‘This is a bad sign,’ TJ had predicted at the time, as they watched the surprisingly large stream of people make their way up the open stairwell, carrying Apple laptops and portable speakers. ‘It’s a physical depiction of the pecking order, Oli. We’ll be in the basement by 2020.’ Oli had thought he was being overly dramatic and told him so, but then the research team switched with finance a year later and now sit in what is virtually an oversized cupboard next to the ground-floor toilets. Plus, when the editorial team’s fridge broke last month and Oli ventured up to the third floor for some milk, she discovered a cafe-grade coffee machine and a cupboard full of herbal tea.

Apparently TJ was right: in this new era of journalism, digital is clearly closer to heaven.

Oli reaches level three and finds Kylie Archer, who points out Cooper Ng. Kylie has been with the paper for over fifteen years, dodging the multiple waves of redundancies and embracing the increasingly digital world with her trademark gusto. She’s the kind of person you can’t picture ever being a little girl, sporting the same spiky bleached blonde hair the entire time Oli has known her. She has a penchant for themed jewellery, and today bright-yellow daffodils dangle from her earlobes. ‘Cooper’s good, Oli. Annoying, definitely, but he’s good.’

‘Right.’

Kylie squeezes Oli’s arm, her bracelet jangling. ‘God, this Housemate Homicide thing is fab, isn’t it? Dawn gave me the heads-up so we can pull together a layout, you know, a round-up of all the people at the house that night.’ She points to a skinny redhead arranging images on a giant computer screen, dragging them into place with a pen that glides over what might be a type of iPad. The three housemates smile out from the centre, looking like sisters. They’re surrounded by a montage of young faces, hairstyles ten years out of date.

‘Well, it was a good story then,’ Oli says. ‘I guess it’s still a good story now.’

‘It’s a cracker,’ Kylie declares. ‘I gotta say, I thought Nicole Horrowitz was dead. I really thought that Alex killed them both.’

Oli is reminded of how polarising the case was, how divided Australia had been about Alex’s involvement in Evelyn’s death and Nicole’s disappearance.

‘First we need confirmation the body is Nicole,’ Oli reminds her. ‘Nothing’s official yet.’

‘I reckon it’s her,’ Kylie says firmly.

Oli fights to keep the irritation out of her voice. ‘We’ll see, I guess.’

Unfazed, Kylie pats Oli’s shoulder maternally. ‘I hope you get some good stuff out there today. I’ll look forward to reading it.’ She pauses long enough to take a few noisy gulps of water from a bright-blue canister before wiping the back of her hand along her mouth and yelling, ‘John!’ Oli startles. ‘John!’ Kylie repeats, taking off to chase him down.