Sterling nodded. ‘A nice neighbour gave me two icepacks, so I feel as though some of the swelling has gone down. I probably look more beaten up than I am. Honestly, I’m just relieved it’s all over.’

Ryder nodded. ‘Collins admitted he was the reason you lost your job, telling your boss you were a junkie. He feels bad about it.’

‘Well, technically Garrett wasn’t lying when he told him about my conversation with Heidi. Where is Sergeant Collins?’ she asked.

‘On his way back to Khancoban. Benson’s just around the corner if we need him, so I told Collins to get going.’

‘Hey, this takes me back,’ said Flowers suddenly, walking over to the window and looking down at Heidi sitting at the table in handcuffs. ‘I haven’t been in here since the Charlotte Pass case.’

‘Wasn’t that the start of your bromance?’ asked Sterling, picking up a biscuit and taking a bite.

Flowers swung around, his eyebrows raised. ‘I think she’s had a head knock, Sarge.’

Ryder gave him a brief smile and went to the door. ‘Come on, Daisy, let’s get this party started.’

Heidi Lorrimer looked up as Ryder and Flowers came into the room. Ryder took a deep breath in an effort to rid himself of the rage burning in his chest that this woman had attempted to murder Sterling with methamphetamine.

On the way down from the viewing room they’d decided that Ryder would go in hard on the attempt on Sterling’s life. The evidence they had against Heidi regarding her twin brother’s death could wait.

Ryder turned on the video-recording equipment and recited Heidi Lorrimer’s right to silence. After she’d confirmed her name and address, he ran through the rest of the formalities.

‘You’ve agreed to answer some questions without a lawyer being present. Is that correct?’

She stared at him, her left eye blood red, her right eyelid half closed. She’d lost an earring in the struggle. The cuffs rattled as she shifted her hands from the table onto her lap. ‘Yes.’

‘Were you due to start work at the hotel in Khancoban this afternoon?’ Ryder asked, impatient to get to the more crucial details.

Heidi responded, but the single word was inaudible. She cleared her throat and tried again. ‘Yes,’ she whispered hoarsely.

‘What time was that?’ Ryder asked.

She swallowed. ‘Th . . . Three o’clock.’

‘You never arrived at work, did you?’

Heidi didn’t answer, her inflamed left eye focused on an imaginary spot on the table.

‘What made you detour to the residence of the woman you know as Ida Stevenson instead of going to work as you had intended?’

Heidi licked her lips. ‘My boss called and asked me to come in early. He told me he’d put Ida off. Apparently, she’d been trying to find out where she could buy meth.’

‘Did she ask you where she could buy it?’