’Some new schemes are coming up for the English Department and they want all of us there.’ Alice was quite good at being lied to. She did not question the lie, she questioned what it said. ’You mean, all the English teachers?’ ‘All of us who work with the seniors.’ ‘I thought you might take me out to dinner.’ ‘Sorry, Alice. Day after tomorrow.’ ‘Day after tomorrow I’ll be dead.’ In the middle of a class next morning Glenn Brimmer’s moon face appeared behind the glass top of the door. He watched for a moment, turning his eyes from side to side, until Paul told someone near the door, ‘Tell that boy to come in or go away.’ He came in. ‘You’re wanted on the phone.’ Calls were forbidden during classes. ‘Look at chapter ten,’ Paul told the room. ‘Try and see why the jury arrived at that verdict. No rioting.’ He hurried down the stairs and along the hall to the office, past a group of girls who said, ‘Walk, don’t run, Mr Hammond.’ Alice was under a bus.
