She shook her head, confusion the only emotion I could read on her face. I wondered what the phone call had been about, to make Singh change tack like that.

‘Was he having any problems at school that he didn’t want to talk to the teachers about?’

No, nothing like that. He actually likes school. Likes it more than I do, anyway, she added with another eye roll. It seemed like she was trying to keep up her attitude in order to mask real concern about her friend.

Singh rubbed a hand over his chin and looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded at Samira and her brother.

‘Thank you very much for talking to us, but I think that’s all for now. We might want to speak to you again, if we find anything else out about Leon,’ he told Samira. ‘I’ll leave you my mobile number, okay? And if there’s anything you haven’t told us, or anything you remember, you can text me.’

He handed over a slip of card with his phone number on, and Samira took it with a nod.

When they’d left the room, he turned to Forest. ‘We’ve been able to access some of Leon’s messages. It’s possible he was talking to someone, arranging to meet them, but most of the messages have been sent through an app that’s encrypted. They’re working on it.’

‘Meeting someone? So that could be where he was going on Saturday?’ Forest suggested.

‘Your guess is as good as mine,’ Singh replied. He looked at me. ‘We still need to speak to Mike Lowther. We didn’t get a chance before Samira and her brother arrived. Are you okay waiting around for a bit, while we interview the hearing staff?’

I nodded. ‘Sure. I’ll find something to occupy myself.’

Leaving the room, I walked back to the entrance hall, turned a corner and stumbled headfirst into Mike.

‘Paige! Hi. Where are you going?’ His tone of voice was light, but I saw his eyes narrow slightly as he asked the question.

‘Er, I don’t know. I mean, I’m going for a walk. They don’t need me for your interview. Obviously.’ After his phone call the other night I’d found myself wondering if I should actually talk to him and let him have his say. Whatever happened, he was right: our relationship had ended very abruptly and neither of us had got a chance to express exactly how we felt about it.

‘Everyone is really worked up about this, Leon being missing and Steve being murdered,’ he said, shaking his head as if he still couldn’t believe it. ‘Do you know any more?’

‘You’ll have to ask the detectives about that,’ I said. I knew I shouldn’t be surprised at him trying to use me to get information, but I was still irritated. ‘Shouldn’t you be going there now?’