Perhaps Oli’s being too harsh. ‘It’s always a good idea to put the subject at ease,’ she offers.

‘Yes,’ he says, brightening. ‘Exactly.’

‘Hang on. You said you’re doing the interview at the office? Have you thought about where?’

‘In the studio.’

‘What studio?’ she asks, veering off the highway and stopping at a red light.

‘I turned one of the empty meeting rooms into a studio. It’s got proper soundproofing and everything.’ He pauses to throw a stick of gum into his mouth. ‘I looked up how to do it on the net—a combo of old carpet and egg cartons—and got one of the IT guys to help me. It’s come up a treat, you’ll love it.’

Oli doesn’t comment. For some reason, the thought of Cooper hammering carpet onto walls at the office makes her want to punch something.

‘Anyway,’ she prompts.

‘Anyway, what?’ He looks at her.

‘What did Alex say?!’

‘Oh, right,’ he drawls.

Oli wrestles with her exasperation. He’s like a puppy you have to yank back onto the path every couple of steps.

‘She seems great, actually. Shy at first, but she warmed up. I got the sense she’s really angry under all the grief. I guess you would be if you were sent to gaol for something you didn’t do. I think she’s totally ready to tell her story.’

‘So she’s still claiming she didn’t do it?’

His forehead wrinkles. ‘Of course.’

‘What did she say?’

‘Well, we didn’t exactly get into specifics. I want to save the detail for the real interview, so that it feels genuine. But we discussed the key things I want to cover, and I asked her if anything was off limits. She said she was ready to talk about everything.’

Oli lifts an eyebrow but doesn’t say anything.

Sensing her judgement, he juts out his bottom lip. ‘She seems genuine.’

‘Maybe, but she’s also had ten years to get her story straight.’

‘I think she’s just ready to talk,’ he says earnestly. ‘I was only a kid back then, so I didn’t remember the story very well, but I’ve watched a stack of old footage over the past few weeks, and Alex seems really different from how she was back then.’ He pauses. ‘She said she’s started to remember stuff from that night. New stuff.’

Oli’s nerves go on alert. It seems Alex was days away from coming forward with new information about her friend’s decade-old murder, when Nicole suddenly turned up dead. Had the women been in touch? Oli tries to feel out the angles. If Nicole knew that Alex was claiming to remember details that might implicate her in Evelyn’s murder, could that have provoked her enough to die by suicide even though she was in hiding?