New Scotland Yard was once an ordinary office block that was leased by the Met in the 1960s. Since then the interior of the senior offices had been refitted several times, most recently during the 1990s, easily the worst decade for institutional decor since the 1970s.

‘Liar,’ she said, ‘you want to be his apprentice and learn magic and ride a broomstick.’

She was also quite tall for a little old lady,

and books had been pulled off bookcases and then put back upside down. The last seemed to annoy Nightingale more than was strictly appropriate. ‘It’s just carelessness,’ he said.

I don’t care what they say: you’re never too old to wake up to the sight of a beautiful woman.

we’d trudged back to the section house and gone straight to bed. Separate beds, unfortunately.

I braced my legs in the footwell as our headlights lit up a two-metre, cherry-red Valentine’s heart in the window of Boots.

The worst part is staying in the room after you’ve broken the news so that you’re forced to be there when someone’s life disintegrates around them. Some people say it doesn’t bother them – such people are not to be trusted.