Well, that was Jess Farriday’s doing. She was the queen bee, and she loved nothing more than playing people off against each other. When I wouldn’t bow down and worship her, she did everything she could to make my life hell, until she got bored of me and went to work on someone else instead. What the hell were you doing talking to Jess Farriday? Anna tilted her head on one side. Oh, wait. Is she working at our old school?

Yeah, she’s the PE teacher.

Anna gave a snort. Of course she is. Any chance to prance around in her shorts, I bet. She made sure the lads all followed her around like puppies when we were at school, and I bet she tries that with the male staff now.

I wouldn’t know about that, I said, but it did seem to ring true given what we’d discovered. I couldn’t share information about Jess’s relationship with the dead head teacher, and I probably shouldn’t tell Anna that she’d also dated both Mike and Max.

She was the sort of person that, if she found out two other students were together, she’d do her best to split them up, just for the hell of it, Anna said, her mouth twisted into a distasteful expression. Maybe she’d want the lad for herself, but mostly she just didn’t want any attention taken off her.

Sounds like a nightmare, I said.

I mulled it all over as we sat watching something mindless on the TV. I wondered if any of this was relevant to the investigation. Maybe Jess still behaved the same way as she did when she was a teenager; was it possible she was only having a fling with Steve in order to advance her position in the school? What Max had told me about her certainly suggested it was possible. Unfortunately, the one other person I knew who had been in a relationship with her previously wasn’t someone I wanted to talk to about it. Mike and I had been civil to each other and I hoped it would carry on that way, but if I started asking him questions about his ex that might lead into territory I didn’t want to cover. And what was her motivation for taking up with him again, just as all of this was happening?

The doorbell went, and we frowned at each other. Neither of us was expecting anyone, so I went to the intercom to find out who it was.

‘Hi Paige, it’s Mike. Can I come up?’

I felt a chill run through me, as if he’d known I was just thinking about speaking to him.

Anna looked inquisitive and I pulled a face. Mike, I signed.

Her face dropped into a scowl. Don’t let him in.

I’m not going to. But I’ll go down and talk to him at the door.