them naked. The cause of death was drowning – they had a tube forced into their throats and water was poured down it until they died. And there is an interesting postmortem mutilation: the killer scalped their pubic area. No damage to the genitals, just the removal of hair and skin.