‘Wouldn’t know the difference,’ Conway said. ‘You can explain it to me some other time. Inside that book there’s a key to the connecting door between here and the school. Belonged to Joanne and her gang, last year.’

One of Julia’s eyebrows flicked; that was all. ‘OMG. I’m like totally shocked.’

‘Yeah. Orla says it’s a copy of one you had.’

Julia sighed. ‘Oh, Orla,’ she said to the air. ‘Who’s a predictable little girl? You are! Yes you!’

‘You’re saying Orla’s lying?’

‘Um, duh? I’ve never had a key to that door. But Joanne isn’t stupid. She knows that anyone who had that key could’ve been outside the night Chris died, plus anyone who had that key is in huge trouble with McKenna, like possibly expelled trouble. Of course she’s going to share the love.’

‘Joanne didn’t tell us. Orla did.’

‘Right. With Joanne’s hand up her arse.’

‘Why would Joanne want to get you lot in hassle?’

Eyebrow. ‘You didn’t notice that she’s not exactly our biggest fan?’

‘Yeah,’ Conway said. ‘We noticed. Why’s that, again?’

Julia shrugged. ‘Who cares?’

‘We do.’

‘So ask Joanne. Because I don’t.’

‘If someone was pissed off enough with me to try and get me expelled and arrested, I’d care why.’

‘That is why. Because we don’t care what Joanne thinks. In her tiny mind, that’s like a mortal sin.’

Conway said, ‘Not because Selena was going out with Chris.’

Julia mimed banging her forehead off her palm. ‘Oh my God, if I have to hear that one more time I’m going to stick pens through my eardrums. It’s a rumour. Like, first-years know not to believe everything they hear unless there’s actual proof. You don’t?’

‘Gemma saw them. Snogging.’

Flash of something, just the one: that had caught Julia off guard. Then a finger-wag. ‘Uh-uh. Orla says Gemma says she saw them. Which isn’t the same thing.’

Conway leaned back against the wall beside Julia’s bed. Held up the bag and tapped it with a finger, watched it spin.

‘What’s Selena going to say, if I give up on you and go ask her? You know I don’t ask nicely.’

Julia’s face pulled tight. ‘She’s going to say the same thing she said when you asked her last year.’

Conway said, ‘I wouldn’t bet on it. You have to have noticed: Selena’s not the same as she was last year.’

That hit home. I saw Julia weigh something up, stacking and balancing. Saw her decide.

She said, ‘Selena wasn’t the one going out with Chris. Joanne was.’

‘Right,’ Conway said. ‘You say she was, she says Selena was, me and Detective Moran get to play Here We Go Round the Rumour Bush till early in the morning.’