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bit too neat, the shoulder strap buckle looked to be engrained with semi-precious stones, and the whole thing had a ‘worn chic‘ look to it that meant it had probably cost several hundred pounds at a London boutique.
    “No, it’s...” Come on, there were only ten of them in the class! “...Emily,” Parva said, trying her best to keep the triumph out of her voice.
    “You probably wrote it down to help you remember.”
    “I didn’t actually.” Parva wondered what the girl wanted, apart from some human contact. “I like to think I can remember everything I get told.”
    “Everything?”
    Parva nodded.
    “Ok, then remember this.” Emily was getting to her feet. “You should leave this place now. Get out while you still can. I know you won’t because no one ever listens to me. They didn’t listen to me.” She gathered her bag to her. It rattled as she did so.
    “They?” Parva frowned and took a step towards her. “Do you mean the girls who died?”
    Emily nodded. The hand that wasn’t holding the bag clawed at her lower lip with nervous fingers. “They didn’t listen. I told them to leave it alone but they wouldn’t. You should leave it alone, too.”
    “Leave what alone?”
    Emily was close to the door now. Parva willed her to stay - she didn’t want to be seen chasing girls into the corridor on her first day there.
    “You’ll see, if you stay long enough,” came the reply. “Which you shouldn’t do. But you will, won’t you?”
    “I’ll stay as long as I need to,” Parva said. “But no longer, if that makes you feel any better.”
    Emily made to open the door, then turned and gave Parva a suspicious look. “Are you the one Jocelyn saw on the way here?”
    Parva shrugged. “How should I know?” she said.
    “You should,” said Emily. “It was your car that nearly ran her over.”
    And with that she was gone, leaving Parva with an empty classroom, a whiteboard filled with science, and the wish that real life could be so easily explained as the scribbling behind her. She’d need to talk to Emily again, of course, but gaining the girl’s trust wasn’t going to be easy. The afternoon hadn’t been a complete waste of time, though. Now she had a name for the girl who had emerged from the hedge in the pouring rain and stopped for a moment in front of her. Jocelyn had looked distressed, wet, and was quite possibly injured. Parva switched off the lights and decided to take a little tour of the campus.
    One that would include the infirmary as her first stop.

 
    7
     
    “No one has come in today at all.”
    The school matron’s name was Jan Waters. She was fifty, plump, and behaved as if the last thirty years hadn’t happened. Which, Parva, supposed, had probably been to her advantage when she had applied for the job.
    Parva looked at the empty beds before her, five on each side of the room, their heads against each lime green painted wall. Just like in the old days.
    “I was just a bit worried,” Parva explained. “When I was on my way here I thought I saw someone dashing across the road in the rain.”
    “Probably part of a cross-country run,” said the nurse. “We do pride ourselves on keeping our young ladies in the peak of physical health.”
    Then why do you need so many beds? “That’s good to hear, but I don’t think this was part of any programmed physical activity. She was wearing a dress, for one thing.”
    “If she wasn’t wearing uniform or sports kit then I think it’s highly unlikely it was one of our girls.” Matron Waters was shaking her head. “Far more likely it was someone local, out walking her dog or perhaps wandering onto our grounds by mistake. It does happen you know, more often than you might think.”
    Really? With this school priding itself on being in the middle of nowhere? “Of course,” said Parva with an apologetic look. “I’m so sorry for wasting your time.”
    The matron gave her a thin smile. “Not at all,” she said. “And at least