‘They were trying to create a time line, that’s all. Trying to figure out John’s movements on the island before he…’

‘Nobody asked me anything,’ he said. ‘And if you’re thinking what I’d probably be thinking, no. I had nothing to do with what happened to him. Wishing someone was dead is a long way from making it happen.’

‘Oh, no, I wasn’t—’

‘Yeah, you were.’

‘Why did John come here?’ she asked.

‘Never quite figured that out,’ Marcus said. ‘He was either here to help me or blow me. Or maybe both.’

‘What do you mean?’

He chuckled to himself. ‘He came on pretty strong, is what I’m saying. He came around here looking to make amends. He apologised – and, look, I never wanted to get the guy fired, I just didn’t like the idea of him taking advantage of my mum, and that’s what I told him. As far as I was concerned, that should have been that.’

‘But it wasn’t?’

He picked at the label of his beer. ‘He tried to pay me back the money Mum had left him. He said I needed it more than him. I’m not some fucking charity case, which is also what I told him. But the guy wouldn’t let up. He was … full-on.’

‘How do you mean?’ Kate asked.

‘He made out that I needed the money, but it was more like he needed to give it to me. He was all fucked up about Mum’s death. More than me, even. He was obsessed. And he was looking for somewhere new to send that obsession.’

‘Maybe he felt guilty about Annabel writing him into her will,’ Kate offered.

‘He was guilty about something, that’s for sure,’ he said. ‘Trust me, people like us can smell our own.’

He leaned back in the armchair to look down the narrow hallway, out through the screen door and over Sunset Strip.

‘Did you and John talk about anything else?’ she asked.

Marcus lifted the longneck to his lips and sucked like a baby lamb. He swallowed hard, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. ‘He had a lot of questions about my dad.’

‘What kind of questions?’

‘He wanted to know what I remembered about him and about when he died. I was only five when it happened, so all I really remember is my mum crying a lot, and us going to stay with my aunty Rita in Mollymook and her annoying fucking yappy dog.’

‘Why was John so interested in your dad?’ Kate asked. ‘You’d have to ask him that. There’s a ouija board around here somewhere, if you’d like to try.’

‘How did your dad die?’

Marcus paused mid-swig, set the bottle down on the coffee table, and glared at her. ‘You don’t know?’

‘All I heard was it was sudden,’ she said.