‘He did, but he also knew how unhappy Beaconsfield had made Isaac, and Harris fed him some story that Ben’s disappearance had left his son too upset to stay. It seems that at some point Isaac went to live with his mother, but he never forgave her for letting his father take him to Beaconsfield, and in the end he turned his back on her as well. He lived on the streets for a while, became an addict himself, before someone connected to a church – someone very much like Father Steiner, I would imagine – involved him in setting up the shelter.’

Nicky took a moment to consider. ‘I wonder why he went to Harris in the first place,’ she said. ‘You know, after what happened in the crypt. If he was so close to Father Steiner, why didn’t he go to the chaplain for help instead?’

Fleet had pondered the same thing himself. ‘Because he would have been too ashamed to, I think. Because he cared about Father Steiner’s opinion of him – whereas, in Isaac’s mind at least, his father couldn’t think any less of him than he already did. Plus, Isaac probably realised that Harris would be more able to help him. What was it Harris said when we spoke to him? Something about a crisis …’

Nicky recalled the words before Fleet could. ‘It takes more than a crisis to prevent the wheels at this school from continuing to turn.’

‘Right,’ Fleet said. He recalled something else Harris had said to them. The headmaster had insisted that his son had always been treated like any other Beaconsfield pupil, without fear or favour. He’d said it with pride, but Fleet could only imagine how hurtful that must have been. It was one thing to be sent away from your parents. It must surely have been far harder to see your father every day, and watch him pretend you didn’t exist.

Nicky gave a sniff, and Fleet raised an eyebrow.

‘I’m not laughing,’ Nicky explained. ‘If anything it makes you want to cry. You know, when you think about how similar they all were. Ben, Zack, Callum Richardson. Not their personalities, obviously. But the stuff they were dealing with. The things that made them who they were.’

Fleet had been thinking about that part, too. More than Nicky could have realised.

‘Richardson in particular was ready to commit murder, for Christ’s sake,’ Nicky went on. ‘It was more important to him that his father should be made to suffer than an innocent boy should be allowed to live.’

Now Fleet shifted uncomfortably. This was the man he had saved: a murderer in all but deed. Although maybe that was no longer accurate. Richardson hadn’t needed to let Zack die. He’d chosen to – and Fleet had no doubt he would make the same decision all over again.