A shadow moves across Jessica’s face. She reaches for her phone, taps at the screen, and says, ‘Satnam’s not…’

‘No. I think they’d tell me.’ More to the point, perhaps, it would be all over social media.

‘I thought I’d be able get it out of my head here, but…’ Jessica dabs at her hairline with a small white towel. ‘You’re Nevis, aren’t you?’

‘Yes.’ Nevis has seen the girl at a couple of lectures, she realises, but their paths haven’t crossed otherwise.

‘I heard you were at the bridge when it happened…’ Jessica says, clutching the towel. Another student approaches, gestures to the machine. ‘OK, yes, sorry.’ Jessica picks up her phone and steps off the cross-trainer.

The two women move away towards the edge of the room. ‘I spoke to Tash,’ Nevis says.

‘I know, she texted me.’ Twisting the towel in her sinewy hands, Jessica says, ‘Look, Nevis, what exactly is it you think I can help you with?’

‘I’m just trying to figure out why Satnam did what she did. Did she seem OK to you?’

Jessica looks down. ‘You don’t think she’s going to be, like, brain damaged or anything?’

‘It’s possible.’ Nevis has thought about this, considered the probabilities, but without coming to any conclusions. Satnam could die, she knows that much, and that is enough weight to carry.

Jessica sighs. ‘I don’t know what you’ve been told but at the end of the day, Tash was way out of line with how she acted towards Satnam. We had no idea Satnam would actually, like, do anything like this, though, we really didn’t.’

‘Is this about the Valentine’s Day party?’

Jessica looks up, suddenly wary. ‘Yeah. What did Tash tell you about that?’

‘That you two had an argument about something and Satnam tried to make it better.’

‘Better. Duh, no, I don’t think so.’ She checks herself. ‘So Tash didn’t tell you then?’

‘She said she was drunk and couldn’t remember. I was hoping you might.’

Jessica holds up her bottle. Nevis follows her to the water fountain, waits while she leans in and presses the tap. ‘Oh, you know, not much, chatting shit… stuff…’

‘Can you be more specific?’ Nevis has the distinct feeling that she’s being fobbed off.

Standing up straight now, the water bottle in her hand, Jessica says, ‘Tash had just started seeing an ex of mine which I thought was pretty disloyal. I mean, I would never do anything like that.’ She raises the bottle to her lips. Nevis watches the cords in Jessica’s neck moving. ‘Satnam got in the middle. She wanted to… well, let’s just say she wanted to tell this guy’s wife. You know, spill the beans. But it was, like, whatever.’

‘Satnam didn’t say anything about being depressed or wanting to leave Avon, did she?’