‘I don’t know if she’s telling the truth, but we have no evidence to contradict her. We have to assume that Leon is our main suspect now,’ he said, though I thought he was talking to himself rather than me. ‘Finding his blood at the crime scene makes it look like he and Steve fought, Leon was injured in the process, but he killed Steve. If Leon arranged to meet Joe, then found out his sixteen-year-old online boyfriend was actually his middle-aged head teacher …’ His voice tailed off and he stared out of the window for a moment. ‘Hopefully we’ll be able to get a full record of the messages between them, then we can see if they arranged to meet. And maybe we’ll get an indication of where Leon’s hiding now.’

‘Even if he did kill Steve, he’s still a victim,’ I said. ‘He was abused by his father, then found out another man was trying to take advantage of him. He won’t feel like he can trust anyone now, so where would he go?’

Singh was about to reply when there was a knock on the door. Before either of us had a chance to open it, Liz Marcek flung it open and stormed in, a tablet clutched in her hands. She shoved it in Singh’s face and he took it from her, his frown deepening as he scrolled. I glanced over and saw the browser was open to a news page, and what appeared to be a story about a staff member grooming students.

‘Who did this?’ Singh barked.

I don’t know. One of the staff just brought it to my attention. This didn’t come from anyone in the school, so I want to know what the hell you’re thinking of, leaking a story like this to the media?

Singh was skimming the story. ‘It says a source close to the investigation. That could quite easily be one of your staff.’

Liz let out a snort, then turned to me. Or it could be your interpreter. I’ve heard she has a reputation for trying to draw attention to herself.

I was so taken aback at her accusation that Singh had to prompt me to interpret it for him. I opened my mouth to reply, to defend myself, but he cut me off.

‘Miss Marcek, I understand that you’re angry, but I will not accept unfounded allegations being levelled at my colleagues. The only people who know who leaked this are the reporter, and the leak themselves. This story is just as damaging to our investigation as it is to your school.’

To hell with your investigation, she signed, a snarl on her face. The man’s dead now, what does it matter who killed him if he was a pervert preying on our students? They’ve done us a favour.