‘Okay, I get the picture,’ Singh said, interrupting before it descended into an argument about Courtney’s bullying of her fellow students. ‘Why do you think this person is the same as the one who was talking to you, Kian?’

Bradley looked at the messages, Kian replied, looking to his brother. He said the language was the same, like they used the same words and phrases. And they made the same mistakes too, spelling and grammar. Bradley’s really good at English, better than me, so he could see the mistakes.

‘That’s very clever,’ Singh said, looking at Bradley. The older boy just shrugged, but Kian beamed at the praise of the brother he worshipped.

It’s obvious, anyway, Bradley signed. Five of us get a new phone, are told to keep it secret, and someone starts messaging us on it? Of course it’s the same person. He thumped the table. I can’t believe I was so stupid. I should have told a teacher straight away.

‘Don’t blame yourself, Bradley,’ Singh replied, with a shake of his head. ‘You weren’t to know what would happen.’

His reassurances didn’t seem to have an impact on Bradley, who stayed slumped down in his seat.

‘Cassie, what about you?’

It was Jo without an e for me too. But she didn’t say any of the stuff she said to Courtney. She was the one being bullied, and she said nobody understood her except me. Cassie shrugged. I thought she wanted to be my friend.

‘Were you all messaging Joe at the same time?’

No, Bradley replied. Kian got messages first, at the start of September. Then it was you, wasn’t it, Courtney? The girl nodded, and Bradley continued. Then Cassie, then me. Leon was the last person Joe started talking to.

‘Okay,’ Singh replied. ‘Can I go back to the beginning of your story for a moment? You said that you all got new phones. Do any of you know who they were from?’

The students all glanced at each other, but nobody volunteered an answer, so Singh looked to Sasha.

I don’t know. You’d have to ask Liz if they came out of the school budget. She gave Singh a look that was easy to read – she knew they hadn’t. If Steve had been the one grooming Leon, then he must have been the one to give them the phones, too.

The note with them said we shouldn’t tell anyone we had new phones, in case they were jealous, and that we should only use them in private, Kian said. We didn’t find out about each other’s phones, or about Joe, until a few days before Leon disappeared. When I realised we were both messaging him and told Bradley, he asked the girls, and we all agreed that we had to keep it a secret.