They were in the headmaster’s office, Adrian Harris on one side of his desk, and Fleet and Nicky in uncomfortable leather armchairs on the other. Since they’d last been at the school, the atmosphere had changed completely. Whereas before the headmaster had been able to escort Fleet and Nicky through the grounds relatively unnoticed, this time when they’d arrived, pupils had stared openly at them from classroom windows, while those who’d been outside when they’d pulled up in Fleet’s car had pointed and gawped. As expected, details of what had been discovered at Beaconsfield had quickly leaked, and Callum Richardson’s name had emerged in connection with the case soon after. As such, the Ben Draper investigation was now officially headline news. There was a press pack gathered outside the school gates, and even the helicopters the headmaster had feared in the skies overhead – including one, Fleet had noticed, from the channel Richardson appeared on himself. The actual police presence on Beaconsfield’s grounds hadn’t much changed, but even so, Harris seemed to have interpreted the turn of events as a personal betrayal. Last time, he’d praised Fleet and Nicky for their discretion. This time, he was making them feel about as welcome as a thunderstorm at a garden party.

‘That is correct,’ the headmaster said, in answer to Fleet’s question. ‘In the end Benjamin was with us for only a very short period. As it is, you have probably seen the report card before. We of course provided a copy to your colleagues after Benjamin’s disappearance, so it is no doubt already in your files.’

Fleet had, and it was, together with the statements of innumerable teachers, pupils and members of staff that were taken at the time – all of which revealed precisely nothing. The last reported sighting of Ben had been at around 3 p.m. on Saturday 10 May 1997. Callum Richardson, Melissa Haynes and Lance Wheeler told police officers that the four of them had been involved in a game of hide-and-seek in the school’s grounds. But from the point Ben had gone off to hide, the evidence ran out. No one had seen anything, no one suspected anyone, and no one had expressed any concrete theory about what might have happened to Ben. There was plenty of conjecture, all of which was no doubt being revisited online and on the twenty-four-hour news channels even as they spoke.

‘Detective Inspector?’ said Harris, prompting Fleet. ‘I am as eager as you are to get to the bottom of this tragedy, but to be honest I am unsure how else I might help. And the situation as it stands is completely intolerable. I would be failing in my responsibility as headmaster of this institution if I did not press for a return to normality as rapidly as possible. This seems unlikely to happen if the strategy is to focus on going over and over ground that has already been covered.’