" She headed straight for the Kinvig Room and the first lecture of the day. The doors were still shut when she arrived, and she was just wondering what they were waiting for when a loud voice called for attention. “If I could just have everyone’s attention for a moment? Please, can you all quiet down?” Bessie turned and spotted Harold at the far end of the room. He really needed a microphone to make his voice loud enough to be heard over the general babble. Slowly, people began to stop talking and turned to face him. “Ah, um, thank you,” he said, looking flustered. “I just wanted, that is, I think it’s only appropriate if we have a minute of silence in honour of Mack?” A quiet murmur went through the crowd, but no one objected. “Okay, well, then, um, let’s have a minute of silence, shall we?” Harold asked, and the room fell quiet. Bessie felt as if she could hear the large clock on the wall behind her ticking off the seconds as she tried, but failed, to think about Mack and his untimely death. They were only about halfway through their minute when the lift doors suddenly opened with an accompanying “ping” that sent a nervous giggle through the crowd. Inspector Corkill and two uniformed constables stepped out of the lift and stopped short as every person in the room stared at them in the heavy silence. The inspector cleared his throat and glanced around the space. “Should I ask what’s going on?” he asked eventually. “We were, um, having a minute of silence for Mack,” Harold replied. “It seemed like the appropriate thing to do.” “Indeed,” Inspector Corkill nodded. “I’m sorry I interrupted, then.” “No problem,” Harold assured him. “We were just about finished anyway. It’s time for our first session of the day to begin. I hope that’s "