A chorus of yesses came from across the room. I dreaded to think what Forest would do to any officer she caught leaking information to the press, or even just being a bit lax with what they told their friends down the pub.

‘Back to our murder victim.’ Forest pointed to a board next to the one with Leon’s information on. ‘Steve Wilkinson had been head teacher of the Lincoln School for the Deaf since September. At first glance it appears he was stabbed in the neck, but the post-mortem will tell us more. There was a penknife lying nearby, covered in blood, so I think we can safely assume it was the murder weapon, but we’ll wait for forensics to confirm. DS Singh and I will speak to the deputy head and find out more about Steve Wilkinson’s professional and personal life. We’ll also look into his work history and speak to his previous employer.’

A uniformed officer raised his hand, and Forest nodded at him.

‘What about his friends and family? Will we be interviewing them?’ he asked.

‘He was new to the area, and as far as we can gather didn’t know anyone in North Lincolnshire,’ Forest replied. ‘As the murder occurred on a school trip, we’re going to focus our investigations on the school for the time being. Of course, if any evidence turns up to point us elsewhere, we’ll follow it.’

At this point Forest turned to me. ‘Our British Sign Language interpreter will be Paige Northwood. DS Singh and I will be conducting interviews at the school to begin with, but there may be occasions during the course of this investigation when the rest of you will need to interview a deaf person. Whilst you’ve all received the general training on working with people with disabilities and speakers of other languages, I thought it best if Paige addressed all of you now to try and avoid any issues in the interview process.’

With that, she stepped aside and held out a hand, offering me the floor. I glared at Singh as I stood up, then plastered a professional smile onto my face.