‘Back then I was quite good at pulling up at work after an all-nighter.’ She yawns. ‘Not like these days. Now I can barely make it to midday after a full night’s sleep.’

‘I’ve always been too scared to take drugs. Plus, there’s no weight on me, so even one beer goes straight to my head.’

‘Well, it’s not exactly something I partake in these days.’ She looks around the little studio. It’s starting to feel familiar; despite the material covering the walls, it doesn’t seem claustrophobic. She notices a whole bunch of movie postcards Blu-Tacked to the backboard of the desk.

‘Film club.’ Cooper looks at them fondly. ‘Once a week we go to the cinema and discuss the movie afterwards. You should come, it’s really fun.’

‘Maybe,’ she says, thinking that she would actually quite like to be part of a film club. ‘Hey, so you told Miles you’d meet him at 11.30 am, right?’

‘Yep. I should probably get going.’

She hands the headphones to Cooper. ‘I think I should go.’

He hesitates. ‘Sure, okay. Do you want to drive, or should we get a cab?’

‘No.’ She starts packing her things. ‘I think I should do the interview with Miles.’

‘Alone?’

She nods. Meets his gaze.

Cooper physically deflates. ‘But he knew that Alex had been in contact with me. That’s why he got in touch.’

Oli stands up. ‘I know, but you have work to do here, and this is important. We need Miles to tell us something new. We can’t risk it going wrong.’ She thinks about her strange conversation with Dawn earlier. ‘There’s a lot riding on it, and I have a lot more experience with this kind of thing.’

Cooper busies himself with the microphone, swivelling it around. ‘Okay, I’ll get this all edited. Cut in some of Alex’s comments, and grabs from the news the night Evelyn was found.’

‘That would be great. Keep working your cop contact from yesterday too and try to find out if Nicole was telling the truth about splitting with a boyfriend. Pia will let us know if anything official comes through. I’m going to try to set up a time to talk to McCrae on my way to see Miles. I’ll be out of action for a few hours this afternoon, but you can just text if you need anything.’

‘Cool,’ Cooper says glumly.

She pauses at the door, watching him. Disappointment is written all over his face. ‘Once we have the podcast sorted,’ she says, ‘we can prep for tomorrow.’

‘Tomorrow?’ He lifts an eyebrow quizzically.

‘My meeting with Bowman. You should come.’

She leaves Cooper in the studio struggling with his mixed emotions, and takes the lift down to the car park. Just when she reaches the Audi, TJ calls out to her.