Selena had her head turned away from the phone, like she couldn’t look. She said, to the slowing light outside the window, ‘I knew the right thing to do was cut him off totally. Never be in touch again. I knew that. But . . . you saw that. The video.’ A bare nod towards the phone. ‘It wasn’t just that I missed him. It was because that was special. We made it together, me and Chris, it was never going to exist anywhere else in the world, and it was beautiful. Wrecking something like that, grinding it up to nothing and throwing it away: that’s evil. That’s what evil is. Isn’t it?’

Neither of us answered.

‘It felt like a terrible thing to do. Like it might even be the worst thing I’d ever done – I couldn’t tell for sure. So I thought maybe I could save just some of it. Maybe, even if we weren’t going to be together, we could still . . .’

Everyone’s thought that: maybe even if, maybe we could still, maybe small bits of precious things can be salvaged. No one with cop-on thinks it after the first try. But her voice, quiet and sad, shimmering the air into those pearly colours: for a second I believed it, all over again.

Selena said, ‘It would never have worked out like that. Probably I knew that; I think I might’ve. But I had to try. So I texted Chris a couple of times. Saying let’s stay friends. Saying I missed him, I didn’t want to lose him . . . Stuff like that.’

‘Not a couple of times,’ Conway said. ‘Seven.’

Selena’s eyebrows pulling together. ‘Not that many. Two? Three?’

‘You were texting him every few days. Including the day he died.’

Selena shook her head. ‘No.’ Anyone would’ve said that, anyone with half a brain. But the bewildered look: I would’ve nearly sworn that was real.

‘It’s right here in black and white.’ Conway’s tone was turning. Not hard, not yet, but firm. ‘Look. Text from you, no answer. Text from you, no answer. Text from you, no answer. This time Chris was ignoring you.’

Things moved in Selena’s face. She was watching the screen like a telly, like she could see it all happening in front of her, all over again.

‘That had to have hurt,’ Conway said. ‘Didn’t it?’

‘Yeah. It did.’

‘So Chris was prepared to hurt you, after all. Right?’

Selena said, ‘Like I told you. He wasn’t just one thing.’

‘Right. So is that why you broke up with him? Because he did something to hurt you?’

‘No. That, when he didn’t answer my texts, that was the first time Chris ever hurt me.’

‘Must’ve made you pretty angry.’