A realisation hits Oli like a ton of bricks. Isabelle died here. Just up from a petrol station, a few metres from the community centre. Struck down and killed on her way back from the gym, where she had submitted her lithe body to sixty minutes of cardio before embarking on the four-kilometre jog home. Her sharp mind would have been alive with endorphins, a day of family activities ahead, her latest case no doubt still pervading her thoughts. Oli has trouble enough switching off, finding a place to put the darkness, but it’s surely nowhere near as bad for her as it is for those on the front line of crime like Isabelle was. Oli often marvelled at Rusty’s ability to seal the evil off, lock away the horrible scenes and conversations in a section of his brain. But Oli gets the feeling that Isabelle was more like her—that the things she saw, the cruelty she witnessed, had her questioning the entire human race, had her wondering if she could trust anyone.

And she was right to question it: the darkness had got her in the end. One moment Isabelle Yardley was running along, full of life; the next, her body was flying skyward like a plastic bag in the wind. The tragedy of it hits Oli all over again. Isabelle was such a force, so impressive and accomplished. Oli spent so long idolising her, obsessing over her, that her sudden death still fails to compute.

Dean and the girls were sound asleep at home when Isabelle was killed, about to wake up to a Saturday morning of pancakes and swimming lessons. Oli’s hands start shaking. She stares at the stretch of nature strip she saw on the news that morning. It’s easy to imagine Isabelle running along the quiet road, clad in sleek gym clothes, her long dark hair tied back from her face.

Did she see the car coming? In that split second, did she know she was going to die?

Oli has never asked Dean about that morning, but in her mind’s eye she sees him opening the front door to grim-faced cops who proceed to shatter his world into pieces. Did he tell Kate and Amy straight away, or did he let them live in the bubble for a few hours longer? Did he come here and see Isabelle dead on the side of the road? Did he break down when he identified her broken body in the morgue?

Was he in love with her when she died?

And how did Theo Bouris know she would be here? In court he said he’d been watching her for days. A chill runs through Oli. Even though he’s in prison, she doesn’t like the idea of him knowing where the house is.