Then Ruby looked up and caught Anita staring. At first the girl gave her a filthy look—What are you gawking at, lady? But as she and Anita maintained eye contact, the look shifted into something closer to recognition. Maybe Ruby had sussed out who Anita was and what she’d just done. The girl fixed her with those intense brown eyes and nodded very slightly. A moment of connection before Anita was ushered back into the side room.

At some point—Anita had little concept of how much time had passed—she heard a familiar voice talking to the officers on the other side of the frosted glass door.

‘Yeah, hi. Rohan Mehta. We spoke on the phone. But I’m here as Ms Delgado’s friend.’

Hearing Rohan’s voice, Anita suddenly found herself shaking and the tears came. She hadn’t cried at all until that moment. And when he walked into the room, she didn’t fall into his arms so much as let her whole weight drop against him. He stood there, holding her up as she sobbed.

‘Oh, Anita. It’s okay. I’ve been so worried about you. But this’ll be sorted out. Might not feel like it now, but it’ll be okay,’ he said. ‘I’m here. We’ll get through this.’

Rohan brought her a box of tissues and a glass of water, and they had a few minutes to sit together in the small bare room. He explained that the moment he knew Anita was driving south, he’d jumped in his car, hoping he could prevent something bad from happening.

Anita nodded. ‘Do you think what I did was—’

‘Look, I’m—main thing for me is that you’re okay. Better if we don’t talk about the details now. We’ll find you a lawyer and then …’

‘Please tell me what you think,’ she persisted.

Rohan sighed. ‘Oh … obviously I wish none of it had happened.’ Then he clasped her hands securely. ‘But I reckon you made the best choice you could in that situation. You saved Paula. You did the right thing.’

Anita closed her eyes for a moment to absorb that. It wasn’t that she required Rohan’s sanction—she was sure she’d done what she had to do—but still, it was a blessed fucking relief to know he was on her side.

Rohan wanted to stay independent of the police handling of the case, so he left the room whenever there was any official questioning going on. But in the meantime, he was busy doing whatever he could to make things easier for Anita.