Perez smiled. ‘Did you throw a party when Freda retired?’

Maggie narrowed her eyes. ‘You have been poking around.’

‘Is Freda glad to be back as a supply teacher?’

Maggie sat back in her chair. ‘Freda has never married and the school was her life. But she’s got health problems now she’s getting older. She really wasn’t up to coping with a class of four- and five-year-olds. The only way she could keep order was by scaring the life out of them. I was pleased when she agreed to retire. So yes, we did throw a party for her.’

‘But she’s back now?’

‘On a very short-term basis while we appoint another reception teacher.’

‘Did Freda resent Anna Blackwell?’ Perez asked. ‘If the school was her life, it must have been hard for her to see another, younger teacher take her place. Especially if Anna’s teaching style was so different.’

Maggie gave a little laugh. ‘Freda might have resented the teacher who replaced her, but if you’re saying that she killed Anna to get her job back, then that’s quite mad. As I explained, she’ll only be here for a few weeks anyway.’

‘That’s not what I’m suggesting,’ Perez said. ‘I’m trying to find out where the rumours about Anna and Tom King started, and I’m wondering if Freda might be behind the gossip.’

Maggie took a little while to think about this. In the background, Perez could hear the children singing ‘Silent Night’.

‘That might be more Freda’s style,’ Maggie said at last. ‘She was very hurt when I told her it might be time for her to consider leaving. She was going to hate anyone who took her place. And she could be bitchy if the mood took her. I can see her starting the gossip as a kind of revenge.’

Perez nodded. ‘Do you know why Sarah King took against Anna Blackwell so strongly?’

‘No,’ Maggie said. ‘That was a complete mystery. Sarah is a parent governor and she’s always worked hard for the school. She helped me interview for the new teacher’s post and Anna Blackwell was her choice as well as mine. We knew that Anna was new to the career, but we decided her great ideas made up for that. We thought she’d bring something fresh to the school.’

‘It must have been rather a shock, then, when Mrs King turned up with a petition demanding that Anna should leave.’

‘It was a nightmare! And honestly I couldn’t see what the parents had to complain about. Anna was a good young teacher. But she took it to heart. All the bitching started making her ill. In the end I could see she was stressed and suggested she went to the doctor. That was when she started taking the antidepressants.’

‘Was she still working in the school when she died, or had she taken time off sick?’ Perez asked.

‘She’d had nearly two months off, but she was back at the time she died. She seemed better, still a bit frail but almost happy.’