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competitive in the same things. But at his home we were thrown together more and we played games with his family. I beat him regularly at Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit. He didn’t like it. He was barely speaking to me by the end of the holidays. Neither were his parents – they didn’t like their wonder boy having his nose put out of joint. Though they were more successful at concealing their antagonism than Adam was.’
    â€˜Not a very nice experience. You must have been glad to get back to school.’
    Sadiq gave a fatalistic shrug. ‘I’ve had worse.’
    Rafferty wondered that Sadiq should choose to confide this little titbit. Admittedly, it could hardly be said to be cause for poisoning Ainsley all of seventeen years later. Unless he was being disingenuous and the rebuff had cut deep. Teenagers could be sensitive souls. Perhaps Asgar had been a particularly tortured teen, with homesickness and racism mixed into the brew. All would have been so much more painful with him so far from home and with little hope of seeing his family. Perhaps he had nursed Adam’s rebuff all these years and this reunion had been the first chance he had had to get his revenge?
    â€˜Have you been back to your home in India recently, Mr Sadiq?’ Rafferty asked, curious to learn if Asgar had had opportunity to consult some Indian wise man about what plant would kill a mortal enemy in the way Adam Ainsley had been killed.
    â€˜I live there now. I work in IT and India is a rising star. Rivals Silicone Valley in the States. I just came back here for the school reunion.’
    â€˜Long way to come.’
    â€˜Yes. But I often have to fly over to Britain on business, so it was little more expense to tag this reunion on the end of a round of meetings.’
    â€˜Did Mr Barmforth, the last headmaster, keep you updated on who else would be attending the reunion?’
    â€˜Oh yes. He always sent out a round robin email; Jeremy Paxton did the same when he took over. There’s an Old Griffinites’ club. A number of us meet regularly.’
    â€˜What about Adam? Was he a member?’
    â€˜No. We have a clubhouse in town, but I never saw him there. Admittedly, I couldn’t manage to fly over too often. And this is the first time he’s turned up for a reunion. I was surprised when I saw his name on Jeremy’s round-robin email as one of the attendees.’
    â€˜Did he say why he’d come this time?’
    â€˜He just said he was curious about how we’d all got on, though I think, from reading between the lines, that he was bored with what he was doing. You know he worked as a sports instructor after he quit rugby?’
    Rafferty nodded.
    â€˜I got the impression he missed his life as a professional sportsman, though he didn’t say as much. Didn’t want to admit it, I suppose. He was always very fit, but he’d let himself get a bit flabby. Sure sign of lack of self-esteem, don’t they say?’
    Rafferty pulled in his incipient beer belly and said, ‘I wouldn’t know.’ Still, it was interesting that Ainsley seemed to have been letting himself go. He was currently single – neither he, nor the two ex-Mrs Ainsleys had said his love life was as red-hot as it had been when he was the school sporting hero or the professional rugby player.
    â€˜I think he came to the reunion in the hope of putting out a few feelers about other work. But most of his peers went into professional careers – banking, lecturing, the medical or legal world. Or, like me, IT. Adam was never academic, so there was no way any of us could have fixed him up with a suitable job. I don’t think he found the help he was seeking. He died an unhappy, frustrated man.’
    Once Gary Sadiq had gone, Rafferty leaned back and said to Llewellyn, who had been taking notes, ‘So Sadiq had been aware that Adam Ainsley would be returning to Griffin. Asgar Sadiq is a Muslim,