‘I’m sorry?’

‘I think you’re just not that into me.’

‘Rusty, I—’

He holds up his hands. ‘It’s okay, I know you care about me. I care about you too, but I’m not sure I can go there again. Not unless we’re both sure, and we’re not.’

They sit in silence for a few moments.

‘You’re excited about tomorrow?’

‘I really am,’ she says.

‘It’s going to be great.’ He pauses, weighing something up.

‘What?’

‘I’ve just been at the prison.’

Her spine straightens. ‘Tell me.’

‘We are now sure it was Nicole who originally kidnapped Louise and took her to the McCraes. Someone in the network had offered over a hundred thousand dollars for her, and Nicole and the McCraes did a deal. Nicole took her, and the McCraes planned to keep her at their house for a few months before they offloaded her to the buyer. We think Evelyn found out, or that she suspected Nicole was involved somehow. When she threatened to go to the cops, the plan had to change. We think that’s why McCrae went to Paradise Street that night. He was trying to intimidate Evelyn and make it clear that if she spoke about any of it, they’d come after her.’

‘Jesus.’

‘Yeah, and that’s not all. Two inmates have made statements about killings they claim Bowman orchestrated—a priest who got wind of the paedophile ring in 2001 and was about to blow the whistle on his colleague, and a gang member who was causing Bowman grief.’

‘So he was paying people off all the way back then?’

‘Ol, it looks like this has been going on since the eighties. Yesterday, a retired cop came in who reckons Bowman planted drugs at the house of a constable he had an issue with. That was in 1989.’

‘Is he still refusing to say anything?’

‘He hasn’t said a word. But we have Bouris’s statement about Yardley’s death, and Nathan is talking, so we’ve got more than enough to make sure Bowman’s going to die in prison. We just might not ever know the full extent of what he’s done.’

‘He told me he was going to conceal Louise’s identity, that he could falsify test results.’

Rusty shakes his head in disgust. Oli knows how much he hates the police force being compromised in this way.

‘What about the fire at Crystalbrook?’

‘We’re sure he lit it, we’re just not sure why. We assume he realised there was something that would link Evie to Louise or implicate him in some way. Or maybe it was just another way to make Nicole seem unstable and dangerous.’

‘Thank god you weren’t injured,’ she says, shuddering. Then, ‘I still don’t get why Bouris humoured me the day I went to see him. Surely that was risky?’