When Justice Burke called the lunchtime adjournment on the Friday, Anita stayed in her seat, fiddling on her laptop longer than necessary, to allow time for the other journos to wander outside. The last thing she wanted to do was engage in any gossipy chat about what happened to Kendra Bartlett. She needed a little airlock of time between the courtroom and the world, time alone before she could engage with people.

She eventually headed out of Court 3, thinking she’d find a cafe a few blocks away from the court precinct. Through the doorway to the street, she could see out to the verandah, where Rohan Mehta was in close conversation with the earnest young lawyer from the prosecution team. As one of the detectives involved in the Santino case, Rohan was slated to give evidence for the Crown and so wouldn’t be allowed in court until then.

Anita noticed that Rohan kept glancing at the doorway. Was he hoping to see her among the stream of people coming out? Was he keeping an eye out for her? She checked her own reaction—yes, she would like it if he was looking for her.

When they made eye contact, she raised her hand in a little wave. She aimed to make it the same kind of wave she would give any detective she’d met a few times and got on with, as opposed to the wave she would give a detective she’d had sex with.

Rohan smiled and took a step towards her, but then his phone rang. He looked at the caller ID, winced to Anita—Sorry, I have to answer this—and strode around the corner to take the call.

Half an hour later, when Anita walked back with a sandwich, Rohan was still on the courthouse verandah, swivelling back and forth as he talked on his phone. When he saw Anita perch on the stone wall to eat her lunch, he wound up the call and came over to sit beside her.

‘How’s it going?’ he asked.

She assumed he meant the trial.

She made a growling noise in her throat. ‘I have to sit on my hands sometimes, so I don’t launch myself across the room and smash the sharp corner of my laptop into John Santino’s evil fucking skull. Is it okay for me to say that to you?’

‘I think it’s okay,’ said Rohan.

‘Hey, I heard talk Santino was being looked at for drug charges before he decided to kill his girlfriend. Is that true?’ she asked.

‘Well, there were possible connections to serious quantities of cocaine. Lots of stuff goes through the bars he runs, for sure. And Santino himself—always known to be a big white-powder boy.’

‘He had a possession conviction way back,’ Anita said.

‘He did. And by all accounts, in the last few years he’s developed a taste for oxy and heroin too.’