Amanda saw her partner off through the doors of the police station with a sinking feeling. She knew it was not only because of the dire situation he faced. A part of her was wondering if it might be the last time she saw him here in Crimson Lake. As he walked to his car, she felt something tugging her forward to the doors, a desire to watch him go for as long as possible lest he should never come back.

But that was silly. Of course he would come back. He belonged here now.

She stood on the other side of the two-way mirror and watched as a fragile Stephanie Neash took her seat beside the recorder, and Chief Clark and Pip Sweeney set up the tape. Chief Clark had reluctantly granted Sweeney’s request to allow Amanda to watch the interview after Sweeney cited Michael Bell’s insistence that in order for him to trust the police, he wanted his private investigator involved as much as possible. She mentioned nothing about wanting or needing Amanda’s assistance herself. Sweeney had told Amanda sharply to “behave” herself before the observation room was unlocked for her. Amanda had looked around at the empty plastic chairs in the otherwise bare room and wondered what trouble she could possibly get into here.

After some initial chatter and the reading of the cautions, Clark gestured to Sweeney to go ahead. It was her show.

“Ms. Neash, you’ve said already that you do not want to have a lawyer present with you at this time, and you’ve been made aware that you are well within your rights to have that happen.”

“I don’t want a lawyer,” Stephanie said.

“Okay.” Sweeney lifted a sheet of paper and directed Stephanie to look at it. Her shoulders rose as she took a deep breath. “Then, Ms. Neash, I direct you to a transcript of a recording made by Edward Conkaffey earlier today before he brought you to these premises. I’ll read aloud the conversation as it’s presented here for the tape.”

“Okay,” Stephanie said. She listened as Sweeney read out the words Stephanie and Ted had spoken at Cairns Hospital, recorded on Ted’s phone.

“Would you agree this is a full and fair representation of exactly what you said?”

“Yes.”

“So you admit that you did kill Andrew and Keema at the Barking Frog Inn that night?”

“Yes.” Stephanie nodded.

“Can you take us through what happened?”