She looks down at her notes. Roy hasn’t responded to her at all, and Tanya wrote back explaining she has nothing further to add to the statement she made after Evelyn’s death. It’s frustrating, although admittedly Oli doesn’t hold out much hope that either of them know anything that will move the story along—their appearances in court were vague and unhelpful, and indicated a superficial friendship with the housemates. There’s still no news on Nicole or the child, nor any suggestion of a widespread search. The cops issued a release that suggests they’re worried for the welfare of the missing duo, but there are no specific details.

For almost an hour Oli steadily works on the podcast launch piece, easing the words into shape, deftly connecting the ten-year-old murder of Evelyn Stanley with the fresh death of Alex Riboni, and explaining what the podcast will explore. It’s bizarre to write in the first person, but there’s something cathartic about it. She’s in the zone, her fingers flying across the keyboard, when her phone rings. ‘Oli Groves.’

‘You called looking for my son.’ A brash voice, unmodulated.

Oli holds the phone slightly away from her head, looks at the number. ‘Mrs Neroli?’

‘That’s right. Name’s Marion.’ Despite the volume, she sounds pleasant. Friendly. ‘You’re from the paper, is that right?’

‘Yes, I’m a journalist. I’m working on a story about the Paradise Street murder. I really want to speak with Ren. Is he there?’

Marion makes an excited screech, forcing Oli to hold the phone away from her ear again. ‘I’m always telling my friends that Ren knew the Housemate Homicide girls. He used to be at their place all the time. And now the other one’s dead! I met the one who’s still missing, you know. Just briefly, but we spoke. Going back ten years ago now, of course. She seemed like a nice girl. And they were all so pretty, weren’t they? I gave Ren grief about them, but he always said nothing was going on.’

Oli thinks about what Miles said, about Nicole throwing the rabbit against the fence, and decides that Nicole probably wasn’t actually very nice at all.

‘Is Ren able to speak to me?’ Oli presses.

‘Not right now, he’s not here, but he said he’s happy to talk to you. He called this morning from a mate’s. He doesn’t have a phone at the moment—there was another problem with the payment not going through. His dole money didn’t come when it was supposed to. It’s terrible how they just cut you off like that.’

‘I understand,’ Oli says kindly.

‘But you can go see him if you want. Like I said, he’s happy to talk to you. I’ll give you his address?’

‘Yes, please, Mrs Neroli, that would be very helpful.’