Tears suddenly pricked Julia’s eyes as she watched her daughter grow more animated as she explained the experiment to Burton. How could her beautiful, clever, funny little girl have ended up being questioned in a police station over the death of another child? Of all the nightmare scenarios her imagination had conjured up to scare her with since becoming a parent – illness, road accident, stranger-danger – never once had it occurred to her that her children might end up on the wrong side of the law. Aware Renshaw was staring at her, Julia blinked the tears away and straightened up in her seat.

‘Were you due to do science yesterday morning? Is that why you were at school early, because you were keen to get started?’

Poppy hesitated, then shook her head.

‘We need you to answer out loud,’ said Renshaw. ‘Remember at the start I told you we were going to record the interview? The audio can’t tell if you only nod.’

‘No,’ said Poppy tremulously. ‘That’s not why I went in early.’

‘So why did you?’ asked Burton, not taking his eyes off hers.

‘Benji asked me to.’

Julia held her breath, unable to drag her gaze away from her daughter.

‘What reason did he give?’

When Poppy hesitated, Ewan stepped in. ‘It’s okay, honey; just tell them.’

‘Benji said he’d worked out how to get into the building site and that it was really cool because you could climb on stuff. I thought it sounded cool, so I said I’d go with him.’

‘Where did you meet?’

Ewan again prompted her when she clammed up.

‘Tell the truth,’ he urged.

‘It was by that new housing estate at the back of the school. There’s a gap in the fence that comes out by the playing field.’

‘What time did you meet?’

‘Six. I set my alarm to wake up early.’

Julia was stunned. How had they not heard it? Poppy’s room was right next to theirs.

‘Whose idea was it to get on the wall?’ asked Burton.

‘His. I didn’t want to. It was really high.’

‘What made you change your mind?’

‘Benji started calling me names. He said I was a crybaby. I’m not,’ said Poppy hotly.

‘So you got cross with him and decided to prove a point?’ asked Renshaw carefully.

‘Not cross, no. I was upset, like, crying, ’cause he kept on at me. In the end I said yes to make him stop.’

‘Who went up the ladder first?’

‘He did.’

Poppy began chewing anxiously on her bottom lip. Julia felt so tense it was a struggle to remember to breathe.

‘It seems very clear the boy coerced my daughter onto that wall,’ said Ewan firmly.

Both Renshaw and Burton ignored him.

‘When you reached the top of the ladder, then what happened?’ asked Burton.

Poppy stopped chewing. There were flecks of blood visible on her lip.

‘Can I say something?’ she asked.