She left the room, her shoulders slumped in defeat. The pressure that had been thrust upon her in the last week was immense, and I was surprised she’d held up as well as she had. I understood her desperate need to keep the school running, but Singh was right, the parents would be up in arms as soon as they found out that a member of staff had been murdered on the premises during the school day.

‘Any idea what happened yet?’ I asked him, and he shook his head.

‘The CCTV doesn’t show anyone entering the grounds who isn’t already in the hall,’ he said, loosening his tie a bit and running a hand over his face. ‘In theory, we have our murderer trapped, but unless we can figure out who the hell might have done this we’re going to have to let them go soon enough. We’ll start interviewing staff soon, and we’ll have to be vigilant when we’re letting students leave in case anyone tries to slip away. The four students who are potential suspects will still be here, but I think we can rule out all of the other students.’

I chewed my lip as I thought about whether or not to ask my next question, but I had to do it.

‘Rav, could it have been Mike?’

My fear must have shown in my eyes because he squeezed my hand. ‘I can’t lie to you, Paige. He’s definitely a suspect. He followed Steve into the woods after he went to look for Leon.’

‘When we were at Normanby Hall, he cornered me in the woods after Sasha and I found Steve’s body. I fell over, but it felt like someone pushed me. Could he have been worried I’d seen him kill Steve?’

Singh hesitated before he answered, which was all the response I needed.

‘Shit,’ I said. ‘I never pressed charges for anything he did to me because I just wanted to close the door on that part of my life. But if it turns out he did this …’ I let my voice tail off, because I didn’t think I could bear the weight of that responsibility.

‘This is not your fault,’ he replied, his voice fierce. ‘Victims of abuse always blame themselves for the abuser’s actions, and this situation is no different. You have no responsibility for anything he may or may not have done.’

I nodded, but I couldn’t stop my thoughts from straying that way.

‘We need to interview the staff now,’ he said. ‘It might be a bit of a random order, so we’ll need you to stick around. Is that okay?’

I agreed, and he went to find DI Forest to check she was ready.