It’s my job, Max. I’m doing my job. I don’t know anyone involved this time, I lied. Max had probed a little about my romantic history, but I’d offered him very little information and he’d stopped asking. I didn’t want to tell him about Mike while we were in the middle of a nice evening out. Every time I considered bringing it up, I told myself it wasn’t the right time, and I could find a better one.
He was looking at me sceptically. I just want to make sure you’re looking after yourself.
By not wanting me to do my job? I asked, a little more sharply than I had intended.
Don’t be like that, he replied, looking hurt. Of course I want you to do your job. I don’t want you working yourself into the ground and ending up in a dangerous situation, though.
I’m sorry, I said, reaching over and squeezing his hand. I promise, I’m fine.
He nodded. No sign of the missing kid yet then?
Nothing, as far as I know. I sighed. I really hope he’s okay.
One of my exes works at that school, he signed.
Really? Who? I asked, but I had a sixth sense that I knew what was about to come.
Her name’s Jess, she’s the PE teacher.
I’ve met her, I told him, wondering just how many people in my life Jessica Farriday had dated.
Yeah, we didn’t go out for long. She did her teaching placement at the school I work in when she was training. To be honest I think she was using me so I could put in a good word for her with the teacher who was assessing her. He shrugged. Not everyone is charmed by my rugged good looks.
I laughed. Well, that’s her loss.
My mind was whirring. If Jess was the sort of person who dated men she thought could be useful to her, maybe Singh needed to delve deeper into her relationship with Steve. I made a mental note to pass this information on to him, although I knew DI Forest wouldn’t be interested in any gossip or hearsay.
Here was an opportunity – Max had told me about one of his exes; it would be easy for me to segue into telling him about Mike. Before I could sign anything, though, I thought better of it. I’d just told him I didn’t know anyone connected to the case, and if he knew my shitty ex was a potential murder suspect Max wouldn’t stop until I’d backed off from this case. I couldn’t do it.
After we’d finished eating, we walked down towards the cathedral, which was floodlit at an angle that made it seem even more imposing than it did in daylight. There were still traces of snow on the roof, and the frost on one of the rose windows glistened in the artificial light. For a while we walked without chatting, hand in hand, enjoying the crisp cold of the evening, and it gave me hope that I really was ready for a serious relationship again. Looking sideways at Max, I told myself that I had to learn to relax around him. He was really thoughtful, he treated me well and made me laugh, plus I found him really attractive. I had to stop letting my past dictate how I behaved in the present.
I pulled out my phone and texted Anna.
Not coming home tonight.
We held hands as we walked back to the car, but then I stopped dead. The car park was almost empty, but at the opposite end sat the same sports car I’d seen earlier on my street. I hadn’t checked the number plate, but it was the same make and model, so surely that was too much of a coincidence?
Is everything okay? Max asked, squeezing my shoulder.
I took a deep breath. Fine, I replied. Dozens of people must have those cars, I told myself, but the whole way home I kept checking behind us in case I saw it again.
Eleven hours before the murder
The kids and Sasha had picked a film to watch and they were all sprawled in front of the TV. Steve was sitting at the table in the corner, going over the itinerary for the weekend, which left Mike with nothing to do. He didn’t really feel like watching whatever shit the teenagers had chosen, but he knew Steve would frown upon him sitting on his phone all evening. The bastard was always breathing down his neck, finding fault with him.
He sighed and chewed the edge of his index finger. He’d been really good, avoiding some of his most frequented sites, but the urge was pretty strong tonight. If he could get out of here for half an hour or so, get a couple of games in, then he could put up with it for the rest of the evening, he was sure.
‘Just popping to the loo,’ he told Steve, then slipped out of the room and down the corridor. He could kill a bit of time in the bathroom, though not too much. As he passed the boys’ room, he caught sight of one of their bags lying open, a games console sitting on top. Mike ground his teeth as he stood there, looking at it. It was worth a few quid. Kian must have saved up for ages; the kids in care got a small allowance from social services, but it didn’t stretch far. Knowing Bradley, he’d probably chipped in for it as well.
No, he told himself. You can’t take anything from the kids again. The last time he’d been tempted by things students had left lying around he’d not known when to stop. He’d sold most of what he’d taken, but there’d still been a couple of items in his room when the shit really hit the fan, and he’d only just had time to dump them before bloody Liz Marcek had threatened to go to the police. Of course, she’d assumed it was a student stealing, but Mike knew if the police got involved they’d want to search every room, not just the kids’.
Carrying on down the corridor, Mike congratulated himself on not giving in to temptation. He didn’t need the money that badly. His next big win was around the corner, bound to be. Yeah, he’d had a bad streak recently, but they said it was always darkest before the dawn.
A few minutes later, he was back, hand in Kian’s bag. The console wasn’t worth as much without the charger. Where the fuck was it? Mike became more agitated as he dug through the bag, not finding what he was looking for. He’d just pulled out a phone when he became aware of something blocking the light from the door.
‘Mike? What are you doing?’ Steve’s body filled the doorframe.
‘I thought it was a good opportunity to check the kids’ bags for contraband.’ Contraband? Mike swore silently at himself for being such a moron.
‘You can’t search students’ bags without their permission,’ Steve replied, his voice grave. ‘And why did you suddenly feel that it was necessary?’
Mike didn’t answer. Did he know about the thefts from last year? Steve hadn’t been at the school then, so maybe nobody had told him about it.
‘I saw Bradley and Leon talking about smoking,’ Mike said, drawing himself up to his full height and pushing his shoulders back in a show of confidence. ‘I was concerned that the boys were developing bad habits, and thought it best to nip it in the bud straight away. Especially with Kian being so young and impressionable.’
Steve watched Mike for a moment, studying him closely. ‘Still, that doesn’t give you the right to go through the students’ belongings. If you thought they’d brought cigarettes with them, you should have told me, then I could have asked them and given them the chance to be open with me.’
Fat lot of good that would do, Mike thought, knowing that this group of kids was far from open with the adults around them, but he said nothing.
‘I’m going to have to inform the rest of the senior management team about this,’ Steve added, then stepped aside, gesturing for Mike to lead the way back to the main room of the cabin. All the way down the corridor, Mike could feel the head teacher’s gaze on the back of his neck, and it made his palms itch. If he told Liz about this, she’d definitely make the link to the thefts. He couldn’t let that happen. Balling his hands into fists, he focused on his breathing to keep himself calm as he rejoined the group.
Chapter 19
Thursday 29th November
Before I left Max’s flat the following morning I called Singh and told him how Jane Villiers had come to leave her post as head teacher. I could tell from his voice that he was annoyed at me for keeping it from him, though I wouldn’t have wanted to involve him if it had turned out to be completely unrelated. He wanted me back at the school so he could t
alk to Liz about it, and why the safeguarding issues had been deliberately kept from the police. I was secretly glad that I would be involved in that conversation, because it was something I was dying to know the answer to myself. He came to pick me up, because I didn’t have my car at Max’s, and as I was waiting I felt a bit weird about it. I was committed to Max, I really was, but my feelings for Singh often left me feeling confused.
Glancing up the street, I remembered the sports car I kept seeing the previous day. Should I tell Singh about it? I thought about it for a few minutes but decided against it; it was probably just my mind playing tricks on me.
‘No DI Forest today?’ I asked, getting into the passenger seat.
‘No, she’s gone to Steve’s old school. There are a few questions she wanted to ask,’ he said as we pulled away.
‘What about?’ I asked, my curiosity piqued.
He gave me a sideways look before replying. ‘I shouldn’t really be talking to you about this.’
‘And when has that ever stopped you?’ I teased.
‘Forest would kill me if she knew how much I talk to you,’ he said.
‘Well she’s never been my biggest fan.’
This brought a laugh, and I nudged him gently. ‘What did you find out?’
‘The staff at his previous school were happy to talk to us about Steve, and the accounts of him as a boss were quite different from some of the ones we’ve heard here.’
‘That’s no surprise,’ I said. I had told him the previous day what Saul said to me about Steve working everyone too hard.
‘Well it seems that this wasn’t the first school where he’d done that. There were several complaints about the way he treated staff, and the expectations he had, to the extent where he was accused of bullying.’
‘Wow. That’s pretty serious.’
‘He’d only been here for three months, so it’s possible he’d only just started to get settled, which could explain why nobody was willing to speak negatively about him. By the sound of it, at his last school it was a gradual but sustained wearing down of people’s spirits and goodwill. They had a high turnover of staff by the time he left, because a lot of people didn’t stay there for long under his management. One of the senior members of staff told me that she suspected him of giving less than favourable references for those who spoke out against him, but there was no proof of that.’
Singh had been watching the road as he spoke, but now glanced at me. ‘It gets worse, though. There was one man, a teacher, who was struggling with a lot of personal problems. He ended up taking drugs, but came clean to Steve and asked for his support in getting himself back on his feet.’
‘What did Steve do?’ I asked, with a feeling of foreboding.
‘Sacked him instantly, reported him to the local authority saying he was unfit to work with children, and told the police he’d been driving under the influence of drugs.’
‘What happened to him? The other teacher?’
‘He killed himself,’ Singh replied quietly.
I sat in stunned silence for a moment. Did anyone at Lincoln School for the Deaf know how cruel Steve could be? Could he have done something that terrible again, leading to his death?
We pulled into the school car park, and Singh turned off the engine but didn’t get out for a moment.
‘It wasn’t entirely clear whether Steve left of his own accord, to explore a new role, or if he’d been pushed out eventually by the governors. If he’d been here much longer, I expect he would have ended up behaving in the same way, but the school was in need of a head teacher, so they might not have looked too closely at his history.’
Liz Marcek was waiting for us when we walked in.
I don’t have a lot of time for you this morning, she told Singh. Can it wait?
‘I’m afraid not,’ he replied with a frown.
Fine, fine. She reluctantly led us into her office, where she sat down behind her desk rather than at the low table where we’d previously talked.
‘Miss Marcek, can I ask why you didn’t see fit to tell us the real reason behind Jane Villiers’ retirement?’
For a moment Liz sat motionless, like a deer faced with a poacher’s lamp. She clasped her hands together and looked down at her desk, and when she looked up her face was noticeably paler.
To be honest, I didn’t want it to end up in the newspapers, she replied eventually, looking defeated. When it happened, we managed to keep it quiet, and I thought we’d escaped with the school’s reputation intact. Now suddenly there are reports about a missing student and a murdered teacher, and I’d thought the worst thing that could happen to this school would be some journalist finding out about underage students having sex in a classroom. As it is I’m already trying to calm parents’ fears about their children’s safety. Can you imagine the uproar if that got out as well?
‘While I understand your concerns, there’s a big difference between telling a journalist and telling the police.’
How was I to know it wouldn’t get out? she asked indignantly.
Singh folded his arms, tension showing in the rigidity of his jawline, and I could tell he was working hard to hold himself in check. ‘We have procedures to follow in any investigation regarding which information is released to the public. Unless we felt it was in the public interest to know we wouldn’t have shared it. It wasn’t your place to decide whether or not we needed this information. There could be a connection to Leon’s disappearance and the video that was made of Bradley and Courtney, and we’ve wasted valuable time because you were more concerned about the school’s reputation than you were with us finding a missing, vulnerable child.’
I’d never seen Singh this angry before, and I was taken aback, feeling the weight of his disapproval as I interpreted it for Liz. She sat, motionless, for several seconds after he’d finished, before her hands began to twitch slightly. I could tell she wanted to snap back at Singh for having the temerity to tell her off as if she were a child, but I thought she also knew that she deserved every word of it.
‘Is there anything else you haven’t told us, Miss Marcek?’ Singh asked, his expression stern.
The deputy head took a deep breath, then shook her head.
‘Were you aware that Steve Wilkinson had a reputation for bullying staff in his past school?’ Singh snapped.
A strange expression flitted across her face, but was gone before I could identify it.
No, she replied, sitting forward in her chair and looking at Singh across her desk. I wasn’t involved in the hiring process when Steve was appointed. I didn’t know anything about him until he arrived in September.
I found this hard to believe, given that Liz was the most senior member of staff at the school after Jane left. But why would she lie about it? There was a pause as Singh and Liz eyeballed each other across the expanse of her desk, before Singh nodded and stood to leave. I followed him out without looking at Liz, glad to be away from the atmosphere in that room. Singh made an exasperated noise.
‘I’m sick of people thinking they know my job better than I do,’ he growled. ‘There’s a kid out there who might have been kidnapped by a paedophile, or who might have frozen to death in the middle of a field, and she’s more concerned with what people think about the school!’
I put a hand on his arm to try and calm him, then slid it around to his back. Gradually, the tension in his shoulders reduced.
‘I need to call Forest and see if there’s anything else she wants me to do while I’m here.’
He started to walk away, but I called after him. ‘I think you’re doing a good job.’
He gave me a small smile before putting his phone to his ear, and I sat down in the entrance hall to wait. Before I got a chance to settle myself on the bench seat under the window, I heard footsteps approaching and turned to see who it was. Jess Farriday had a frown on her face, and it was directed at me. I smiled at her in an attempt to defuse whatever was coming, but it was unsuccessful.
You
need to stop playing games, she snapped at me.
I was taken aback, genuinely confused. What are you talking about?
You and Mike. She jabbed a finger at me and I took a step back. I know you’ve got a history, and you should see him since you appeared. He’s wandering around like a lovesick puppy.
That’s nothing to do with me, I assured her.
Of course it is, she replied with a scowl. He’s told me how you blow hot and cold, how he’s tried to show you how he feels about you but you ignore him when it suits you.
Hang on, I replied. Where the hell has this come from? If Mike’s told you this then you need to consider how reliable he is. I have absolutely no interest in Mike Lowther, which he knows. Our relationship was over a long time ago, and that’s all there is to it.
She made a sceptical noise and shook her head. He told me you were a cold-hearted bitch.
The insult stung, but it didn’t surprise me. There are two sides to every story, Jess. I don’t think Mike would be too keen on you hearing my side of our relationship. It doesn’t paint him in a very positive light. But if you want to keep believing everything he tells you, that’s entirely up to you.
She paused for a moment, and I could see her considering what I’d said, but then shook her head. Of course you’d say that.
You said yourself that you ended your relationship because he was too controlling, I pointed out. Think about that. Anyway, why are you even bothered about this? He’s your ex.
Jess didn’t answer my question, but looked away, a slight flush rising in her cheeks. As I looked at her, realisation dawned.
Are you sleeping with him? I asked, trying to keep my question casual.
And why is that any of your business? she retorted.
It’s not, you’re right. I held my hands up in defeat. I just wondered if that was why you’d suddenly decided to have a go at me about him. It would make more sense if he wasn’t your ex.
It’s not serious, she said with a shrug.
Why would you go back to someone like him after the way he treated you? I asked, genuinely confused. I can tell you, he’s done far worse in the past.
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