Sam shook his head. “It’s not looking promising, sir. The protective suit he was wearing has scuppered us, I think. The good news is, we’re better off when it comes to possible suspects.”

“A lot of people loathed Damon Blundy,” said Gibbs. “Many are household names: Bryn Gilligan, Jacob Fedder—”

“Super-Rabbi Jacob Fedder?” Proust asked. “Hasn’t he got better things to do?”

“One of the many bees in Blundy’s bonnet was the circumcision of baby boys,” Gibbs told him. “You know, like Jews and Muslims do. Blundy thought it was child abuse and should be illegal. Bad as female genital mutilation, he said in several of his columns. He didn’t say it tactfully.”

Proust snorted. “Some people like to make life difficult for themselves, don’t they? If I had a bonnet, I’d go to considerable lengths to avoid having that particular bee in it. So the rabbi was incensed, was he?”

“Yep. So were lots of other Jewish and Muslim leaders—Fedder was the most vocal, but there were loads. They petitioned the Daily Herald, demanded that Blundy be fired. This was after he referred to ‘neurotic blade-wielding maniacs suffering from a collective obsessive-compulsive disorder, trying to appease an imaginary tyrant in the sky by lopping random body parts off their so-called loved ones.’”

“I spoke to the Herald this morning,” said Sam. “Off the record, I was told they were on the point of letting Blundy go when some equally determined free-speech enthusiasts started their own petition to save his column, even though many of them apparently despised Blundy as much as his detractors did. In the end, the free-speech lot won the day.” Sam shrugged. “Despite being unpleasant and offensive, Blundy was one of the Herald’s main attractions. He shifted papers. Goodness knows why.”

“No, Sergeant, goodness—as personified by you—has no idea why. Goodness of the unimaginative ordinary variety looks at a man like Damon Blundy and can’t see the point of him at all.”

“You liked his columns, sir?”

“They weren’t written to be liked, Sergeant. Let’s get back to the Muslims and the Jews. We’re interviewing them, yes? All the . . . the main ones?”