‘Why she killed herself. Why we didn’t get her more help. Ask us why she didn’t think she could come to us, but instead chose to —’

‘We believe there may be more to it, Mrs Wilkins,’ interrupted Con. ‘If you could just watch this video . . .’

Agatha set the laptop down and played the video that featured all five of the girls.

Isabel and Marcus leaned in, Marcus even touching the screen when Bree appeared, as they watched the four girls explaining their reasons.

The door swung open. ‘Oh,’ said a new woman, clearly a relative of Isabel’s by the look of her. ‘You’ve already seen it?’ She pointed at the screen.

‘What do you mean?’ said Agatha.

‘What do you mean?’ said the woman in a haughty tone. ‘The new video Madison Mason just uploaded.’

‘It’s on her YouTube?’ Isabel stood up. ‘I’m going to kill that little bitch.’

‘Con,’ said the commander, as Marcus rose to hold Isabel back. ‘I’ll deal with this. Call Detective Tran and get her to meet you at the school together with the forensics team. When you’re done, come back to the station. It’s time we brought Madison in for questioning again.’

Con parked near the school office. Melinda Tran was already there, but the forensics team were still running some final tests on the evidence from the Hanging Tree.

‘What’s our approach?’ said Tran. ‘No one’s even here.’

‘The office staff are. They’re expecting us,’ said Con. ‘We have a lot of CCTV footage to look through.’

Together, they walked into the school lobby. The woman behind the desk smiled sadly at them. ‘Hello, detectives,’ she said, her nose blocked, eyes red from crying. ‘I’m Lois. Come through.’ She opened a door into the office. ‘You can set up here. I’ve already fired up the system for you on both computers.’

With both Con and Melinda trawling through the footage of the external cameras, it wasn’t long until they found Bree, in a dark hoodie, leaving through one of the doors of the Home Ec building.

‘Lois?’ called Con, his voice rising.

She came over and leaned down to check the monitor. She gasped. ‘That’s her.’

‘Where is this? What’s she been doing?’ he said.

‘It used to be the laundry,’ Lois said. ‘But it’s closed off for renovations at the moment. There’s no power in there or anything.’

‘Tran, look: she’s carrying rope,’ said Con. ‘And the time stamp: 3 am, three days ago.’

Tran gave a sad sigh. ‘Lois, can you take us down there?’

‘Certainly,’ she replied.

She set off at a brisk pace and the detectives followed, but unless there was clear urgency, they would have to wait for the forensics team before they could enter a possible crime scene. Tran called them, informing them of the development, and they promised to come directly to the scene.