‘I think maybe Satnam did. She sent Tash a text suggesting they talk about something at a Valentine’s Day party all three of them were going to. That was where Tash and Jessica had the fight. I think it’s possible Satnam wanted to out Dr Ratner and either Tash or Jessica or perhaps both of them didn’t want that to happen.’

‘Because?’

‘Tash told me she was in love with him. Maybe she thought if it came out into the open the affair would have to end or the university would kick her out. Jessica told me that all three of them talked about leaving Avon but they all felt under pressure from parents or whatever to stay.’

‘We need to go to the police, Nevis.’

‘And say what? You have to have proof or it’s just someone saying something. Right now, the variables and assumptions we have, the range of possibilities is infinite and it’s not as if it’s, like, illegal for a tutor to have an affair with an undergraduate.’

‘Well it should be.’

Nevis bites her lip. ‘Satnam sent a text to someone just before she went to the bridge saying she’d had enough. I’ve called and texted the number and it’s no longer in service. Pretty sure it wasn’t Tash or Jessica though, and I know it’s not Mark Ratner’s number because he called me once when he was held up in traffic and late for a tutorial so his number’s still in my phone. Unless he’s got more than one phone. Whatever, that number was live on the Sunday that Satnam went to the bridge. And now it’s not.’

‘Whoever that number belonged to must have been in a hurry to distance themselves from it.’

Silence falls and in the stillness Madeleine Ince’s words come rushing in to Honor’s inner world.

The university authorities will feel duty-bound to question whether Nevis is a suitable student for Avon, notwithstanding her grades.

At the time the remark seemed odd and hostile but Honor had grown used to fending off harsh judgements of her daughter’s quirks. She hadn’t seen it as a threat. But that is exactly what it was. She can see that very clearly now. Carry on sticking your nose into this and we’ll see to it that Nevis’s education will suffer. But what if the deaths of Tash and Jessica and the near death of Satnam are only the start? What if there are others? What exactly is Madeleine Ince trying to hide?

‘Nevis, I want you to pack a bag and come and stay on the boat with me,’ she says, suddenly, impulsively. ‘There are two bedrooms. I won’t expect you to be in for meals or anything like that. You can just come and go.’