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accident. But we’ll check it out anyway and I think we should take the possibility that she was
depressed seriously. We’ll pass that on to Fraser and Zhang straight away.’
‘What did you think of the teaching assistant?’
‘Of interest,’ I said. ‘Definitely.’
‘Yeah, I thought he was a bit shifty.’
Woodley sat in silence for a few moments, then he said, ‘Strange isn’t it? Being back at school?’
The car was poised at the school entrance, indicator light ticking.
‘Why do you say that?’
‘You forget how small you were once. Don’t you think?’
‘I suppose so. When did you leave primary school then? Last week? Short memory you’ve got. Is
that why they kicked you out? Couldn’t remember your times tables?’
It was a sport in the office, ribbing Woodley because he looked young, or because he had a nose
you could ski off.
‘Ha ha, boss,’ he said, but he shut up then and I was glad because I was actually thinking about how
vivid my memories of being primary school age were, and it was making me scared for Benedict
Finch, because of all the bad things that can be done to a child that age, so very easily.