He shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I just didn’t think he’d be your type, I suppose.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ I asked with a short laugh, but my stomach was starting to churn with annoyance at his tone.

‘Nothing. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.’

‘You and I don’t exactly know each other very well outside of work,’ I pointed out. ‘I don’t think you’d really know what my type is.’

‘You’re right. Forget I said it.’

He turned and continued walking away from me, and I paused for a moment before I followed him. When we’d worked together before, Rav Singh and I had got on well, and I thought we could have become friends, perhaps even closer than that, but then I didn’t hear from him after the investigation was over. Then again, I hadn’t got in touch either, so I couldn’t really blame him.

We continued in silence for a moment, being careful where we stepped. There was a slushy line of footprints where several people had obviously walked before us, and we stuck to it.

‘So, who are the staff members that were on the trip with these kids?’

‘The head teacher, a support assistant as well as a social worker,’ Singh replied, referring to a notebook he’d pulled out of his pocket. ‘The social worker isn’t technically school staff, but she joined them on the trip. They last saw Leon around half past ten last night, when the kids went to bed. He was sharing a room with two other boys, but they didn’t notice him leaving the room at any point. When they woke up this morning and realised Leon wasn’t in the cabin, they checked his belongings, but his bag had gone.’

He looked up at the branches above us, which were dipping ominously with the weight of the snow on them. ‘It was still snowing when they got up, so any tracks away from the cabin had been covered and they couldn’t tell which way Leon had gone. The head teacher, Steve Wilkinson, went out to look for Leon, but he hasn’t been seen since either, and he’s not answering his phone. The support assistant went out to try and see where he’d gone, but when he couldn’t find them he called the deputy head, and she told him to call the police.’

‘Were there any witnesses?’ I asked, keeping my eyes on the path so I didn’t fall over in the snow.