Kim had not been surprised to see she had a missed call from Woody by the time she got back into the car.

Her conversation with Inspector Plant had been pleasant enough, and he’d been only too happy to accept her assessment of suspicious circumstances. He had graciously agreed to leave his team to continue taking witness statements which he promised would be on her desk by the following morning.

Her request to the coroner for a post-mortem on the body of Sadie Winters would not have gone unnoticed by her boss. Requests were made by police officers or doctors if the death was unexpected, violent, unnatural or suspicious. The main aim was to find out how someone had died and if an inquest was required.

The Winters family would probably not thank her but permission from the parents was not necessary regardless of Sadie’s age. Her gut told her she was doing the right thing by looking more closely at the death of the young girl and yet she felt a moment of trepidation before she knocked on Woody’s door. She guessed it was coming from the doubt she saw in the eyes of her colleague every time Sadie’s name was mentioned.

‘Sir?’ she asked, popping in just her head and leaving her body on the other side of the door. She lived in hope that was enough of her and that the conversation would be short.

‘Come in, Stone,’ he said, taking his reading glasses from his head and placing them on the desk beside the photo of his granddaughter, Lissy.

Or not.

He pointed to the top right edge of his desk. ‘Do you see that empty space there, Stone?’ he asked.

She nodded, knowing what was coming next.

‘It’s been empty for the last two weeks. Around the time I asked for a copy of your staff appraisals, which I feel sure you have carried out, and copies of which you have simply forgotten to let me have,’ he said, raising one eyebrow.

She held in the groan that was desperate to escape. Appraising the performance of her team members each year was not an activity that came naturally to her.

‘The expression that you’re trying to hide tells me that you have not yet completed them,’ he observed. ‘Please tell me that you’ve at least given them the forms to complete?’ he asked.

‘Absolutely, sir,’ she said, nodding. About that she didn’t need to find some imaginative way to hide the truth. And she’d had them back too. She just couldn’t quite remember what she’d done with them. A fact she felt was unnecessary to share with her boss.

‘You’ll have them by the end of the week, sir,’ she said, edging towards the door.

Now if she could just reach the handle before…

‘The parents of Sadie Winters are not happy.’

‘They know already?’ she asked. It had been less than an hour since she’d left the site.

‘Yes, they know.’

‘Sir, who informed them?’ she asked, frowning.

‘That’s not important right now. They have to face the thought of their daughter being butchered when it’s going to do nothing to bring her back,’ he said.

‘Neither is ignoring the suspicious circumstances surrounding her death,’ she countered. ‘But I’m gonna do it anyway.’

‘And you’re sure the circumstances are suspicious, and this has nothing to do with the fact you didn’t get to her in time?’

Kim frowned. ‘Is that what you think?’

‘More importantly, is it what you think?’

She shook her head. She couldn’t have made it to the school any quicker, but she was stung by his words.

‘Do you really think I would prolong the pain of the family to soothe my own guilt, sir?’ she asked.

‘Do I think that your failure to change Mrs Worley’s mind in testifying against her husband was still on your mind when you got to the school? Do I think that you assume guilt for every victim you can’t save and thereby bury yourself in responsibility and personal determination to right any wrong?’ he asked, and then gave her no time to answer. ‘Yes, on a personal level, I do. From a professional point of view there are going to be a great many influential people watching you closely on this one, Stone,’ he said, meaningfully. ‘They are also going to be hoping that you do find her death to be suicide.’

She nodded her understanding. Many rich and powerful people had been manufactured at Heathcrest Academy. The reputation of the facility was exemplary. And she was sure they wanted to keep it that way. Suicide as a manner of death was not the greatest recommendation for the school and was unlikely to appear on their marketing brochures, but it was better than other potential scenarios.

Influential people would be watching her every move and would not hesitate to take her down if she put a foot wrong. By following her instinct back to Heathcrest she could be risking her job, her career, the respect of her team and the good faith of her boss.

And none of these things bothered her one little bit when stacked against the death of a thirteen-year-old girl.

‘So, I ask you again, Stone. Are you sure you know what you’re doing?’

She met his gaze with stubborn determination.

‘Yes, sir. I am.’