She became serious again. ‘Is the answer you’re looking for really in the middle of nowhere?’

For the first time since he moved to Tasmania, Jake chuckled. ‘I don’t think I’m cut out for the country life. I belong in a city. But …’

‘But?’

‘But for now it’s not Melbourne.’

‘Oh.’

‘At least, not for a while. I’ll see out my time here, then transfer somewhere else.’

‘But your flat, your things?’

‘I’ll figure something out. Nic …’

No response.

‘Nic?’

‘Don’t say it.’ Her voice was sad.

‘I’ll see you again, I promise, but it will be a while.’

‘Jake, why won’t you tell me what’s happened? How can you walk away from me and your brother like this?’

Unable to muster a convincing lie, Jake hung up on what felt like the last call he would ever share with his sister-in-law and lifelong best friend.

*

Guilt over his cowardice toward Nic clung to Jake like a shroud all night. He sat at his desk, his words to her this evening and scenes from the Campbell’s kitchen today playing over and over in his mind, becoming entangled.

Both situations were off.

Jake knew why his conversation with Nic felt insincere—his own refusal to be honest about his reasons for leaving.

Why did the arrest of the Campbells feel disingenuous?

Kelly had already left the station by the time Jake returned from the pub. He still needed to explain the DNA evidence to him, although at this point Jake wasn’t certain it would make any difference. Kelly was certain he had the perpetrators—DNA evidence or no. Jake, on the other hand, needed to work his way through the case against the Campbells again to sort through his doubts.

Mason Campbell was definitely guilty of rape and murder. He deserved to rot in gaol for the rest of his miserable life. But was he guilty of the murders of Ava and Liam O’Brien? That part didn’t ring true to Jake. Why?

All right, from the top … could Ava have driven to the manor on Thursday night to confront Mason and Liam over what they had done to the girls in her home, as Kelly suggested?

Yes, that was possible.

Might she have been surprised to find Liam wasn’t there?

Perhaps. But she did know that Max was visiting since Charlotte had told her the night before.

So the first question Jake had to answer was: how likely was it that Ava O’Brien had jumped in her car in the middle of the night to go and confront her brother and Mason Campbell, knowing Max Campbell was in the house as well? And why now and not at any other time in the past decade?

It didn’t seem overly likely, especially given that Ava seemed to have been under her brother’s thumb most of her life.