No way to pretend Holly wasn’t a suspect. The stupidest detective alive wouldn’t bite on that. Holly’s da isn’t stupid.

I said, ‘Yeah. And?’

‘Word on the street is that Mackey’s done you a few favours. I’m not giving you hassle for that; you do what you need to do. But if the two of you are all buddy-buddy, or if you owe him, then you’re not the guy to interrogate his kid for murder.’

I said, ‘I don’t owe Mackey anything. And he’s not my buddy.’

Conway watched me.

‘It’s been years since I even talked to the guy. I came in useful to him once, he’s made sure to be useful to me since – he wants everyone knowing that helping him out pays off. That’s it. End of.’

‘Huh,’ Conway said. Maybe she looked satisfied; maybe she just looked like she had decided it might soften Mackey up, having an ally in the room. She sealed off the envelope, shoved it in her satchel with the rest. ‘I don’t know Mackey. Is he gonna give us hassle?’

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘He will. I wouldn’t say he’ll whip Holly straight off home, tell us to talk to his solicitor; he’s not like that. He’ll fuck with us, but he’ll do it sideways, and he won’t leave unless it looks like we’re getting somewhere. He’ll want to keep us talking till he works out our theory, what we’ve got.’

Conway nodded. Said, ‘Got his number?’

‘Yeah.’

Next second I wished I’d said no, but all Conway said was, ‘Ring him.’

Mackey picked up fast. ‘Stephen, my man! Long time no talk.’

I said, ‘I’m at St Kilda’s.’

The air sharpened, instantly, to a knifepoint. ‘What’s happened.’

‘Holly’s fine,’ I said, fast. ‘Totally fine. We just need to have a chat with her, and we figured you’d want to be there.’

Silence. Then Mackey said, ‘You don’t say Word One to her till I get there. Not Word One. Have you got that?’

‘Got it.’

‘Don’t forget it. I’m nearby. I’ll be there in twenty.’ He hung up.

I put my phone away. ‘He’ll be here in fifteen minutes,’ I said. ‘We need to be ready.’

Conway slammed the panel of the lost-and-found bin, hard. The deep clang shot off into the shadows, took its time dissolving.

She said, loud, to the high darkness, ‘We’ll be ready.’