The woman brushes some lint from her sleeve and gives Oli a puzzled look. ‘I’m not sure about that, dear, but she does have a little girl. Evie. She’s an absolute doll. Didn’t Natalie mention her to you?’

Oli hustles Cooper down the side of the supermarket into a worn dirt lane. Clusters of weeds sprout from the base of an old rubbish skip, and a large crow eyes them curiously from its perch on a nearby rooftop. She pulls out a cigarette and fumbles in her bag.

‘Here.’ He produces a neon-pink lighter and flicks his thumb, and the flame flares in the white sunlight.

‘Thanks,’ she mumbles. She bends forward, sucking in air until the tip catches. ‘Want one?’

‘Nah, I’m too wired.’ He paces on the spot and rakes his hand through his hair-spike before combing it back the other way. ‘Nicole Horrowitz had a kid,’ he says, stating the bleeding obvious.

Oli smokes hard and fast, calmed somewhat as the nicotine hits the depths of her lungs. ‘Looks like it.’ She bats the tip of the cigarette against the brick wall. ‘And she named the kid Evie? Jesus Christ.’ Oli is angry but can’t work out exactly why. It’s almost as if she feels fooled by Nicole Horrowitz. It does seem as though the missing woman is giving the whole country a giant, posthumous up yours.

After dropping this bombshell, the supermarket owner had told them she thought the child was about ten. ‘Shy little thing,’ she’d said fondly. ‘Just like her mother.’

Oli kicks her heel against the building. ‘Christ, what the fuck is going on?’

Cooper eyes her uneasily. ‘If that woman is right and this kid is ten, then it’s possible Nicole was pregnant that night. Maybe she witnessed whatever happened between Alex and Evelyn, saw her friend die. Maybe she wanted to protect her baby, and that’s why she ran off?’

‘Or,’ Oli counters, ‘Nicole told Alex she was pregnant when they left the house together on their walk. Maybe they argued about it, had an altercation, then Nicole ran off and didn’t want anyone to know she was pregnant. Maybe that’s why she stayed away this whole time.’

‘Why would they argue about that?’

‘I don’t know.’ Oli tries to think. ‘The father was probably someone they knew?’

‘Miles Wu?’

‘Maybe.’ Oli kneads her temples as if this will help clarify her thoughts. ‘What if Alex came home from her walk with Nicole and told Evelyn that Nicole was pregnant with Miles’s baby. Evelyn might have taken Nicole’s side, causing Alex to flip.’

Oli tries to summon details about Miles. Tall. Shaved head. Fit and lean. Studious. He didn’t seem like the type of guy who would sleep with his girlfriend’s best friends, but Oli is well aware that people don’t tend to print that kind of thing on a T-shirt.