‘She’s both of those, all right.’ Corner of Conway’s mouth going up, like at least part of her approved of Julia. ‘Here’s the thing, but. Last year, she was tougher. Hard as nails. Preliminary interview, half the other girls are bawling their eyes out, or trying to. Whether they knew Chris or not. Julia walks in with a face on her like she can’t believe we’re wasting her valuable time on this shit. We get to the end of the interview, I ask her does she have anything we should know, right? And she tells me – her words, and this is in front of McKenna, remember – she doesn’t give a fuck who killed Chris Harper, he was just another Colm’s moron and it’s not like there’s a shortage. McKenna goes off on some big bullshit speech about respect and compassion, and Julia yawns in her face.’

‘Cold,’ I said.

‘Ice. And I’d swear it was the real thing. This year, though: there’s something else there. Usually a kid puts on the tough at first, till she gets tough for real. Julia, but . . .’

She shoved in the last of her sandwich. ‘Here’s the difference,’ she said, when she could talk. ‘See the way most of them looked at us? Hardly saw us. Julia was the same, last year. Me and Costello, far as she was concerned, we weren’t people; just grown-ups. Just this background noise that you have to put up with, so you can get back to stuff that matters. I remember that, that age, except I didn’t bother putting up with it.’

I believed it. ‘I used to tune it out. Smile, nod, do my own thing.’

‘Yeah. But this year Julia’s watching us like we’re actual people, you and me.’ Conway finished her coffee in one long gulp. ‘I can’t work out if that’s gonna be a good thing or a bad one.’

I said, ‘Holly?’

‘Holly,’ Conway said. ‘Back when you first met her, what was she like?’

‘Sharp. Stubborn. Plenty going on.’

Wry flip to the corner of her mouth. ‘No change there, anyway. The big difference, you already picked up on. Last year, we had to drag every word out of her. This year, Little Miss Helpful, card in one hand, theory in the other, motive up her sleeve. Something’s going on there.’ She stuffed the clingfilm into her coffee cup. ‘What d’you think of her theory? Someone else got one of these eight to put up the card for her?’

‘Not a lot,’ I said. ‘You’re aiming to stay anonymous, so you get someone else in on the game? Someone who isn’t even one of your best mates?’

‘Nah. Your Holly’s just spreading the love. She wants us looking at the whole school, not focusing on her gang. You know what that makes me want to do?’

‘Focus on her gang.’