The headmaster sighed. ‘Charlie covered his tracks carefully.’ He shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

‘Mr Jones, I have no experience of running a school, but I do run a team and it’s always been pretty obvious to me if one of my staff is behaving badly to another. Cavendish’s name must have cropped up time and time again. So, can you please tell me why you chose to ignore his behaviour?’

‘His father is a well-known and important barrister, his uncle on the board of governors . . .’ Robert Jones’s voice tailed off. ‘What could I do?’

‘Put the welfare of the pupils in your care first, perhaps?’ Jazz replied icily. ‘It’s not my job to judge your ability as headmaster, but if Mrs Millar decides to take things further on behalf of her son, which she is perfectly entitled to do, either to the media, or legally, both your and the school’s reputation are going to be severely tarnished.’

‘Yes.’ Robert paused. ‘It’s a serious error of judgement on my part, I agree.’

Jazz looked at her watch. ‘I also wanted to let you know we’re releasing details of Hugh Daneman’s death to the press today. I suggest you gather the school together and tell them before they read about it elsewhere. You’ll be glad to hear the coroner has concluded it was a straightforward suicide. And, at present, there’s nothing to link his death to Charlie Cavendish’s. You can make that clear to your staff and pupils. I have to get back to Foltesham station and, in fact, that’s where we’ll be running our investigation from now on. But Detective Sergeant Roland and a couple of his men are on site if there are any problems.’

Jazz nodded at him as he sat, cowed, in his chair, then she left the room.

Sebastian Frederiks sat down at his desk and unlocked the drawer to his cabinet. He took out the envelope that had arrived this morning, and reread the letter:

Dear Mr Frederiks,

In reference to the estate of the late Hugh Ronald Daneman Esq.

We represent the late Mr Daneman and are currently acting as trustees as to the dispersal of his estate. I would request you contact me to make an appointment here at this office so that I can discuss the contents of his will, which do concern you. If you would kindly call us as soon as possible, we can get the matter settled to both yours and Mr Daneman’s satisfaction.

May I take this opportunity to pass on my sincere condolences.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

Thomas Sanders

Solicitor

The letter had arrived that morning. Sebastian had been startled by its contents. Even though he’d been taught by Hugh as a pupil at St Stephen’s and then subsequently worked with him as a fellow teacher for a number of years, he’d never been close to the old boy. If anything, he’d felt a certain distaste for Daneman’s feyness. There had been no doubt he was gay, and politically correct or not, Sebastian had always struggled to empathise with homosexual predilections.