Damien Ross looked nervous on the stand—you rarely saw a first-time court witness who wasn’t—but it became clear to Anita that this guy wasn’t lacking confidence. It was more that he was keyed up, determined to do right by his dead friend. From time to time, during his long hours in the witness box, he stretched his long, pale neck and shook the tension out of his limbs, like an athlete keeping calm and focused at the start of a major race. He was there to honour Kendra Bartlett.

Damien and Kendra had become enthusiastic friends, devoted to each other from that first day in class. Both were new to the city, with no support system, broke, lonely. Both were juggling casual jobs to pay for acting classes and planning to audition for the big ‘proper’ drama schools later in the year.

‘Was this a romantic or sexual relationship?’ asked Irene Pileris.

‘No. I’m gay. We were good friends,’ Damien Ross answered.

‘And you would describe your friendship as close?’

‘Yes, very close,’ he confirmed. ‘We texted or called each other several times a day. Saw each other pretty much every day. Because we were both blond and pale, we had a running joke that we were secretly Norwegian brother and sister. We shared everything—money, secrets. We even shared energy, if that makes sense. I mean, if I was having a shaky time, Kendra would love me up, boost my confidence, you know? And then I’d do the same for her other times. We looked after each other. But it was fun—we were always teasing each other, being silly, creating wild fantasies about what we’d do in the future.’

‘So, would you have described Kendra as a happy person when you first met her?’

‘Yes, yes. I mean, she was sad sometimes. Things were difficult with her mum and she worried about making it as an actor. She fretted about her weight sometimes—I mean, actors have to, that’s the reality—but the main thing was, Kendra always lived healthy. It was one of the things we had in common. Both of us had alcoholic parents, so we didn’t drink or do drugs. But, look, yes, Kendra was happy. If you met her, you would say, “Oh, that girl is so vibrant!”’

Damien described the day Kendra pirouetted into class having met John Santino the night before. She was dizzy from the intense and flattering courtship by her new boss. She didn’t care that the guy was fifteen years older. The relationship progressed very fast, with Kendra moving in to Santino’s apartment three weeks after their first meeting.

Pileris asked Damien Ross, ‘When did you first meet John Santino?’