‘Let me tell you the best memory. It was my big sister Kiera arriving with Denni. I knew. The moment I saw Denni, I knew. I wanted her – as a child. I wanted to save her, nurture her, give her what I never had. Limestone Creek was supposed to be a fresh start for Denni. A new life.’ Eliza looked Madison in the eye. ‘And then she met you.’

‘Miss Ellis, please —’

‘Before Denni came . . . I didn’t feel lost, exactly,’ Eliza said, her throat bone dry, ‘but I felt like nothing I did mattered. No legacy. A dry womb. I had only my students, my work. But Denni – Denni was a treasure.

‘You took her under your wing, and I thought, “this is perfect”: Madison Mason, the most popular girl in school, the leader of the pack, taking an interest in my Denni. You, Jasmine, Georgia, Cierra, Bree. Good friends, the perfect gang. It was like a cloud had lifted – I can’t imagine what Denni went through under Kiera’s care. Nothing good.’

Madison clung to the cab guard, wretched. ‘Please . . .’

‘But then the clouds came back. She was depressed, angry, emotional, distant. It crept in slowly, along with her new obsession: the Hungry Man. That was when your subscribers boomed. Denni loved telling me all about it, your ghost-tour videos. I’m not sure why, but that’s when Tom started to take an interest in her.

‘You didn’t just know about Tom’s interest in Denni, you wanted her to go for it: you encouraged her. I know, because Bree told me. She told me many things, once Denni died . . . after you murdered her.’

‘You texted me,’ said Madison suddenly, gasping. ‘On Georgia’s phone. You took that phone off Georgia and pretended to be Bree. You pushed Georgia off the cliff?’

Eliza was silent. She held onto the gun.

‘You killed Georgia!’ She yanked at the handcuffs, then began kicking the cab guard.

‘I wanted all of you dead. Eventually.’

‘What else have you done?’ She tried to chew at the links in the chain.

‘You isolated Denni. All of you. Spread rumours. Made her feel worthless. Made her think that all she was good for . . . was to die. To leave this world behind.’

Madison slumped to her knees in the tray of the Landcruiser. ‘Please . . .’ she whimpered.

Eliza stood up and pushed against the ute with her foot. She felt the resistance of the branch against the tyre, the only thing holding the car in place on the gentle slope. She saw the terror in Madison’s eyes, and it went some way towards soothing her. Denni had suffered for months at Madison’s hands. It was only right that she suffer too. Eliza wanted her to know not just what awaited her but why this was happening. That it was Eliza who was the one doing it; she was in control, like she always had been.

‘You killed Denni,’ she said simply.