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if you don’t eat now, it will be four o’clock before the show’s over. You’ll be hungry if you don’t eat a couple of sandwiches now.’
    ‘I think we need to do something to help Victoria,’ Dr. Muriel said. ‘Poor woman is in meltdown.’
    ‘I wish Piers were here,’ said Morgana. ‘But he’s so often working on weekends.’
    ‘Is Piers her husband?’ asked David. ‘Matinees are a killer. Is he in a show in town?’
    ‘He’s not an actor. I’m not quite sure what he does exactly. He’s in the civil service.’
    ‘Is he?’ David looked interested. ‘Is that a euphemism? I met a few ex-MI6 for that TV series I was in. Their families would have said something similar.’
    Morgana paused before answering. She could have been pausing for effect, counting in her head, one morgana blakely, two morgana blakely, three morgana blakely before responding. Or there might have been something in what David said. ‘Darling,’ Morgana said eventually, ‘I simply have no idea what Piers does. It’s worthy but boring. Not the stuff of romantic heroes – or action heroes – I’m afraid.’
    ‘Talking of action heroes,’ David said, ‘I hear the handyman’s missing. I’ll go and look for him. Where would he be?’
    ‘Let me think,’ said Morgana, ‘I’ve been here often enough… Yes! He’s got a shed round the back of the playground where he keeps his tools, next to the landlord’s place. You could try there.’
    David went off in search of Dizzy.
    Morgana said, ‘I think I’ll go and see if Victoria needs help pacifying the non-prizewinning parents. I’ll offer to send off a few signed books, that usually helps. If things get really fractious, I might have to agree to judge an under-sixteens flash fiction writing competition or something. Remember that time, a few years ago, Muriel, when we thought we’d have to get up and sing a song to calm everyone down?’
    ‘I’m not sure it would have had a calming effect,’ said Dr. Muriel. ‘Everything seems much more under control here today. I doubt we’ll feel called upon to participate in the performance.’
    ‘You will come and join me soon, won’t you?’ said Morgana. ‘The show will be starting any minute. Don’t let me take my place on that stage all alone. Some of the numbers would seem interminably long if they weren’t punctuated by your derisive snorting, cheering things along.’
    When Morgana had gone, Dr. Muriel got up and closed the door. She said, ‘I had a look at that letter. Curious, don’t you think?’
    ‘What does it say?
    Dr. Muriel took a note that had been written in blue biro on blue stationery from her pocket and showed it to Emily before putting it back in her pocket again.
    THE SHOW MUST GO ON
    OR MUST IT NOT?
    STOP IT, VICKY
    OR BE STOPPED
    ‘It seems to be a threat to disrupt the show, but it doesn’t make much sense,’ Emily said. ‘There’s no consistency or clarity about what they want her to do, even if she were inclined to follow their directions. It’s as if sending the notes is more important than the threats they contain. The first note seemed to be a threat to tell Piers, then to tell everyone, then to tell people at the school. Maybe the sender just wants to frighten her rather than get her to do anything. It seems to be a bluff, doesn’t it? I mean, we’ve all got secrets.’
    ‘Interesting! And very perceptive. Here’s another curious thing: Why would someone send a letter here all of a sudden when they had been sending them to her house?’
    ‘Victoria thinks David sent them.’
    ‘Do you?’
    ‘No. But she thinks it’s connected to the video, and no one knew about it except her and David and a few of the other students – and their tutor who watched it, who died.’
    ‘That’s what she says. But she really is a most indiscreet person. We’d be hard-pressed to find someone in this building who didn’t know about the video. You and I and Morgana know. And Seema and