It was the first time she’d heard Rohan’s voice since the break-up in the cafe. It was a beautiful voice.

‘I’m okay,’ she said. ‘You?’

‘Fine.’

He sounded more or less normal. He didn’t sound as if Paula had just confessed to murder.

There was a long pause, as if they both harboured a faint hope that this was an awkwardly polite opening to a conversation in which they would suddenly launch into declarations of love and get back together. But it wasn’t that kind of conversation.

Eventually Anita broke the silence. ‘Paula rang you?’

‘Couple of hours ago. Is she working down the south coast at the moment?’

‘Uh … well, she sometimes … um …’ she mumbled, reluctant to let on she had no clue where Paula was.

‘Look, Anita, I’ve gotta say, she sounded weird.’

‘What kind of weird?’

‘I don’t know her well enough to say. She seemed wired up, pretty agitated. I wondered if, lately, she’s seemed—’

‘Me and Paula haven’t seen each other for a while. We sort of … we had a falling out.’

‘Oh. Really? Oh.’

‘Uh, yeah. I suppose the stress of everything took its toll on our friendship,’ Anita offered, hearing how lame and phoney that sounded.

‘Oh, Anita, I’m really sorry to hear that,’ he said.

His tone was unbearably tender and lovely. Why did he have to be so fucking caring and adorable and perfect for her?

‘Yeah …’ she mumbled.

‘And I’m surprised. You and Paula always seemed so close, like people who would stay friends for—anyway, look, none of my business.’

Anita could tell he was desperate to know the details but he was too damned considerate to pry. He left a pause, maybe hoping Anita would fill the silence with more explanation. When she didn’t say anything, he added, ‘I really hope you two can find a way through this together.’

‘Thanks. So, um, why did Paula ring you?’

‘She asked me to look up police records on a guy living down the south coast. Near where she’s been working.’

Panic sparked Anita to blurt out questions too loudly, too urgently. ‘Did she say why? Is the man violent? Is it a domestic abuse situation?’

There was a silence on the other end of the phone. Rohan was obviously trying to make sense of her explosive reaction.

‘Do you want to tell me what’s going on?’ he asked.

‘I can’t.’

‘Okay. But if you’re worried Paula’s in some kind of trouble …’

‘I don’t know what’s going on. I haven’t talked to her so I don’t know.’

‘Please tell me if there’s something—I mean, the guy Paula asked me to check on, he’s bad news. String of weapons charges, drug charges, assault convictions. He recently did time for a very nasty assault. Been dodging his parole officer since.’

‘Did you tell Paula all that?’