team here, so we should get through everyone quite quickly.’
Elaine checked her watch. ‘OK, everyone. I’d like you all to go to your form rooms and take the register, then send the girls to the school hall. I’ll tell them what’s going on. I think it’s important to involve them in this and keep them informed.’
‘But what will we say if they ask us questions?’ Stephen asked, looking troubled.
‘Think of something,’ Elaine said through gritted teeth, clearly teetering on the edge of her last nerve.
The staffroom emptied in record time. I slid out past DCI Vickers, making eye contact for a split second. He nodded discreetly – almost imperceptibly – in return, to my relief. The last thing I wanted was for everyone else to work out that I’d met DCI Vickers before, and recently. The identity of the person who’d discovered Jenny’s body had been the main topic of conversation when I got to the staffroom. If nothing else, Carol Shapley was thorough – she had interrogated pretty much everyone before they got through the door.
The assembly hall was almost full. I had managed to find a chair near the front, by the wall, facing in so I could scan the entire room. The girls, who had never been known to be completely quiet in their lives, were just as silent as the teachers had been earlier. Not a flicker interrupted the rapt attention they were paying to the stage where Elaine was speaking, again flanked by the chief inspector and the press officer. In the intervening hour or so, Elaine had ironed out a few of the kinks in her presentation. She ripped through her speech without a twitch.
The assembly hall was much emptier than it should have been; I guessed, looking along the rows of girls, that around half had been kept home from school or had gone home already. That tallied with what I’d found in my own greatly diminished class on taking the roll. Word had got around already that it was an Edgeworth girl who had died. Now they just wanted to hear the details.
‘This will be a difficult time for all of us,’ Elaine intoned, ‘but I expect you to behave with dignity and decorum. Please respect the Shepherds’ privacy. If you should happen to be approached by the media, don’t comment on Jenny, the school or anything to do with the investigation. I do not want to see an Edgeworth student speaking to any journalists. Anyone who does will be suspended. Or worse.’
Some of the older girls looked more devastated by the media ban than the news about Jenny. Their heartfelt sobbing had not so much as smudged their impeccably applied make-up, I noted.
‘The school secretary is contacting your parents as I speak,’ Elaine continued. ‘We are asking them to collect you or make other arrangements for you to be looked after for the next few hours. The school will be closed for the rest of the week.’
DCI Vickers looked a bit shocked at the fizz of excitement that spread through the assembly hall. I wasn’t. The girls, like all teenagers, were self-centred and unthinkingly brutal on occasion. They may have been genuinely upset about Jenny, but they were also working the angles for themselves. An unexpected week off, for whatever reason, was not to be sniffed at.
Elaine held up her hands and silence fell again. ‘This is Detective Chief Inspector Vickers. He is leading the investigation into this very sad death and he has a couple of things he would like to say to you.’ Another ripple ran through the hall. I wondered if Vickers had ever been the focus of so much overexcited female attention before. His ears, I was amused to see, were delicately shading to dark pink before my eyes. He stepped forward and leaned in to the microphone. Looking rumpled, pale, slightly shabby, his edge was well disguised.
‘Thank you, Ms Pennington.’ He had leaned too close to the microphone and the ‘p’ of Pennington popped from the overamplification. ‘I’d like to appeal to any of you who have any information
Elaine checked her watch. ‘OK, everyone. I’d like you all to go to your form rooms and take the register, then send the girls to the school hall. I’ll tell them what’s going on. I think it’s important to involve them in this and keep them informed.’
‘But what will we say if they ask us questions?’ Stephen asked, looking troubled.
‘Think of something,’ Elaine said through gritted teeth, clearly teetering on the edge of her last nerve.
The staffroom emptied in record time. I slid out past DCI Vickers, making eye contact for a split second. He nodded discreetly – almost imperceptibly – in return, to my relief. The last thing I wanted was for everyone else to work out that I’d met DCI Vickers before, and recently. The identity of the person who’d discovered Jenny’s body had been the main topic of conversation when I got to the staffroom. If nothing else, Carol Shapley was thorough – she had interrogated pretty much everyone before they got through the door.
The assembly hall was almost full. I had managed to find a chair near the front, by the wall, facing in so I could scan the entire room. The girls, who had never been known to be completely quiet in their lives, were just as silent as the teachers had been earlier. Not a flicker interrupted the rapt attention they were paying to the stage where Elaine was speaking, again flanked by the chief inspector and the press officer. In the intervening hour or so, Elaine had ironed out a few of the kinks in her presentation. She ripped through her speech without a twitch.
The assembly hall was much emptier than it should have been; I guessed, looking along the rows of girls, that around half had been kept home from school or had gone home already. That tallied with what I’d found in my own greatly diminished class on taking the roll. Word had got around already that it was an Edgeworth girl who had died. Now they just wanted to hear the details.
‘This will be a difficult time for all of us,’ Elaine intoned, ‘but I expect you to behave with dignity and decorum. Please respect the Shepherds’ privacy. If you should happen to be approached by the media, don’t comment on Jenny, the school or anything to do with the investigation. I do not want to see an Edgeworth student speaking to any journalists. Anyone who does will be suspended. Or worse.’
Some of the older girls looked more devastated by the media ban than the news about Jenny. Their heartfelt sobbing had not so much as smudged their impeccably applied make-up, I noted.
‘The school secretary is contacting your parents as I speak,’ Elaine continued. ‘We are asking them to collect you or make other arrangements for you to be looked after for the next few hours. The school will be closed for the rest of the week.’
DCI Vickers looked a bit shocked at the fizz of excitement that spread through the assembly hall. I wasn’t. The girls, like all teenagers, were self-centred and unthinkingly brutal on occasion. They may have been genuinely upset about Jenny, but they were also working the angles for themselves. An unexpected week off, for whatever reason, was not to be sniffed at.
Elaine held up her hands and silence fell again. ‘This is Detective Chief Inspector Vickers. He is leading the investigation into this very sad death and he has a couple of things he would like to say to you.’ Another ripple ran through the hall. I wondered if Vickers had ever been the focus of so much overexcited female attention before. His ears, I was amused to see, were delicately shading to dark pink before my eyes. He stepped forward and leaned in to the microphone. Looking rumpled, pale, slightly shabby, his edge was well disguised.
‘Thank you, Ms Pennington.’ He had leaned too close to the microphone and the ‘p’ of Pennington popped from the overamplification. ‘I’d like to appeal to any of you who have any information
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