A small question about Snuff (SPOILERS)

[tmoh]

During the scene where Vimes confronts Ted Flutter with the Dark's "witness testimony," he says:

I haven't mentioned some of the other conversation between you and Mr. Stratford, because Feeney here is listening, and you should be relieved about that; gossip can be so cruel.

What, if anything, are we supposed to infer from that line? It's already been established that Stratford and Flutter are murderers, and their smuggling activity gets exposed just a few paragraphs later, so whatever gossip-inducing conversation they had out there must've been about something else...

[Tonyblack]

I took it to be acts of sadism. But I can't really remember the context.

[raisindot]

I thought it was about rape (or about Flutter and Stratford discussing rape) of the goblin girl.

[raptornx01]

Rape is possible (or talking about it). I mainly took it though as either talking about who was behind it all, or just general talking about what others there had done.

[alicenanjing]

I, for one, just thought that, between Flutter and Stratford, Stratford was the leader, with Flutter quite probably agreeing with everything Stratford said and trying to seem more of a hardened criminal in order to fit in and get on Stratford's good side. So he may have boasted about something or other that he didn't actually do, or about something he allegedly wanted to do, or professed some opinion that he thought would please Stratford, made nasty comments and so forth. It needn't be something that actually happened, but if Constable Upshot heard about it, it would be unpleasant for Flutter.

[Ridcully]

I'm confused. I might be way off, but I cannot recall any line where rape of the goblin girl was hinted at or mentioned. So where does that come from? Goblins are considered vermin, remember? (and I am so not finishing the rest of this sentence...)

On topic:
Also, I agree with Tony. I didn't think too much of it. I thought Vimes was just saying that to rattle Feeney's cage in case he had something more to say.