‘Yeah, a bit.’ He narrows his eyes. ‘When we came over, she was cooking in the kitchen. I remember because I tried to sneak a taste of sauce from the pot, and she flicked me with a tea towel. It really hurt, actually.’ He rubs his arm as if the pain is still fresh.

Oli nods encouragingly.

‘We mostly hung with Miles. All us guys got pretty wasted that night. I guess that’s why I don’t remember much.’

‘How often did you see Miles?’

‘Pretty often,’ Ren says, scratching his head absently. ‘But he wasn’t, like, a mate. It was more like, if he was at the girls’ place we’d go over, or he’d come around to ours. Miles was a smart guy. He was studying business at uni.’

‘What about if he wasn’t there? Were you friends with the girls?’

‘Yeah, we were friends.’

‘Were you more than that?’

‘Nah, I wouldn’t say that.’ He looks sheepish.

‘Really?’ Oli presses. ‘Three pretty girls living next door?’

He chortles. ‘Well, yeah, I mean we talked about them a bit. You know, just mucking around. But we liked Miles, so we would never have touched Alex. And the others, I dunno. They were so busy, studying and working. Real go-getters. Not like us.’

Oli leans forward. ‘What kind of work?’

Ren looks thoughtful. ‘Just … working. I’m not sure. Evelyn worked in a cafe in St Kilda for a while. She used to sneak us free coffees sometimes, which was cool, but that was when we first met them. After that they all did babysitting.’ He unhooks his gangly legs and rearranges them. ‘But they were … what’s the word? Ambitious. Like they had big plans.’ He shrugs again. ‘They went to auditions sometimes, well Evelyn did, but I think Nicole wanted to be an actress as well.’

‘Miles remembers going to the shops that night. Do you remember that?’

‘We went to the shops?’ Ren’s forehead furrows before smoothing again. ‘Yeah, we did.’

‘Can you remember walking back home? Did Miles say anything to you about the girls?’

‘Yeah, he was going on and on about Alex. Matt and I said he should speak to her the next day—we wanted him to come back to ours for a smoke.’

‘And that’s all you did? None of you left the house after that?’

‘I’m positive. We all fell asleep in the lounge room. Miles was totally cooked. He couldn’t handle much booze, let alone weed, and he passed out.’ Ren rubs his nose, which seems to trigger an itch on his elbow. ‘We accidentally locked the cat out, and it started up its crying first thing. I was pissed ’cause it woke me up around five. I got up to let it in, and the guys were dead to the world on the couch, snoring their heads off.’