‘What could we possibly learn from it? Other than how much pain the victim was in when they died?’

Nash cut off her answer. ‘Whether the two were acquainted, whether there was any anger behind the murder, any hint of a pattern.’

Izzy nodded. ‘There’s also the chance of bleed over. If Coben had his Drop set up right there’s a chance he copied some of the killer over to it.’

Trent nodded and another officer, this time a DS called Laura Kinvey raised a hand. ‘Surely this isn’t the only option? Why haven’t we taken a look at the victim’s internet records? Or the killer’s for that matter?’

Again, Nash cut off her answer and this time he sounded genuinely annoyed. ‘How long have you been with this case Laura?’

Kinvey could sense what was coming but couldn’t help herself. ‘Two weeks sir.’

‘I’ve been with it for a year. In that time we’ve looked at each successive victim and killer’s computers and you know what we find, each time? We find a link to some anonymous ISP in Russia that refuses to return our calls and that the Foreign Office can’t even get on the phone. Chasing the site this comes from is meaningless because it’s on every. single. one.’

Nash looked around, scowling. ‘I take it there are no volunteers?’

There was silence. No one made eye contact with him. He nodded. ‘Wonderful. Get back to work then. See if you can make bricks out of straw.’

He stalked off. Izzy swore under her breath, watched him go then turned to Laura Kinvey. ‘Get the foreign office on the phone; tell them we have another one. Be forceful, Laura.’

Kinvey nodded. ‘Sorry, I-’

Izzy raised a hand. ‘Let’s not.’

She found him on the roof. The station was a squat and ugly but the one thing it had going for it was the view. The city fell away beneath them for miles and up here, it was easy to feel distanced from it all. Nash was sitting on a deckchair, incongruously placed in the centre of the roof, staring straight ahead.

‘Stick of rock?’

He laughed and turned to watch her walk towards him. ‘How come you can always make me laugh?’

‘I’m your partner, it’s in the manual. Make the other one laugh when sad- make coffee when not ordered to.’

.