Alan’s office was in the bowels of the main building, next to the plant room. The head had offered him an alternative space on the ground floor when he started but he’d declined. The vibrating hum of the heating and water systems next door didn’t bother him: it was an antidote to the high-pitched chatter of children’s voices that often grated on him when he was going about his duties.

Few people ventured down to his office, unless Alan expressly asked them to. If any of the cleaning staff he managed wanted to speak to him they sent him a text or called him on the internal phone system, which is also what the head and other school staff did. Everyone knew the basement was Alan’s domain and he didn’t take kindly to people nosing around it.

He disentangled a silver Yale from the bunch looped to his belt – he was always careful to keep the door locked when he wasn’t there. The latch was stiff and the bow of the key required an extra hard twist before it gave. Stepping inside the room, he quickly shut the door and secured it behind him, just in case.

Like the lock, his work computer had seen better days. Typing one key at a time with his index finger, Alan called up the school’s CCTV system, which was password protected. Only he, Mrs Pullman and the chairman of the governors knew what the password was and Alan changed it once a month.

It was his predecessor who had fixed it so that whoever was Rushbrooke’s site manager – Alan preferred being called caretaker because the proper title sounded too poncey to him – was also its Data Controlling Officer, responsible for running the CCTV system. Had his predecessor foreseen how the system could be abused? Did he ever do it himself? Alan had often wondered.

The cameras were installed in the main hall, front and side entrances, playground and some corridors; unions didn’t like them in classrooms in case footage was used against teachers. Initially Alan hadn’t given much consideration to being in charge of the system, apart from thinking that the extra few quid he received for the role would come in very handy. Now he knew exactly what it meant to be responsible for it, good and bad.