‘We were children, for God’s sake,’ I said. ‘We didn’t know who we were ourselves. You can’t blame us for what happened. It was years ago.’

‘Oh I can and I do blame you. You must have known what it was doing to her. You must have known how she was made to feel. What about the time Clare invited her to go with you to the Fifth Year social? Laura was so excited. More excited than I’d seen her in ages. If I remember correctly, a week or so later she asked Clare what she should wear and if maybe she could go shopping with you all for an outfit. Clare laughed in her face. Told her she’d got to be joking, as if you lot would ever be seen with her.’

My jaw dropped. This wasn’t true. It couldn’t have been. Clare wasn’t like that. She was never like that.

‘You’ve got it all wrong. It wasn’t us. It wasn’t Clare – she wouldn’t have done anything like that.’

‘No,’ he said. ‘She was. She had a cruel streak. You can’t rewrite the past. I knew this would happen. I think Laura knew too, which was why she never took it further. You and your lot would just have circled the wagons. Made life harder for her.’

‘I swear to you on the lives of my children, I didn’t know about that. I had nothing to do with it. And no matter what you tell me, I find it hard to believe the Clare I knew had anything to do with it, either.’

He shook his head slowly. ‘At least she had the guts to admit it, right at the end. And to think I always thought you were the ballsier of the two of you. But Clare, Clare admitted it all just before. She admitted the name-calling, the jokes, the nastiness over the dance. She even admitted that she’d planted diet pills in Laura’s bag with a note telling her to lose weight.’

‘No!’ I was angry now. I refused to believe it. ‘You’re lying.’

‘I can show you the recording if you like? Clare screaming into the camera, admitting it all. Begging for her life. Here …’

He fumbled in his pocket for his phone, but I didn’t want to see it. I didn’t want anything to do with it. What kind of a sick person records something like that?

‘Watch!’ he said, pushing the phone towards my face.

I squeezed my eyes shut, held my hands over my ears as tightly as I could, but I could still hear her. Crying. Sobbing. Choking out an apology. It was the most horrific thing I’ve ever heard and there was no mistaking it – it was Clare’s voice.

‘Please don’t do this!’ she begged, her voice tinny and distorted by the phone echoing around the abandoned classroom. ‘Please!’