Paula leaned impatiently on the banister rail- where was Lori? They’d agreed to meet near the vending machines at the beginning of second break: it was now fifteen minutes into break, and still no sign of her.

“Finally!” she exclaimed as she heard the sound of soft footsteps behind her.

“Finally what?” a surprised voice asked her.

“Ed!” she gasped, as Lori’s boyfriend appeared. “Where on earth is Lori?”

“I came to ask you that,” he said, bewildered. “I haven’t seen her all day, and I really need to speak to her.”

Paula moved casually towards the machine, slipped her coins into it and selected a packet of crisps.

“Want one?” she asked holding out the packet.

“Thanks,” Ed said, taking one.

“Shall we phone her?” he asked, when another five minutes had gone by without any sign of her.

“What’s the point?” Paula asked. “You’ll see her in class in another five minutes, won’t you?”

As if to prove her point, the bell rang.

“I’ll tell her to meet you here at half three, ok?” Ed asked, setting off towards his classroom.

But when Ed reached the classroom, Lori wasn’t there. The teacher, Mr. Pelham, wasn’t there either. Left to their own devices, the class, as usual, went wild -all except Ed, who spent his time sending text messages to Lori.

When Mr. Pelham came in ten minutes later, his face was flushed and his clothes were dishevelled. Taking the class register quickly, he made no comment on the fact that one class member was missing -unusual for him.

The lesson finished at three: half an hour left to find Lori…a futile half hour, as it was later proved. Ed scampered round the entire building to find her, testing each and every door -he even convinced Megan, a mutual friend of theirs, to check the girls’ bathrooms.

At half three, he had to face Paula and admit that Lori had apparently vanished. Paula shrugged.

“She’ll probably turn up for the last lesson, or we’ll find her waiting for us outside.”

The duo walked reluctantly towards the French classroom, but found a notice pinned to the door, stating that that weeks’ lessons would be held in the media room.

“Excellent,” Ed grinned. Now he could sleep through the lesson without anyone noticing.

As they reached the media room, they found that the door was locked. Paula twisted the door handle impatiently.

“How weird,” she said, stretching up to look through the glass panel at the top of the door. “Ed, look in and see what you think, could you?”

The room looked almost unnaturally still -the heavy curtains were drawn and the chairs at the front of the room were dragged to form a circle.

Now truly curious, Ed and Paula ran to the Assistant Head’s office to ask for a copy of the key. On the way back to the room, they met Mr. Turner, the French teacher, who walked with them to the media room. As they walked in, Paula stopped and clutched at Ed’s arm.

“What’s that?” she asked, pointing to a school bag lying abandoned under a chair. No one answered her -Ed and Mr. Turner were too busy looking at the body placed in the centre of the circle of chairs.

Paula screamed.

The teachers in the teachers’ lounge all came running. They found Paula standing rooted to the spot, Ed in a state of utter shock, and Mr. Turner calling an ambulance.

“It’s definitely Lori,” Paula said, and Ed agreed with her.

Mr. Turner moved cautiously towards Lori to check for a pulse, but when he straightened up, his fingertips were wet with blood. Stifling a sob, Paula collapsed into a chair.

Once the ambulance personnel had taken Lori away, the police turned up. Paula and Ed were waiting in an empty classroom, talking in subdued voices.

At half six, Ed and Paula sat in separate classrooms, each accompanied by a constable. They had been asked to compile a list of Lori’s activities for the day -but Paula had been highly defensive, assuming they were about to be accused of killing her themselves.

Much to their immense shock, the inquest was held barely twenty four hours after the body had been discovered, and the case was closed within fifteen minutes. The police were sure that it had been a suicide attempt, and the fact that a bloodstained knife had been found in the room confirmed this opinion. The fact that the door had been locked from the outside was left uninvestigated -the accepted explanation being that someone had seen the door open and locked it without looking in.