He keeps his voice low. ‘It’s the other girl. Alex Riboni. I think they realised when they brought her in last night, but they had to wait for her lawyer to come in this morning. It’s a nightmare ’cause we already contacted Nicole’s parents. Understandably, they’re a mess. Anyway, the autopsy is happening now, but I don’t think there’re going to be any surprises. We think she caught the bus up there the day before we found her.’

‘But it was Nicole’s house?’

‘We think so. A woman who looks like Nicole was definitely living there with a kid. It wasn’t Alex—she lives in the city.’

‘So she went to Crystalbrook to see Nicole?’

‘No idea, but I assume so. Bowman was pissed about your article, by the way. I think he called someone at your paper.’

‘Yeah, well, that was a bullshit move. It was a legitimate lead.’

‘I’m just the messenger, Ol.’

‘What about the fire?’

‘I haven’t heard anything more. The word yesterday was that the fire in the main room caught and hit the gas supply, but a team’s out there today so we should know more later.’

In the background are voices that fade as Rusty starts walking away from whomever is talking.

Oli asks, ‘Were Alex and Nicole in contact this whole time?’

‘I don’t know. I doubt we’re going to know much more until we find Nicole.’

Oli suddenly feels an overwhelming wave of frustration. ‘What the fuck happened yesterday, Rusty? Why was everyone so sure that it was Nicole up there?’

‘It was a total fuck-up,’ he admits. ‘They didn’t get the body down for a few hours due to some error with the coroner call-out, and Nicole Horrowitz’s old ID was found at the scene, which was obviously what leaked. There was no reason to think she was someone else—they look similar, and no one had sighted her for years.’

Oli glances at Cooper and says more quietly, ‘What about the other thing you mentioned? The letter.’

‘I shouldn’t have said anything to you about that, Ol. You can’t run with it, okay? I’ve heard nothing since.’

‘Was it for Alex or Nicole?’

Cooper isn’t even pretending not to listen now.

‘Oli. Be fair.’ Rusty has clearly reached his limit.

‘Okay, okay,’ she says. ‘Jesus, Rusty, this is big.’

‘It’s pretty crazy,’ he agrees, calming again. ‘Talking of death threats, this O’Brien situation is really blowing up too. We’ll have to provide him with security. People are out for blood because of his wife.’

‘Sounds like a great use of resources,’ Oli says sarcastically.

‘I know. What an arsehole.’

Rusty joined the force full of optimistic passion to right wrongs, and she knows he worries that he’s now further away from achieving this than he ever was as a civilian.