Mr. Ward was at the front of the classroom, reading out a passage from their Russian history textbook. He swiped something from the board, and Pip watched as a crack of sunlight climbed up the back of his bright shirt. She waited.

When the bell finally rang for lunch, Mr. Ward called over the scraping chairs, “Read chapter three before next class. And if you want to get ahead, Trotsky on over to chapter four as well.” He chuckled at his own joke.

“You coming, Pip?” Connor said, swinging his backpack onto one shoulder.

“Um, yeah, I’ll come find you guys in a minute,” she said. “I need to ask Mr. Ward something first.”

“You need to ask Mr. Ward something, huh?” Mr. Ward had overheard. “That’s ominous. I hope you haven’t started thinking about the coursework already.”

“No…Well, yes I have,” Pip said, “but that’s not what I want to ask you.”

She waited until they were the only two left in the classroom.

“What is it?” Mr. Ward glanced down at his watch. “You have ten of my minutes before I start panicking about the panini queue.”

“Yeah, sorry,” Pip said, grasping inside for her courage. “Um…”

“Everything OK?” Mr. Ward asked, sitting back on his desk, arms and legs crossed. “Worrying about your application? I don’t think you need to worry. I’ve already started on your letter of recommendation and—”

“No, thanks, but it’s not that.” She took a breath and blew out her top lip. “I…When I interviewed you before, you said you didn’t have anything to do with Andie in the last two years of school.”

“Yes, correct.” He blinked. “She wasn’t in any of my classes after sophomore year.”

“OK, but”—her courage returned all at once, and her words raced each other out—“one of Andie’s friends said that, excuse the language, Andie referred to you as an asshole and other unsavory words sometime in the weeks before she went missing.”

The “why” was hiding there beneath her words; she didn’t need to say it.

“Oh,” Mr. Ward said, rubbing the dark hair back from his face. He looked at her and sighed. “Well, I was hoping this wouldn’t come up. I don’t see what good it can do to dwell on it now. But I can see you’re being very thorough with your project.”

Pip nodded, her silence beckoning an answer.

Mr. Ward shifted. “I don’t feel too comfortable about it, saying unpleasant things about a student who has lost her life.” He glanced up at the classroom door and scooted over to shut it. “I didn’t have much to do with Andie at school, but as Naomi’s dad, I knew of her, of course. And…it was in that capacity, through Naomi, that I learned some things about Andie.”

“Yes?”

“No easy way of saying it but…she was a bully. She was bullying another girl in their grade. I can’t remember her name now. There was some sort of incident, a video that Andie had posted online.”

Pip was both surprised and not really at all. Yet another secret in Andie Bell’s life.

“I knew enough to understand that Andie would be in trouble with both the school and the police for what she’d done,” Mr. Ward continued. “And I…I thought it was a shame because it was the first week back after spring break, and exams were coming up.” He sighed again. “What I should have done, when I found out, was tell the principal about the incident. But the school has a no-tolerance policy on bullying, and I knew Andie would be expelled immediately. I…well, I just couldn’t do it. Even though she was a bully, I couldn’t live with myself knowing I’d play a part in ruining a student’s future.”

“So what did you do?” Pip asked.

“I looked up her father’s contact details and I called him, the first day of school after the break.”

“You mean the Monday of the week Andie disappeared?”

Mr. Ward nodded. “Yes, I guess it was. I called Jason Bell and I told him everything I’d learned and said that he needed to have a very serious talk with his daughter about bullying and consequences. And I suggested restricting her online access. I said I was trusting him to sort it out, otherwise, I would have no choice but to inform the school and have Andie expelled.”

“And what did he say?”

“Well, he was thankful that I was giving his daughter a second chance she possibly didn’t deserve. And he promised he would talk to her. I’m guessing now that when Jason did speak to Andie, he mentioned that I was the source of the information. So if I was the target of some choice words from Andie that week, I’m not entirely surprised, I must say. Disappointed is all.”

Pip sighed with undisguised relief.

“What’s that for?”

“I’m just glad you weren’t lying for a worse reason.”

“Think you’ve read too many mystery novels, Pip. Why not some historical biographies instead?” He smiled gently.

“They can be just as disturbing.” She paused. “You’d never told anyone before, had you…about Andie’s bullying?”

“Of course not. It seemed pointless after everything happened. Insensitive too.” He scratched his chin. “I try not to think about it because I get lost in butterfly-effect theories. What if I had just told the school and Andie was expelled that week? Would it have changed the outcome? Would the conditions that led to Sal killing her not have been in place? Would those two still be alive?”

“I understand,” Pip said. “And you don’t remember the girl Andie bullied?”

“No, sorry,” he said. “Naomi would remember; you could ask her about it. Not sure what this has to do with the use of media in criminal investigations, though.” He raised his eyebrows in a scolding way.

“Well, I haven’t decided on my final title yet.”

“OK, well, don’t go falling down a rabbit hole.” He smiled, wagged his finger. “And now I’m running away from you because I’m desperate for a tuna melt.”

He dashed into the corridor, and Pip felt lighter, watching him go. That wasn’t as hard as she’d thought it would be. And now she had some answers, another real lead to follow. And one less name on her list.

But the lead was taking her back to Naomi. And Pip would have to look her in the eyes again, like she didn’t think there was something secret hiding there.