Miles scrunches up his face. ‘I can’t remember her being there, but Ren was going back and forth to his house to smoke, and there was another party in the house behind the girls’, which was really noisy. I remember Tan and Roy came outside to have a cigarette, but I think Nicole and the professor were inside.’

Alarm bells go off in Oli’s head. No one mentioned this at the trial. ‘McCrae was alone with Nicole?’

‘I think so. Or maybe he’d gone by then.’ Miles looks up, clearly struggling to download the memories from some far-flung corner of his brain. ‘Actually, no. No, he was still there later when Tanya was trying to get everyone to drink her punch. I remember because he went on about being allergic to strawberries and said he couldn’t drink it. He was acting really weird. And I remember Matt making some joke about him. He left straight after that—I didn’t see him again, anyway.’

‘What happened next?’ Cooper is literally on the edge of his seat.

‘Alex stormed off inside, leaving Evelyn in the backyard. I tried to talk to her, but she brushed me off. She was upset. Everyone went inside to listen to records and play a stupid charades game that Tanya made up. But I wanted to have a smoke. I was kind of pissed off.’

Oli nods encouragingly. ‘So you stayed outside?’

‘Yeah. I got my cigarettes from inside, then I went around the side of the house. A bunch of old crates were stacked up there, and I sat on one and had a smoke. I think Evelyn went back inside. I don’t know if anyone knew where I was, but I could hear them all laughing and talking through the laundry window.’

‘Including Alex?’

‘I think she’d had some weed at some point. It always used to make her crazy, and she was acting like an idiot.’ He looks guilty. ‘I just figured we both needed some space.’

‘Okay, so you’re around the side of the house,’ prompts Oli.

Miles swallows, panic returning to his eyes. ‘First I heard Nicole talking to someone in the laundry. I don’t know who it was. It was too noisy to hear properly, but I could hear Nicole’s voice. Then she came out the back.’

‘Nicole came outside?’ Oli clarifies.

Miles nods. ‘She didn’t see me.’

Oli’s lips part. This is new, as far as she knows. He never spoke about this at the trial.