‘They got the internet disconnected at the house, maybe a year before this all happened.’

‘Disconnected?’ Oli says. ‘Why?’

‘I don’t know. I remember thinking it was weird. I mean, it was obviously different back then—a lot of people didn’t have internet at home, especially in a rental. People were only really using email.’

Oli feels wired as her brain races ahead. ‘Did they say anything about it?’

‘Nicole just said it was always cutting out, and when I asked Alex she said they wanted to save money by using the uni internet. But she definitely had enough money to pay for it, so there must have been some other reason.’

DAY THREE OF THE TRIAL, 2006

DAY THREE OF THE TRIAL, 2006

Alex flips an imaginary coin and bets on what Miles is going to do. Heads he’ll talk; tails he won’t. But even in her mind’s eye, she can’t quite see which side of the coin is facing up. Decisiveness feels out of reach these days.

She knows Miles had been suspicious of her behaviour. Always asking questions about money, why she was spending so much and where it was coming from. He’d asked about her relationship with Nicole and Evelyn too. She’s not exactly sure what she told him that night, she has a vague memory of arguing with him. Of admitting she was in over her head with something. She’s seen him twice since the night of the party. The next morning, briefly, when she was sitting in the detective’s car out the front of the house, wrapped in a blanket, Miles emerged from Ren and Matt’s place dressed in his clothes from the night before. He looked at her with the strangest expression. He didn’t try to talk to her, just stood on the street watching as Evelyn’s body was carried away.

Alex saw him again the next day when she was charged. Or, she thinks she did. His face in the crowd, among the other faces. His mouth completely still. All the other mouths were twisted into ugly cries, screaming her name, but he just stared as she was pulled and picked over like a piece of meat.

Actually, she saw him a third time: on the news just over a week later. He went to Evelyn’s funeral and stood up the front with her family.

Even though they’re survivors of the same tragedy, the others gone or lost, it hasn’t brought them together.

Miles has an alibi. Alex is a killer.

Miles is innocent. Alex is guilty.

He is free to go on and have a normal life. Her future is ruined no matter what happens.

And all Miles ever wanted was a normal life. He craves average, yearns for contentment. Not like Alex, who got greedy and dared to dream for more. Dared to seize an opportunity.