‘Will you give a comment? There must have been evidence of a child in the house.’

He doesn’t reply.

She stops following him, frustrated. ‘Did you process the scene before the fire?’

‘No comment,’ he replies robotically, without turning around.

‘Are you sure she wasn’t on the property?’

‘Not today, Ms Groves. We’ll talk another time.’

‘Tomorrow?’ she yells. ‘I can meet you whenever suits.’

The wind gusts, stirring up more smoke. Bowman joins a small group of men and women in uniform.

‘All clear!’ a firey shouts to his colleagues, before he mutters something into a walkie-talkie.

Oli sidles up next to him. ‘How did the fire start?’ she asks, her face pulled into gossipy worry. ‘I’ve just come from next door.’ A benefit of not being on TV is that no one recognises her, and she doesn’t look groomed enough to arouse suspicion.

Jolly old Oli, her father’s voice taunts in her head.

‘We’re not sure yet.’ The firey sniffs a few times and wipes his face. ‘Apparently there was an explosion inside. There’s a big old fireplace in the main room, so maybe something was still burning in there—or it could have been dodgy wiring. Lots of houses around here aren’t maintained that well.’

‘Could it have been a bomb?’ Oli wonders aloud.

He scoffs. ‘Nah, doubt it, but I wasn’t first on the scene. Good thing no one was inside—it was wiped out in no time. A tiny old place. Must have been freezing in winter.’

‘How many bedrooms?’

The firey withdraws. Narrows his eyes. ‘You’re a journo?’

‘Yep,’ she replies without hesitation.

‘Well, probably best we stop talking, then.’

‘Two bedrooms?’

He throws her an exasperated look.

Oli tries to find Rusty, but he’s disappeared and doesn’t answer his phone. She heads back down Laker Drive and calls Dawn.

‘This is unbelievable!’ She sounds like she’s won the lotto. ‘The pictures the kid sent are great. Absolutely fab. We’re posting them in a minute.’

‘It will take me an hour to get you copy now.’ Oli narrowly avoids stumbling in a pothole.

‘Don’t worry, Pia’s drafted something that will be fine until yours comes through. It’s all pretty soft at this stage, but we’re in a good place. The reader stats on the 2005 recap and photo gallery we pushed live are going absolutely bananas. Like, fucking nuts. There are already over five hundred comments.’

‘Cooper told me there are several Housemate Homicide Facebook groups,’ Oli adds. ‘Some pro Alex, some anti.’

‘Check them out. Get Cooper to talk to the most opinionated members and get some quotes.’

Oli isn’t sure that adding fuel to that particular fire is necessarily the best idea, but she’s hardly about to argue when Dawn’s in full flight.