Forest and Singh had a quick whispered conversation, then asked if they could take the staff aside to speak to them for a few minutes. We went through a doorway off the living area, which led to a small kitchen, leaving the students with the uniformed officers.

‘We need to decide how to proceed from here,’ Singh said. I began to sign his words, at the same time as Mike did.

I turned to him, but still did not look him in the eye. ‘I’m here to interpret, please try not to confuse the situation.’

Singh must have noticed the tension between us because he gave me a look before he spoke. ‘Paige is right. Whilst we appreciate your help earlier, Mr Lowther, we find it best if we use our own interpreter.’

Mike held up his hands. ‘Sorry, it’s just automatic, you know?’ He flashed Singh an apologetic grin, and I felt heat rise up my neck. Swallowing hard, I nodded at Singh to continue.

Why the hell did Steve go on his own? Liz Marcek signed, shaking her head. This is completely unprofessional, he knows the school policy for dealing with an incident like this. When Mike let me know what had happened I thought I’d better come up.

Singh nodded. ‘I understand. I’m sorry to keep you waiting around here, but at the moment I think it’s safest if we keep the children all in one place.’

Can we help with the search? Sasha Thomas, the social worker, asked, her eyes bright with concern.

Forest seemed to consider this for a moment. ‘There’s no reason why you can’t go with a uniformed officer and help,’ she replied. ‘We need all of the help we can get to cover this amount of land. I’ve only got half the number of PCs I’d like for an operation of this size, but they’re all I was allowed.’

One of us will need to stay with the students, Liz Marcek told Sasha.

‘I’ll stay,’ Mike said quickly. ‘Paige and I can catch up while you’re out there searching.’ The smile he aimed at me looked charming, but I wasn’t going to fall for it.

‘No, we’ll leave a PC with you,’ Forest said brusquely. ‘Paige will need to accompany Ms Thomas, if she’s joining the search party.’

I breathed a sigh of relief. Forest had probably said that in order to stop me from putting my feet up while I was being paid to interpret, but I didn’t care what her motives were as long as she didn’t leave me alone with Mike.

Singh led Sasha and me back outside, where he introduced us to a PC.