She indicates and speeds up to overtake a station wagon. ‘But if someone else was involved in her death and was working with Bouris, then surely the police would want to know, right?’

‘Of course! But you don’t need to get involved.’

‘Really? ’Cause it doesn’t seem like you guys did a very good job the first time around.’

‘Oli.’

She hovers on the brink of tears, desperately trying to keep them at bay. ‘She was going for a run, and someone set that … monster on her.’ Her face spasms. ‘I mean, fuck, Rusty, her kids were waiting for her at home.’

He rests a hand lightly on hers. ‘Your stepdaughters.’

‘That’s not why it matters!’

He removes his hand. Gazes out the window. ‘I’ll look into Bouris. Dig around and see if something turns up. If anything feels off, I’ll put in a request to reopen the investigation.’

‘Thank you,’ she whispers.

Shadows crisscross their faces as they pass under streetlights.

Rusty shifts in his seat, turns to face her. ‘Ol, I want to be here for you, I really do, but it’s hard for me to be around you. Surely you must know that?’

Oli’s stomach lurches. She pulls over outside a pizza parlour, turns off the car. Through the window a couple is having dinner, and the woman laughs then rolls her eyes. Oli tips her head forward and rests it on the steering wheel. ‘Rusty.’

‘It’s fine. I know you’re upset about your colleague, and about what Bouris said. And of course I care about you, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.’

‘Do you remember that day we went to Siglo? On the rooftop?’

‘Yes,’ he says, looking puzzled. ‘We were celebrating that series you wrote on domestic violence. Why?’

‘Remember how you announced to the whole bar how amazing I was and how proud you were of me?’

He smiles. ‘I was a bit tipsy. But I was proud of you. You worked so hard on that story, and it was really important.’

‘It was sweet when you did that,’ she says quietly. ‘I always felt like I could do anything when I was with you.’

‘Huh.’ He slumps back against the seat. ‘Come on, Ol, that’s clearly not true.’

‘It is true! It’s just that things got really confusing, and I got scared.’

He snorts. ‘What, of commitment? I’m sorry, Oli, but you ditched me and shacked up with a widower and his two children six months later, so if you want to talk about confusing I think you win.’ Rusty lightly cuffs the window with his fist.

‘I was with Dean before.’ Her voice sounds hollow.

‘Before what?’

‘Before I was with you. A long time ago.’ Saying it aloud is bizarre, years of deceit purged in an instant.

Rusty is shaking his head, clearly trying to understand. ‘Hang on, but he was with—’