Pip visits Cara’s house with Lauren, later joined by the boys, and realizes that Cara’s father, Elliot Ward, can offer an adult perspective on Sal Singh. Because Elliot taught Sal at Kilton Grammar and knew him through Naomi, Pip turns the casual visit into another interview.

Elliot explains that he taught Sal for nearly three years and helped him apply to Oxford to study history. Sal was highly intelligent, had received an Oxford offer, and, in Elliot’s view, would almost certainly have achieved top grades. Elliot’s admiration adds weight to Pip’s growing doubts about whether Sal would have left such obvious evidence if he had killed Andie.

When Pip asks about the days after Andie disappeared, Elliot says he taught Sal on the Monday and remembers Sal seeming quiet, tearful, and worried, though the whole school was unsettled. Elliot did not see Sal on the Tuesday because he had called in sick after dropping his daughters at school. He only learned later that police had interviewed Naomi and the others about Sal’s alibi.

Elliot says he reluctantly believes Sal must have killed Andie because the evidence leaves no other explanation, even though it feels wrong to him. He also says he taught Andie only during GCSE history and did not know her well.

After the interview, Pip notes that Ravi had never mentioned Sal’s Oxford offer and wonders what else Ravi might not have told her, but she is still anxious after their argument at the supermarket. Pip concludes that Sal’s intelligence makes the case against him look suspiciously clumsy. Later, while playing Monopoly with Naomi, Pip reassesses her suspicion of Naomi, deciding Naomi’s gentle behavior makes her seem unlikely to be a murderer, though Pip keeps Naomi on the persons of interest list.