The Selection List

Emma returned to the library the next morning. She had one clear task: find the newspaper article mentioned in the correction. The small notice had said that an earlier report gave the wrong number of students selected for the foundation's travel scheme.

The librarian brought her a bound collection of newspapers from September 2011. Emma found the article on a page with several photographs of local events. Its title was simple: “Eight Students Chosen for Travel Support.”

Eight, Emma wrote in her notebook.

The article said the Glenarraidh Education Trust had selected eight students to receive help with travel costs. It quoted Malcolm Vale, the chair, who described the scheme as a way to give young people more opportunities. It did not name the eight students or explain how they had been chosen.

Emma checked the date. The article had appeared two days before her interview with Claire, on 16 September 2011. The correction had been published later that month, after Claire disappeared.

She compared the two pages. The correction said the original number was inaccurate, but it did not give a new number. It was impossible to know from these papers whether seven, nine or some other number of students had actually been selected.

She called Sarah.

“There's a number in the original article,” Emma said. “Eight students. But the correction doesn't tell us the right number.”

“Does that prove something went wrong with the money?”

“No. It proves the paper printed a wrong figure. We need the student selection records and the payment records before we can say more.”

Emma asked the librarian whether there were more local reports about the scheme. The librarian suggested checking the letters page and the following week's edition.

There, Emma found a short letter from a parent. The writer complained that families had not been told how students were selected. The newspaper had removed the writer's name, but the date and text were clear.

Emma photographed the page. The parent's complaint was important, but it was only one person's account. It did not prove that any particular student had been treated unfairly.

When Emma opened her notebook again, she made three separate lines: what the trust announced, what the paper corrected, and what one parent had questioned.

She looked at Claire's old interview notes. Claire had spoken about promises made to students. Emma now had a better question for Fiona Bell: did the trust still have the selection rules from 2011?

She wrote the question without mentioning the anonymous caller. The next answer, she decided, should come from a document.