When we pulled up outside my flat I asked if Singh wanted to come in for a drink.

‘I’d love to, but I need to get back to the station. We’re going to be working all night on this, I expect.’

‘I just don’t get it,’ I said. ‘How can Steve have been Joe?’

Singh thumped the steering wheel. ‘Men like that, they don’t give a shit about the kids they target. He probably got off on seeing Leon round school, knowing the conversations they’d been having.’ He shook his head in disgust. ‘Some people would be glad he’s dead, but I’d rather he’d lived to see the inside of a cell for the rest of his life.’

I wasn’t sure how I felt about it but I knew Singh was right: he should have faced justice, not been murdered, regardless of his crimes. On the spur of the moment, I reached over and gave Singh a hug before I got out. He looked taken aback by my display of affection, but smiled at me before he drove off.

Inside, Anna got up as soon as I walked in.

What’s happened? I know something’s happened, she told me. I can see it all over your face.

I shook my head. I really can’t tell you about this one, I’m sorry. But it’s serious. Very serious.

Is Leon dead?

A shudder passed through me. I didn’t know the answer to that question. Had Steve been able to hurt or abuse Leon before he had been stabbed? It didn’t bear thinking about.

Not that I know of.

I needed a bit of time to myself, so I told Anna I was going to have a shower. I turned the water up as hot as I could bear and stood underneath the water until my skin felt bruised. Even then, it was an effort to turn it off and step out, back into the world where things like that could happen.

I wrapped a towel around my hair and went back into the living room, where Anna was scrolling through her phone. Another thought had occurred to me.

Do you remember Jessica Farriday?

Anna put her phone down and stared at me, her eyebrows raised in disbelief. Do I remember Jessica Farriday? Is that what you asked?

Yeah. She told me the other day that you were at school together, but I forgot to mention it.

Anna laughed but there was no humour in it. Oh, I could never forget her. Do you remember when I was about fifteen, I had a week or two where everyone completely ignored me? Even some of the teachers ended up doing it.

Yeah, that was awful, I said. I had been seventeen at the time, and fully prepared to come to Anna’s school and sort out the bitches myself.