A flashing light wakes her. She rubs her eyes and blinks away her dream. The curtains are still open and she is dressed and lying on top of the duvet. It’s cold, too, the air bringing a damp chill off the water. She reaches for the phone and notes the time. Just after 10 p.m. There are a couple of check-in texts from Honor and a voicemail from Stavos at the chippy. The voice says: Γεια σου υπέροχο which is what Stavos always says. She thinks it means, hey lovely! But maybe not. Most likely not, since she has just remembered that her shift at the chippy should have begun four hours ago. That has never happened before. Texting Stavos back. Really sorry missed my shift. Not feeling well. This is true and not true.

She scrolls down, sends her mother a brief goodnight text and, putting her phone back on its charger on the bedside table, changes into her night-time uniform of T-shirt and leggings and slips under the covers, wanting the day to be over, hoping that in sleep what to do with what she knows about Cullen and Ratner will become clearer and she will wake with a course of action in mind. The phone buzzes with another text. From Stavos, this time. No worry. You feel better I hope. A man come to your flat. He wait outside long time.

Inside her something pings and snaps. She supposes it could have been Luke. Texting back What he look like? She waits, biting her lip, for a response.

It arrives moments later. I don’t know sweetheart. Stavos not into men :). Tall, thin, not so young. He say he has important message about your flatmate, so I tell him you are at the boat.

The Dean. She is sure it is him. Why he would be looking for her so soon after their unpleasant encounter at his office she does not know, but there is something ominous about the visit. She could tell the university authorities her suspicions about him, and about Mark Ratner too. The sex for grades, the dismissal of girls who threatened to speak up or wouldn’t toe the line. Her growing conviction that Satnam was involved with the Dean and that he had something on her, something so bad she couldn’t live with it. She could tell them that the Dean had groomed her in order to find out how much she knew about his involvement with Satnam. Cullen and Ratner would cover for each other, as men caught with their pants down so often did, and, she suspected, Madeleine Ince might support them. She’d seen Ince and Cullen laughing together more than once and seeming more than usually familiar. Then again, she could go directly to the police. But who would listen to a geek with a reputation for not quite getting it when it came to human interaction? Who would believe her?