‘I’m not stupid. My dad’s a solicitor. I know this isn’t a laugh.’

‘Any idea who might have?’

Head-shake.

‘If you had to guess.’

‘I don’t know. Honest to God. I’d be surprised if it was Joanne or Orla or Alison, but I’m not swearing it wasn’t, or anything. I’m just saying, if it was, they never told me.’

Two out of two, now, ready to throw their mates in the shite so they could leap away unspattered. Lovely.

Gemma said, ‘But there were other people in here, yesterday evening. After us.’

‘Holly Mackey and her friends.’

‘Yeah. Them.’

‘Them. What are they like?’

Gemma’s eye on me, wary. She held out the photo. ‘I don’t know. We don’t really talk to them.’

‘Why not?’

Shrug.

I gave her a grin with a glint. ‘Let me guess. I’d say your lot are pretty popular with the fellas. Holly and them, were they cramping your style?’

‘They’re just not our type.’ Arms folded. Gemma wasn’t biting.

Something was there. Orla might believe all that about Selena wearing the wrong get-up to the dance, might not, but Gemma knew better. Something else had got in between these two lots.

If Conway wanted any pushing done, she could do it herself. Not my job. Mr Lovely, me; the one you can talk to. If I threw that away, Conway had no reason to keep me around.

Conway said nothing.

‘Fair enough,’ I said. ‘Let’s talk about Chris Harper. Got any ideas about what happened to him?’

Shrug. ‘Some psycho. Whatshisname, the groundskeeper, the one you guys arrested. Or some randomer. How would I know?’

Arms still folded. I leaned forward, gave her a grin out of a late-night bar. ‘Gemma. Talk to me. Try this: pick one thing to tell me about Chris Harper. One thing that mattered.’

Gemma thought. Stretched out her long crossed leg, ran a hand up and down her calf; we were back. I watched, so she could catch me. Itched to push my chair back a few feet. I could have kissed Conway just for existing. Gemma was dangerous as fuck, and she knew it.

She said, ‘Chris was the total last person you would’ve expected to get killed.’

‘Yeah? How come?’

‘Because everyone liked him. The whole school fancied him – some people said they didn’t, but that was just because they wanted to look special, or because they knew they didn’t have a chance of getting him anyway. And all of Colm’s wanted to hang out with him. That’s why I said it had to be a randomer who did it. No one would’ve gone after Chris on purpose.’

I said, ‘You fancied Chris?’

Shrug. ‘Like I said: everyone did. It wasn’t a big deal. I fancy a lot of guys.’ Small hooded smile, intimate.