‘The night he died. Did you check?’

The thought of that night sent Selena’s eyes skidding. ‘I don’t remember. Like I said, I was trying not to.’

‘But you’d texted him that day. You didn’t want to see if he’d answered?’

‘I hadn’t. I mean, I don’t think so. Maybe I might’ve, but . . .’

‘What about after you heard he’d died? Did you go for the phone, see if he’d sent you one last text?’

‘I can’t remember. I wasn’t . . .’ Selena caught her breath. ‘I wasn’t thinking straight. A lot of that week doesn’t . . . it’s not really in my head.’

‘Think hard.’

‘I am. It’s not there.’

‘OK,’ Conway said. ‘You keep trying, and if it comes back, you let me know. What’d the phone look like, by the way?’

‘It was little, like this big. Light pink. It was a flip phone.’

Conway’s eye found mine. The same phone Chris had given Joanne; he must have got a job lot. ‘Did anyone know you had it?’ she asked.

Selena said, ‘No.’ And flinched. The others, certain sure that there were no secrets in their holy circle: under cover of the night she had slipped out of that circle, left them sleeping and trusting. ‘None of them knew.’

‘You positive? Living in each other’s pockets, it’s not easy to keep a secret. Specially not one as big as that.’

‘I was super-careful.’

Conway said, ‘They knew you were with Chris, though, right? It was just the phone they didn’t know about?’

‘No. They didn’t know about Chris.’ Flinch. ‘I only went out to him like once a week, and I waited till I was completely sure the others were asleep. Sometimes they take ages, specially Holly, but once they’re asleep they don’t wake up for anything. I’ve always had trouble sleeping, so I knew.’

‘I thought yous were so close. Shared everything. Why didn’t you tell them?’

Another flinch. Conway was hurting her, on purpose. ‘We are. I just didn’t.’

‘Would they have had a problem with you seeing Chris?’

Vague look. The pain had her moving away again, taking refuge in her mist. Another girl would have been shifting as the pressure went on, glancing at the door, asking if she could go; Selena didn’t need to. ‘I don’t think so.’

‘So that’s not why you dumped him? Someone found out you two were seeing each other, didn’t like it?’

‘Nobody found out.’

‘You positive? Anything ever make you worry that you’d been sussed? Like maybe one of the others said something that sounded like a hint, or maybe you found the phone in the wrong position one night?’