‘Because you’re a special person, the wise doctor, and the world should simply trust your superior wisdom.’

‘No. Not at all. But if I told the police how those men really died, that would be bad for Rochelle Ferguson and Brooke Lester. That would bring more pain into their lives because of something I did. That’s not fair.’

‘But it’s okay to bring pain into my life by dumping this on me?’

‘I’m sorry. I should never have told you.’

‘Well, you have. So what am I supposed to do now? I’m an accessory after the fact now,’ Anita snapped. ‘And now I have to keep your murdering secret?’

‘It’s up to you. For Rochelle and Brooke’s sakes, I hope you will.’

‘And—fuck—it just hit me! You co-opted me into your preventative murder scheme. I told you so much stuff about Santino and you used that to kill him. You used me.’

‘I’m sorry. I didn’t set out to do that.’

‘You’ve pulled me into it whether I like it or not. And now you’re sitting there talking at me like some strange creature from another dimension. What you did was dangerous and wrong. Tell me you know that.’

Paula gave a slow oversized shrug of her shoulders. ‘I know. But I can’t regret doing it. Good things came out of those deaths. I’ll have to live with the wrongness of what I did.’

‘Listen to yourself. Kidding yourself. And you’ve betrayed our friendship. I don’t know who the fuck you are, lady. I’m going to go now. Please do not call me. Stay away from me. I don’t want anything to do with you.’

Anita walked out the front door of Paula’s house and then sped up until she was almost running, around the corner and three hundred metres up the hill. The shock had burned away the last of the alcohol in her bloodstream and by the time she swung her body into the back seat of an Uber, she was brutally sober.

The next morning, Anita was sprawled in bed, semi-conscious. She rolled onto her belly to squash her forehead into the pillow, hoping to squeeze the thumping hangover headache out of her skull.

As she hovered in that little transition moment between sleep and waking, the conversation with Paula from the night before floated beyond any recall at first, then drifted into awareness as an implausible scene from a dream, then slammed into full consciousness as something that had actually happened, as the new reality Anita would have to handle.

She reached over to her bedside table to guzzle water and swill it around her parched mouth. When she picked up her phone to check the time, she noticed a missed call and several texts from Rohan.

Good morning, gorgeous woman. How are you? Having a sleep-in? Hope so. Rohan xx