Alice-Miranda knocked gently on the door and waited a few moments before pushing it open. ‘Caprice, are you all right?’ Alice-Miranda whispered. ‘I thought you might like to talk to someone about what happened this afternoon.’

The girl was lying on her bed and rolled over to face the wall. ‘Go away,’ she ordered, her voice muffled beneath the covers.

Alice-Miranda closed the door behind her and sat down on the edge of Sloane’s bed. She looked around the immaculate space, which these days resembled a page from a catalogue. If nothing else, Sloane had certainly learned a lot about housekeeping from her room mate. ‘But I’m worried about you, and the other girls are too,’ she said.

‘Sure they are,’ Caprice huffed.

Alice-Miranda decided to try a different tack. ‘I’m so glad the puppy is okay. It would have been horrible if anything had happened to him.’

A small sob came from the other side of the room.

Alice-Miranda walked over and placed her hand on Caprice’s shoulder. She could feel the girl’s body shuddering. ‘Was there really someone up there?’ Alice-Miranda asked. There was a long silence. ‘Please talk to me.’

Caprice’s body tensed. ‘I don’t want to! Just leave me alone.’

‘You have to tell the truth, Caprice,’ Alice-Miranda said. ‘If you lie to the police you can get into serious trouble.’

The girl suddenly threw off the covers and sat up. ‘And wouldn’t that just suit all of you? Millie is probably rubbing her hands together at the thought.’

‘That’s not true,’ Alice-Miranda said firmly. ‘But you know everyone would like you more if you didn’t pick on her.’

Caprice looked away. ‘I don’t pick on her.’

‘Well, why did you set her up to take the blame for the paint bombs?’ Alice-Miranda said.

‘You don’t know that.’

Alice-Miranda raised an eyebrow. ‘I haven’t said anything to Miss Grimm, but there seemed to be a lot of curly caramel hairs on your wet uniform this morning. I’m sure you didn’t start the fire on purpose, Caprice, but you really should own up.’

Caprice’s jaw flapped open like a stunned carp. For once in her life she didn’t know what to say.

‘All the girls are terrified there’s a prowler on the school grounds and we won’t have any freedom while Miss Grimm thinks someone is lurking about,’ Alice-Miranda said. ‘It will make our preparations for the dog show awfully tricky.’

Caprice drew up her knees and hugged them to her chest. ‘It was an accident,’ the girl said softly. ‘The puppy must have gone too close to the heater and the towels snagged on the coils. I was just trying to warm him up.’

Alice-Miranda’s eyes widened. She never imagined Caprice would actually confess. ‘But why did you leave him there?’ she asked.

‘He ran away and hid and I couldn’t find him and then the smoke was getting thicker and I thought I was going to die.’ Tears began to stream down the girl’s face.

Alice-Miranda put her arm around Caprice’s shoulders. ‘You have to tell Miss Grimm the truth.’

‘But she’s going to be so angry,’ Caprice blubbered. ‘And what if she calls my parents?’

‘Miss Grimm will be mad for a while but, believe me, she’ll be happy that we don’t have to be on the alert for an intruder,’ Alice-Miranda assured her. ‘Where did you get the puppy?’

Caprice blinked her big blue eyes and snatched a tissue from the bedside table. She wiped away the tears. ‘I found him in the garden when I was on the way back from my singing lesson,’ she explained. ‘I knew Miss Grimm would have called the dog catcher, so I thought about where I could hide him and the stable flat seemed the best place.’

‘Someone would have found him sooner or later,’ Alice-Miranda said, smiling at the girl. ‘He would have got bigger and noisier and I don’t know how you were planning to feed him.’

Caprice shrugged. ‘I don’t know either. It was a stupid idea.’ She swallowed hard and looked Alice-Miranda in the eye. ‘Are you going to tell Mrs Howard?’

The girl shook her head.

‘Why not?’

‘Because you’re going to tell her yourself.’

‘I don’t know if I can,’ Caprice said, her eyes awash with new tears.

Alice-Miranda patted the girl’s hand. ‘You’ll feel better once you get it off your chest.’

Caprice sniffed. ‘Will you come with me?’ she asked.

Alice-Miranda smiled and nodded. She was pleased the girl wasn’t concocting yet another lie to cover her tracks.

Caprice swivelled her feet to the ground and stood up. She pulled on her dressing-gown and found her slippers at the end of the bed.

‘Where are you going?’ Alice-Miranda asked, surprised by the girl’s burst of energy.

‘To see Miss Grimm,’ Caprice replied. ‘I’m not going to be able to sleep if I leave it until tomorrow, and if I don’t sleep I might get sick, which would be a total disaster. I always get throat problems when I’m stressed, plus I have a rehearsal with Mr Trout and Mr Lipp that I can’t afford to miss.’

Caprice opened the door and turned to find Alice-Miranda still sitting on the bed. ‘Come on, slow coach, some of us have other things to do, you know.’

‘Sorry,’ Alice-Miranda said, grinning as she got up and followed Caprice out of the room.