Free BURIED CRIMES: a gripping detective thriller full of twists and turns by MICHAEL HAMBLING

She’d been taken by our esteemed previous principal, God bless her cotton socks. There was a bit of a clash between Sophie and our ex-leader. I don’t think Claudia’s predecessor came out of the encounter very well. Since it was only a few weeks after Sharon started here, it has probably stuck in her mind. I have a reasonable working relationship with her at the moment and I don’t particularly want it to suffer. I think it would if she found out.’ He grimaced.
    Lorna looked up. Karen Freeman was watching her. She smiled at her pupil. ‘You’ve got all the help you could ever need here, Karen. Just try to stay calm. All your teachers know that you’ve been through a trauma, though they don’t know the full details. Your close friends know a little about it, and they all promised to be supportive. I said to you yesterday that we’re all glad to see you back. Just remember that you’re among friends. Are you getting support from anybody else?’
    The young girl nodded. ‘The police have arranged for me to see someone tomorrow after school. She’ll be coming to the house. And we all get visited by a policewoman who’s good at listening.’
    ‘Well, if you need to talk while you’re in school, just come and find me, any lunchtime or break time. Okay?’
    She patted Karen’s shoulder.
    ‘How did it go?’ Martin Allen asked when Lorna returned to the maths department office.
    She sighed. ‘As well as could be expected. I feel so sorry for her. It must have been awful. How on earth does your wife cope with it, having to deal with these things all the time?’
    ‘That’s a question I often ask myself. I always thought she had a layer of impenetrable psychological armour, but I’ve become less sure of that in recent years.’ He glanced at the clock. ‘Two minutes to afternoon registration. We’d better be off.’
    * * *
    Jill Freeman had left work early so that she would be home when her daughter arrived back from school. Paul, two years younger than his sister, was already in the lounge watching television when the front door banged shut behind Karen. She sniffed the air: cakes. She dropped her bag and walked through to the kitchen.
    ‘It’s only fruit scones, Karen. I haven’t had time to do anything more complicated. But the first batch is cooling on that rack, so you can have one if you like. It’ll be an hour or more before Dad’s in for dinner.’
    Jill rinsed the last of the dishes and watched her daughter spread jam thickly onto a scone and take a large bite. Thank goodness, she thought. Things are beginning to get back to normal.
    ‘How did school go today? Were things any easier?’
    ‘It’s horrible. I keep thinking people are looking at me, then when they see me looking back, they look away. I keep thinking they’re talking about me.’
    ‘It will just be your imagination, Karen. Your friends are really nice, aren’t they? Certainly the ones I’ve met. You don’t think that about Jamila and Rachel, do you? And they’re your closest friends. Haven’t they been friendly enough since you went back yesterday?’
    The girl sighed. ‘I suppose so. And it’s not them, it’s the others.’ She paused. ‘Oh, I don’t know. I just feel sad all the time. I feel like crying. I cried today when Miss McIntyre saw me at lunchtime. I tried not to, but I couldn’t help it.’
    ‘It’s not a bad thing to cry, Karen. It helps to show how upset you are because then other people will try to understand a bit better. How did the talk with Miss McIntyre go?’
    ‘Okay, I suppose. But some of the other girls found out and they were looking at me when I went into registration.’
    ‘Maybe you could ask Jamila and Rachel to wait for you outside Miss MacIntyre’s office next time. Then you wouldn’t be going into registration on your own afterwards. How does that sound?’
    ‘Okay.’ The girl finished eating her jam-covered scone.
    ‘Will you and Paul be alright watching the telly for a short