Singh nodded, and thought for a moment. ‘What about Leon? Was he still in bed when Bradley left?’
Courtney nodded. ‘Bradley told me he and Kian were asleep, so he must have still been there.’
‘What about when you went back?’ he asked.
‘Yeah, he must have been there then, too. Bradley was really confused at Leon being missing in the morning, because he’d been in bed the whole time we were out of the cabin.’
I didn’t know if she was telling the truth, but Singh must have been satisfied, because he turned his attention back to the footprints outside Courtney’s window. He’d finished speaking to her, so we both said goodnight and left her room.
‘I’m going to go and speak to Forest over in the main building,’ he told me. ‘Will you be okay here?’
I thought of Mike, but what could he do with Sasha and a PC in the building? ‘I’ll be fine,’ I told him.
When I went back into the communal area, there was no sign of my ex-boyfriend, and I felt myself relax. Sasha was watching TV, the PC sitting awkwardly on one of the sofas.
Have all the kids gone to bed? I asked her.
I expect Bradley is in Kian’s room, but yes. Mike said he had to make a phone call or something, she told me. I looked at the expression on her face and thought this was a good time to ask her something that had been bothering me.
You know last week, when I came over here, you and Mike were having a conversation? I asked.
Yes?
What were you talking about?
Her face clouded, and I wondered if I shouldn’t have asked, but then I realised her discomfort wasn’t directed at me.
He’s interested in the job I told you about, she explained. I mentioned it to a few of the staff a couple of weeks ago, in case any of them knew an interpreter who might like to apply.
Ah, I replied. Mike isn’t an interpreter.
No, he’s not, Sasha agreed.
But he thinks he’s as good as a qualified interpreter, I signed, choosing my words carefully.
She nodded slowly. He certainly was suggesting that, yes.
We sat for a moment, looking at each other, then we both sniggered.
What did you think we’d been talking about? Sasha asked once her giggles subsided.
I have no idea, I replied. You get paranoid, sometimes, doing this, and start thinking like a detective.
Did you think we were plotting our next murder? Her face fell as soon as she signed this, and she shook her head. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.
It’s okay, I told her.
Sasha leant back in her seat and rubbed her eyes. I’m going to go to bed. One of you come and wake me if anything happens.
I agreed and she went off down the girls’ corridor. For a few minutes I made awkward small talk with PC Brown, but then we both went back to watching the TV.
After about ten minutes, the door to the residence opened and four staff members came in. They’d decided to try and get some sleep in the staff bedrooms, as it didn’t look like the road leading to the school was going to be cleared any time soon.
Singh was with them, and looked puzzled when they separated off to go to the spare rooms.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘I thought there were only three spare rooms,’ he said, before asking PC Brown to go back to the main building.
I nodded after Jess Farriday’s retreating back. ‘I believe she’s planning on sharing with Mike.’
He raised his eyebrows. ‘She’s not wasting any time.’
I shrugged. ‘People deal with grief in funny ways.’
‘True,’ he replied. ‘But she lied to us about what she was accessing on Steve’s PC the day before he died.’
‘Really? What was she looking at?’
‘Staff salary data, and the school accounts.’
I took a moment to absorb that information. ‘Was anything missing from the school funds?’
‘We can’t find any evidence of that, but it certainly doesn’t look like her relationship with Steve was purely founded on love.’
‘That fits,’ I replied, telling him what Anna knew about Jess, and reminding him of Jane Villiers’ scathing assessment of her.
‘It’s possible she hasn’t changed,’ he said when I’d finished. He sat back and rubbed his eyes. ‘You can go to sleep if you like. I don’t think we’re getting out of here until the morning.’
‘I’m fine. Someone needs to keep you awake.’
He laughed. ‘Okay then, tell me your life story.’
‘You first.’
‘Fine, fine,’ he replied, launching into a detailed tale of his childhood. Despite what I’d said, I was exhausted, and the soothing tones of his deep voice soon lulled me, and I fell asleep with my head resting on his shoulder, feeling safe.
Forty-five minutes before the murder
‘Have you seen Leon?’ Steve asked.
Mike shook his head, not meeting the head teacher’s gaze.
‘He’s not in his room.’
That made Mike look up. ‘What do you mean? He’s probably in the bathroom.’
‘No, I checked there.’
Kian and Bradley came into the kitchen, rubbing their eyes.
Boys, where’s Leon? Mike asked them, switching to BSL.
Bradley shrugged. Kian, wide-eyed, looked between Steve and Mike.
I don’t know.
‘He must be here somewhere,’ Steve said, and disappeared back down the corridor again. A moment later he returned, beckoning to Mike.
‘Go and get Sasha, and tell her to wake the girls. Leon’s stuff has gone.’
‘What?’
‘You heard me. His bag, his clothes. They’ve gone. He’s run away.’
Mike remained motionless, his mouth wide open, until Steve slapped him on the shoulder. ‘Come on. Do it.’
‘But look,’ Mike replied, pointing out of the window. ‘Have you seen the snow out there? He can’t have done.’
‘He’s not here. His bag’s not here. What else do you think could have happened? Go on, get Sasha, tell her what’s happened.’
As Mike turned away from him, Steve’s phone vibrated. He saw Mike’s jaw clench at the sound of it, pulled it out of his pocket and frowned.
‘Hang on. I need to go out.’
Mike looked outside. ‘In that?’
‘I’ll look for Leon.’ Steve already had his boots on, so grabbed a coat and stepped out into the swirling snow before Mike could argue.
Chapter 34
Tuesday 4th December
I woke around six in the morning and found myself curled up on the sofa with a blanket over me. Squinting blearily at Singh sitting on the opposite sofa, I yawned and sat up.
‘The snow stopped a couple of hours ago, and the ploughs are out as we speak,’ he told me. He must have woken up earlier and put the blanket over me before going to find out what was happening. ‘I’ve told Liz I think it would be reckless to open the school today, but at least we can get home.’
I wandered into the kitchen and made coffees for the two of us and the PC who had returned at some point in the night. When I came back in, Singh was on his phone.
‘Already?’ he asked, then made a frustrated noise. ‘Okay, I’ll see what I can do.’
He hung up and turned to me. ‘The road outside must be clear, because there are journalists and even a TV crew at the gate.’
‘They were quick,’ I said. The murder of a member of staff on school grounds during the school day was bound to be the news story of the week, but I was still surprised at how soon they’d appeared. Maybe they’d been contacted by the same person who had leaked the story about students being groomed.
I hung around for the next hour, waiting for instructions, then Singh and I went over to the main building to find Forest. Even though she didn’t look like she’d been awake all night, I couldn’t imagine she’d had so much as a quick power nap. The staff who’d been stuck overnight drifted over to
gather in the staffroom to find out if they could go home or if the school would be open that day.
‘Anyone not accounted for?’ I asked Singh, after he’d had a long chat with Forest.
‘We haven’t checked yet. We’re going to ask Liz Marcek to assemble all the staff and any students who come to school today in the hall at nine o’clock, then we can check.’
‘Do you think any parents are going to let their kids come to school today, after what happened here? If it were me I wouldn’t want to take that risk.’
‘I doubt it, to be honest. Even if they’re not put off by a murder and manage to make it through the snow, they’ll have to fight through the journalists at the gate.’
At that moment, the deputy head appeared, so I interpreted Singh’s request and she nodded.
I still don’t believe any of my staff could be capable of this, you know, she told him with a haughty look. There must be some other explanation.
Singh didn’t answer, and I couldn’t really blame him.
As time went on, staff who had managed to get home the previous night began to drift in. When it got to nine, Singh went round the hall and checked every single name against his list. Every staff member had come to work that day.
‘I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing,’ he muttered to Forest. ‘If someone had done a runner at least we’d know who we were looking for. This just means they’re cocky enough to believe nobody will work it out.’
‘And when they’re cocky, they’ll make a mistake,’ Forest said smoothly. She didn’t seem to share Singh’s frustration at the situation, and I wondered how she managed to stay so calm when there was a killer practically thumbing his or her nose at them.
As they had suspected, none of the students arrived for school that day, and Liz Marcek told the detectives she had been fielding emails all through the night and into the morning. Parents were demanding to know what was happening, if the school would be closing, and Liz didn’t have any answers for them.
I don’t know what I can tell them, she had told Singh angrily. Until you tell me what’s going on, I can’t do anything.
‘I wish she understood that, right now, the reputation of this school is not our first priority,’ he grumbled to me afterwards.
As we were walking out to the car park, a car pulled up and Jane Villiers got out. She was an imposing presence, and I could see why she had been the head teacher here for so long – it was almost as if the school suited her.
‘I need to speak to you,’ she said to Singh. ‘Immediately.’
She was lucky she had caught us rather than another member of staff. Singh introduced her to Forest, then ushered her inside, where we were met with a startled Liz Marcek.
Jane. What are you doing here?
Reporting a motive for murder, Jane signed back. Liz took a step back, indicating that Jane and the detectives should go into her office. For a moment, the ex-head teacher hesitated, as if she wanted to use her old office, but then thought better of it. I hung back, but Forest ushered me inside with them, leaving Liz standing in the corridor, frowning.
‘On Sunday night, I received an email from Saul Achembe. I’ve printed it off, but if you want access to the actual thing I’m happy to give you my password.’ She slapped a printed sheet down on the table. ‘I saw online this morning that he’s been killed, and I can only assume that this is connected.’
Singh picked up the email and read it aloud.
‘Dear Jane, I want to start by apologising to you. I’m sorry I didn’t take you seriously last term when you thought something dodgy was going on. Once the governors removed you I didn’t see the point in continuing the investigation you’d asked me to do, but given recent events I thought I should look into it again. The video itself hasn’t been uploaded anywhere I can find, but when I was looking I found some emails between a student and a member of staff. I know the police have found messages backed up to Steve’s account between him and Leon, when he was posing as someone called Joe, but these are between a different student and a different staff member. They’d been deleted and buried pretty well, but I managed to retrieve them all, and it’s pretty unpleasant stuff. I’ve been having a dig around in Steve’s account and he’s got some hidden files with all of this in – he found out about it too, and I think that must be why someone killed him. His files were dated the day of the trip, so he must have been preparing to confront them himself when he was murdered. I’m not going to mention any names right now, but I’ll be speaking to the police tomorrow, and then hopefully this whole thing will be over. All the best, Saul.’
Forest took the email from Singh and read it over again. ‘Well, it looks like Saul found our killer’s motive. What the hell has been going on in this school? One teacher sending illicit messages to students is bad enough, but a second one?’ She turned to Jane. ‘Why do you think he wouldn’t tell you the names of the student and the staff member?’
Jane threw her hands in the air. ‘I have no idea! Maybe he was worried in case he was wrong, and he’d put it in writing? Maybe he was worried someone else might read it. He sent it from his school email account, after all.’
‘Or maybe he wanted to give this person a chance to come clean, not realising they’d make him their next victim,’ Forest muttered. ‘Would someone else be able to access his emails?’
‘I expect so, if they knew what they were doing. This system was never particularly secure. It would have cost money to tighten it up, and the governors controlled my purse strings far more than people realised.’
‘Do you have any idea who he might be referring to?’ Forest asked.
Jane gave her a withering look. ‘Do you really think we’d be standing here talking about it if I did? I would have told you straight away! And if I’d had any idea who was behind the video I would have done something about it immediately, before I was shoved out and someone was brought in to take my place. At least it seems like he’d figured it out,’ she added, grudgingly.
‘And it’s possible he was murdered for it,’ Forest replied drily, ‘so perhaps it’s better for you that you didn’t find out.’
‘Thank you for this,’ Singh added. ‘It’s definitely helpful. We’ll give it to our tech team; it might give them a better idea of where to start, see where Saul was digging around in Steve’s files and take it from there.’
The four of us left Liz Marcek’s office to find the deputy head standing just outside the door, with Samira and her brother. When the girl saw her old head teacher she rushed forwards and threw herself at Jane, hugging her tightly. Jane looked taken aback, but automatically returned the hug, at which point Samira burst into tears.
‘Whatever is wrong?’ Jane asked, pulling Samira off her so she could sign the question.
Leon’s gone! the girl wailed.
I know, he’s been missing for days now. Is that what’s upset you?
Samira shook her head. You don’t understand. He’s gone.
Gone from where?
Samira’s brother shuffled uncomfortably. ‘Leon’s been hiding at our house.’
I was gobsmacked. Samira had done such a good job of pretending she was worried about Leon last week, getting worked up when she was asking if something had happened to him, that it had never occurred to me that she could be hiding him. She was clearly a very good actress. The detectives stared at Samira’s brother, then both began to speak at once, but he held up his hands in defence.
‘I didn’t know! If I’d known she’d sneaked him in I would’ve called the police, wouldn’t I? I’ve not been home much the last couple of weeks,’ he said, looking at the ground.
Jane Villiers drew herself up to her full height and glared at Samira’s brother. ‘Where are your parents?’ she barked.
‘Pakistan. They’ve been there for three weeks.’
‘And you have been in sole charge of your teenage sister?’
He nodded.
‘But you have neglected your care of her, by
not even noticing that she had a friend staying with her for over a week? A friend that half of the country are looking for?’
The young man looked suitably cowed under Jane Villiers’ onslaught, but Forest interrupted before it could continue.
‘We can sort that issue out later, right now I need Samira to tell us everything that happened from last Saturday onwards.’
We trooped back into the deputy head’s office, Liz and Jane both attempting to join us but being firmly refused by Forest.
Samira was trembling as she signed. That Friday, Leon told me he was going to meet Joe. He texted me really early on Saturday morning, saying how excited he was, that he was going to meet him in the park. But then he went quiet, and the next thing I know he’s outside my house. My brother was out, so I took Leon in and hid him in my room. Mo never goes in there, so I knew he wouldn’t figure it out. Leon just made sure he only used the bathroom once Mo had gone out, and I brought him food when I was home.
‘What actually happened? Why did he run away?’ Forest asked.
He told me he found Mr Wilkinson’s body. There were tears in Samira’s eyes as she finally told the secret she’d been hiding. Someone saw him, and he thought they were going to blame it on him. So, he ran away, and he told me he had to hide until the police had proven it wasn’t him.
‘Why didn’t you tell us any of this?’ Singh asked, trying to keep the anger and the frustration from his voice.
Leon told me not to. He said he wasn’t safe.
‘Who was it? Who saw him?’
Samira looked pained. He wouldn’t tell me. He said they were bound to tell the police he killed Mr Wilkinson, so he didn’t want me knowing who it was and getting involved.
‘Nobody has told us about seeing Leon next to Mr Wilkinson’s body, Samira,’ Forest said. ‘So that means the person who saw him is probably the real killer.’ She paused for a moment to let the gravity of her statement sink in. ‘Are you sure he never said anything that gave away who it might have been?’
Samira shook her head. No, I promise. He was so scared.
Silent Night Page 26
