I said, ‘No way to keep a secret for long, in a room that size. Somewhere in there, Rebecca found out – either about Chris and Selena, or about Chris and Julia.’

‘Yeah. And Holly said even the thought of anything being wrong with any of them made Rebecca go mental.’

‘The thought of the four of them not being enough to make everything OK. She couldn’t handle that.’ I saw the poster, the calligraphy that had taken hours, weeks, a fresh start for every finger-slip. If crouds of dangers should appeare, Yet friendship can be unconcern’d.

Conway said, ‘This doesn’t mean Holly’s out.’

She didn’t say it the way she would have an hour or two before, a sideways eye checking me for a flinch or a flicker. Just said it. Eyes narrowed up at the school building, like it was daring her.

I said, ‘Right. Doesn’t rule out Julia, either, or the whole three of them: for all we know it was one to find the weapon, one to lure Chris to the grove, one to do the job when he had his mind on other things. All we know for sure is Rebecca’s in.’

‘Get anything else?’

After a moment I said, ‘That’s it.’

Conway’s face came round to me. ‘But what?’

‘But.’ I wanted to twist away from it, but she needed to know. ‘Joanne and them, they weren’t pleased when I said I had to head. They were trying to do something, I don’t even know what. Flirt with me, get me to stay. Something like that.’

‘Any touching?’

‘Yeah. Joanne put her finger on my leg. I talked them down, she took the hand away, I got the fuck out of Dodge.’

Conway watched me. ‘Is this you saying I shouldn’t have thrown you into the shark tank all on your ownio?’

‘No. I’m a big boy. If I hadn’t’ve wanted to talk to them, I wouldn’t have.’

‘’Cause I would’ve done it myself, if I could. But I’d have got nothing. It had to be you.’

Me, the perfect bait, whatever whoever wanted. ‘I know. I’m only telling you. I figure you should know.’

She nodded. ‘Don’t worry about it.’ She saw me shift, Easy for you to say. ‘Seriously. They won’t say anything. The amount we’ve got on them, they’d have to be mental to try and fuck with us. You think they want McKenna knowing about the diet pills? The sneaking out at night?’

‘They might not think that far.’

Conway snorted. ‘They’re experts on thinking that far. That’s what they do.’ More seriously, whatever she saw in my face: ‘They’re scary fuckers, but we’ve got them pinned down. OK?’