‘What about you, Sterling?’ Flowers turned towards her after the others had left. ‘Are you up for another one?’

‘Sure am,’ she said, enjoying the nice, buzzy feeling zipping along her veins. ‘I’ve got nowhere to be.’

‘Me either, sucks to be them!’ he said with a laugh. He stood up. ‘Same again?’

She nodded, flushing as he deliberately swaggered off to the bar. She liked Mitch. He was single and around her age. They didn’t often get the opportunity to spend time on their own without the others.

At some point the band came on, and they only stopped dancing when hunger drove them out onto the street in search of a cafe or restaurant with a kitchen still open.

Sterling turned onto her side and curled up in a ball, memories of them laughing on the kerb as they tried ordering an Uber to take Flowers home. In the end, she’d taken him back to her place, which was only three blocks away from headquarters.

Sterling groaned and closed her eyes. In the cold light of day things had looked very different, and she’d known what she had to do. Homicide was the pinnacle of the force, and she was the lone woman in Ryder’s squad.

If she’d learned anything at all, it was to never make the same mistake twice.

Nineteen

The chemical odour of the science lab transported Ryder back to his high school days, as did the test tubes, Bunsen burners and petri dishes with flourishing live culture. Ryder waited with Flowers while Lewis Buchanan closed the door behind them. The lab was silent save for the metronomic tick from the analogue clock on the wall showing 8.02 am.

‘No one’s in here this early,’ said Lewis Buchanan as they sat on stools around a high lab bench. Buchanan’s dark hair was cropped short, and he had the lean physique of someone who loved cycling or running marathons.

‘Do we have your permission to record our conversation?’ Ryder asked, putting his phone on the benchtop.

Buchanan waved a hand. ‘Go right ahead.’

Ryder stated the time and date and who was present. ‘You would have heard by now that we’re investigating the murder of Arthur Lorrimer Junior?’

‘Of course. I know you’ve spoken to Wendy and Cate a couple of times, and Owen Temple had a quiet word with me at the meeting last night.’

‘We’ll come back to Mr Temple a little later,’ said Ryder. ‘How well do you and your sister know the Lorrimer siblings?’

Buchanan hesitated, as though it wasn’t a question he’d anticipated. ‘Not at all really. They grew up on White Winter Station, Cate and I in Tumbarumba.’

‘You didn’t go to school together, or play on the same sporting team?’