RUSTY TALKS TO EVIE IN THE KITCHEN WHILE CARA TELLS OLI THAT Nicole is gone. She had called Cara out of the blue on Tuesday morning, pleading for her sister to come pick up her and her daughter from Warrandyte. She needed a place to stay. She’d finally escaped an abusive relationship that had essentially seen her a prisoner for years, and asked if Cara could find it in her heart to forgive her, to let them stay. She wanted to protect her daughter, the one good thing in her life. Cara insists that Nicole refused to talk much about the past, but said Alex had threatened her that night at Paradise Street, screaming at her after acting oddly for weeks. Nicole said she had no idea what set her off. ‘When Nicole told Alex she would call the cops if she didn’t calm down, Alex threatened her with a knife,’ says Cara. ‘Apparently, Alex just kept saying she had got herself mixed up with some bad people, and that the same people now wanted her dead. She accused Nicole of being a snitch and said they were all in real danger,’ Cara says. ‘That’s why Nicole left. She was absolutely terrified.’

‘Where was Evelyn when this happened?’

‘Asleep, I think. Alex must have killed her just after Nicole left. It sounds like she was having a full paranoid episode.’

‘She didn’t have a history of mental illness,’ Oli says.

‘Well, perhaps whatever drugs she was taking messed her up.’

‘Did you believe Nicole?’ Oli asks, trying to decide how she feels about this version of events. It’s basically the same story that Alex told everyone in court about Evelyn. It’s clear one of the girls lied, but with Alex and Evelyn both dead it’s impossible to know which scenario is bogus.

‘She seemed pretty upset. She wouldn’t talk about Alex’s suicide except to say that the guilt of killing Evelyn must have got to her. I asked her if she saw Alex when she came to Crystalbrook, but Nicole just shut down and said she didn’t want to talk about it.’

Rusty’s voice drifts in and out of Oli’s consciousness as he talks gently to Evie.

‘When did Nicole leave here?’ Oli says quietly.

‘Friday. She left a note on the bench asking me to look after Evie for a few days while she sorts some things out.’ Cara’s eyes brim with tears. ‘I didn’t know what to do. And I was so fucking angry. I kept telling myself she was coming back, that she would come back for Evie, but she’s not, is she?’

Oli senses that Cara was initially flattered by Nicole seeking her out, but now she feels betrayed—and taken advantage of. She should have known better.

‘Did she say anything about her ex-partner?’ Oli asks just as a pair of cops arrive.