Anita gulped, then brushed away tears with her free hand. ‘She nearly got away—Kendra. He’d trapped her, worn her down, but she dredged up enough confidence to make the decision to get out. She had cash, she escaped his apartment, made contact with her friend. She nearly made it. She was almost safe.’

The two friends walked back up the steps towards the car park, each with an arm around the other’s waist.

Anita had to slide further along the bench seat to make room for the extra spectators showing up in Court 3 during the last days of the trial.

Because her testimony was completed, Marina Santino was permitted inside the courtroom now. She stuck close to Brooke like a combination of attentive carer and prison guard. Even from two rows behind, Anita could hear the hissing sound as Marina whispered a stream of commentary into Brooke’s ear.

Up the back of the public area—in the I’m-not-sure-I’m-allowed-to-be-here seats—Anita recognised a few individuals who had testified for the Crown earlier in the trial. The tradesman who’d fixed the bathroom door on the morning Kendra died was there. On the witness stand, he’d been upset and regretful; perhaps that was why he felt an obligation to be here now. Anita also spotted two young women from Kendra’s first Sydney share house and the former manager who had employed her at Santino’s bar. Anita was heartened to see them there—at least there were people in that courtroom who cared about Kendra, who carried memories of her as a lively young woman.

Right up the back, she saw the milky-pale figure of Damien Ross. He sat very still, listening as if his unwavering focus was crucial to the outcome, as if he could save Kendra by paying vigilant attention. Anita swivelled her upper body around and tried to catch his eye, but Damien didn’t notice. Why should he? She was just one of the pack of journalists assembled there, tapping out his dead friend’s story on their laptops.

The final defence witness was John Santino. It wasn’t common for the accused person to risk being cross-examined, but the narrative Woodburn was weaving required the jury to see this man play the role of the bereaved partner.

Santino began by relating how he’d met Kendra, the whirlwind romance, his commitment to support her acting dreams, how he’d adored her ‘bubbliness’ and her ‘beautiful soul’. Anita made an effort to identify this man’s possible charm. He radiated a boyish fervour that could conceivably come across as attractive, and if a young woman was swept up by him, becoming the focus of his emotional intensity, it might feel compelling.

Woodburn was careful to stare down the problem areas that had come up earlier in the trial and he adopted an austerely authoritarian tone for the next run of questions.