The journalist has read a confidential police document, the ‘Echo Files’, that names the top twelve suspects in Yin’s abduction. Strangely, one of the suspects agreed to be interviewed anonymously by the journalist.

‘Steve’ was jailed for eleven years in the 1990s after pleading guilty to eight violent attacks on young girls and women during an eighteen-month period. The former gymnastics coach and father was convicted on aggravated rape and sexual assault charges after holding the victims at knifepoint in their own homes.

Steve admits that he is a key suspect in the hunt for Doctor Calm, but claims that police have wrongly accused him. He says that he was grilled by police for ten hours the day after the abduction of Yin Mitchell, and that his home in the Melbourne suburb of Stockton was searched.

‘Whenever there’s one of these types of crimes, the police come calling,’ says Steve. ‘They search my house and I answer their questions. But I did my time. I was completely rehabilitated after I was in jail, I raised a new family. I started my own business, I made something of myself.’

Good for you, Steve, I think. What a fucking great member of society you are. Congratulations on making something of yourself after you ruined eight people’s lives. The report goes on to say that he remarried and had more children, but what would you even do if he was your dad? Could you still love him after you found out about his past?

I’m so disgusted I have to lean over the edge of the teacup and spit onto the tanbark.

My heart starts thumpety-thumping all over again.

There are pages and pages of comments after the article, and people are still commenting even now. You can’t top these true crime nerds for detail and going the extra mile, and it makes sense how Petra of all people got sucked into this world.

There are replies with the precise details of Steve’s convictions: locations, victims’ first names and ages, charges. Details of which prison he served his term at. Someone has provided a blurry photo of a man, well-built, wearing a tracksuit. It’s hard to see his face, but he’s good-looking, sporty, not at all what I expected.

Thump thump thump.

I’m about to abandon the thread when I see a new comment: Aceventura*666 thinks they’ve cracked ‘Steve’s’ real identity. As evidence they have posted a scanned original court document, and right there at the top is the name of the accused: Samuel Pulpitt. I scan the document but it’s sixty pages long and full of incomprehensible language and I’m not my mother the lawyer so I quickly give up.

I re-read the article.

Samuel Pulpitt. The name burns a bright scar in my brain.

I start searching, trying every combination of words possible using the details from the comments.