‘Did Imogen speak to you about the conversation we had the other day? About maybe having you working on different teams. Just to shake things up.’

‘She did,’ he said. ‘But Imogen and I work well together. The incident the other day was completely my fault and had nothing to do with anyone else. I acted inappropriately; the nature of the crime is personal to me, Ma’am, and I lost my head a bit. DS Grey was attempting to defuse the situation.’

The truth was, Adrian didn’t want to be partnered with anyone else, because he didn’t trust anyone else. He knew where he was with Imogen, at least, and they did work well together. He didn’t know Matt Walsh enough to want to spend time alone with him in a car. In fact, it made him angry even thinking about it. Angry because being alone in a car with another man wasn’t something he would even have thought about a few weeks ago. Was this it, then? Was everything tainted by this one thing?

‘And you agree, Imogen?’

‘Absolutely. I trust DS Miles completely and I believe it was a minor blip,’ Imogen said.

‘Regardless,’ DCI Kapoor started, turning to Adrian, ‘until you pass your physical, DS Grey will be working with DI Walsh.’

‘I don’t need a babysitter,’ Imogen said.

DCI Kapoor ignored her.

‘Adrian, I don’t know the exact circumstances that led to your injuries, but it’s important to remember that you are always a police officer. It doesn’t matter where you are, you represent all of us, whatever you are doing, whoever you are doing it with. My trust is not unconditional.

‘When I was posted here it was with the primary objective of restoring this department’s reputation. No one is above the law. I have had some discretion to deal with matters as I saw fit in order to minimise public distrust, but now the dust has well and truly settled we need to be above reproach. All of us.’

‘It won’t happen again, Ma’am,’ Adrian said.

He had no desire to put himself in any more unnecessarily dangerous situations.

‘Great. I’ll be through to the briefing room in a moment.’

Imogen and Adrian both stood and walked back out into the bullpen. Adrian had to ignore his beating heart, desperate to focus on something else. This was his life now. He had to come here every day and so he needed to get used to it. He needed to calm the hell down and get on with it.

‘OK?’ Imogen said.

‘I need the bathroom. I’ll be through in a moment.’