‘No. So, perhaps it’s just unlucky coincidence?’

‘I’m afraid I can’t answer that one at present. Tell me, did Mr Daneman and Charlie Cavendish get along?’

‘Well . . . putting it simply, they were chalk and cheese. Charlie was not academic, liked being one of the lads and was noisy. Hugh, on the other hand, was a gentle soul, of the old school. He was a Latin scholar at Oxford when he was younger. He lived a quiet life surrounded by his books and did a lot of translation work for the British Library. I often wondered what he was doing here at St Stephen’s, actually. He really was quite a renowned expert on fourteenth-century Latin manuscripts.’

‘Was he a well-liked member of staff?’

‘Oh, very much,’ the headmaster replied. ‘No one had a bad word for Hugh. He was such a kind man, and, if a little unworldly, made an excellent tutor for some of the younger boys, away from home for the first time. He’d provide a listening ear if they had a problem.’

‘Did he have family?’ Jazz asked.

‘He was single. I don’t think he’d ever married, actually. As for his extended family . . .’ Robert Jones shrugged. ‘I’ve no idea. He kept himself very much to himself. He didn’t tend to socialise with the other members of staff.’

‘Then we’ll run a check through the computers and see if we can find next of kin.’

‘I’m sorry I can’t help you further on that score. Hugh really was an enigma on a personal level.’

‘Had you noticed any changes in him recently?’ Jazz probed. ‘Did he seem depressed?’

‘No, but then Hugh was never the type to show emotion. Anything could have been going on in that clever head of his, but no one here would have known quite what.’

‘So, just going back on our conversation,’ Jazz prompted, ‘Charlie and Hugh didn’t see eye to eye?’

‘Hugh was Charlie’s tutor when he first arrived, but we changed that arrangement within a few weeks. It was a case of rubbing each other up the wrong way. Charlie could be . . . overbearing and sometimes aggressive. Hugh, the eternal pacifist, was not capable of dealing with that personality type, so we handed him over to Sebastian Frederiks, which proved a far more effective relationship.’

‘I see.’ Jazz leaned in closer across the desk. ‘Mr Jones, please answer me honestly here: was Charlie Cavendish renowned for being a bully?’

There was a pause, then a sigh before the headmaster replied, ‘I suppose he had a certain reputation, yes. How intentional his behaviour was, I don’t know, but he did give some of the younger boys a hard time, especially when they first arrived. He didn’t like wimps, felt it was his duty to toughen them up. But I must reiterate, Inspector Hunter, we do not have a bullying problem in the school as a whole. We are on the lookout for it all the time. Charlie was an isolated case and he was admonished on several occasions.’