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I felt like I was watching the whole scene from a great distance. I was wheeled out of the room as more police arrived. Hotel staff were standing around, their faces white with a greenish tinge. I thought I probably looked the same way, under all the blood.

Joel walked like a zombie into the lift with me and the medical team. There was a streak of blood on his cheek and his shorts were smeared with it. He found my hand and I wound my fingers through his.

I was separated from Joel as soon as we arrived at the hospital.

When they cleaned me up and satisfied themselves that I wasn’t bleeding, they relaxed a bit.

Someone took the bloody bandage off my ankle and checked out the damage there.

They sent me for scans. Well, Julie had said I should get it checked out, I just hadn’t imagined that it would pan out this way.

I lay there in the hospital gown – totally naked underneath because all my clothes had been soaked through with blood – and exhaustion claimed me.

I woke up to the sound of a throat being cleared.

“Miss Black, sorry to wake you, but we need to ask you some questions. ”

I cracked my eyes open and there were two men in suits standing by the bed. One had his phone out and he was muttering the date and time into it. My body went cold.

“Miss Black, can you please run through the events of yesterday evening for us?”

I swallowed dryly. I looked around for a glass of water, but of course there was none.

“Is Steve …?” I forced the words out through my parched lips.

The taller detective nodded gravely at me. “I’m sorry, yes.” They knew what I meant. They were investigating a murder, and I was the first person on the scene after the crime. Of course they would need to talk to me.

They waited for me to answer their question. I racked my brain – yesterday evening seemed so long ago.

“Okay, um … well, when Joel left, Brad – my friend, Brad Jacobs – called me and I asked him to come and pick me up.”

“What time was that?” the shorter man, the one holding the recorder, interrupted.

“Um, that would have been about seven thirty, I think. I met him down in the foyer and he took me to Saint Eric’s church, so I could light a candle.

“Okay, so after that we stopped at a bottle shop, and then we picked up some pizza … and we went back to the apartment.”

“Was Steven Herbert there when you returned?” the taller detective asked. I shook my head. The shorter one murmured into the phone.

“We had dinner and hung out for a while. Brad left just a little before midnight.”

“Did you see Steve after that?” I shook my head again, and again shortie described it into the recorder.

“But Brad sent me a text message to tell me that he saw Steve going into the bar downstairs in the hotel as he was leaving.” I realised that Brad was the last one of us to have seen Steve alive. I felt a pang of sadness that threatened to overwhelm me. I swallowed around the dry lump in my throat .

“And then, did you go to bed?” the taller one prompted, not unkindly.

“No,” I replied, flushing. “I went downstairs and spent the night in someone else’s room.”

The detectives didn’t bat an eyelid at that. “Whose room was it?”

“Pete Levine.” I whispered.

“Can you speak up a little please, Miss Black?” the taller one prompted.

“Pete Levine,” I answered, enunciating each syllable carefully.

“And what time did you head back up to your room?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know exactly, but it was probably about nine.”

“And can you describe for us what you found when you returned?”

I paused, gathering my thoughts. I tried to focus only on the facts. “I got out my key, but when I got to the door it was already open. It was really dark inside so I flicked the light switch, and then I saw the blood, and I fainted.

“The next thing I remember is waking up in a pool of it, and Joel was there.”

“You didn’t notice anything else out of the ordinary? Was Joel already in the apartment when you got back?” the shorter one asked gruffly.

“Well, I didn’t really have time to take much in before I was unconscious on the floor, but I’m pretty sure I was the only one there.”

“And did Joel Herbert tell you where he had been all night?” shortie persisted.

“He left at about seven last night with Julie Green, my physio. He was expecting to spend the night with her.”

“Thank you, Miss Black. Will you be remaining in Melbourne for a while?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I had planned to stay until the end of the Open, but now …” All I really wanted was to go home and curl up in a ball in my familiar little apartment, and cuddle my cat .

“Where’s Joel?” I asked. The two men shared a meaningful look.

“He’s being interviewed in another room. He might have to stay down here for a few days.”

That wasn’t a lot of information, but it told me a hell of a lot about what was happening.

I sat up sharply. “Listen, Joel wouldn’t … do this, I don’t care what you think!” I snarled at them.

A nurse poked her head around the curtain. Shortie glared at her, but she held her ground, pushing the curtain aside and bustling through to check on me.

“We’re just making initial inquiries, Miss Black. Where will we find you if we need to follow up?”

I knew that as soon as they left, I was ringing Leopard Airlines and booking the next available flight home. I rattled off my address.

“Thank you for your time.” The taller man smiled at me. Shortie scowled, and they breezed out through the curtain.

The nurse smiled sympathetically at me. I asked her if I could make a phone call. I had no idea where my mobile was – probably back at the apartment and now a piece of evidence in a murder investigation.

I phoned the airline and thankfully they had two seats available on the last flight back to Sydney.

I booked them both, reciting my credit card number over the phone to them.

I was pretty sure that Joel would be allowed to leave – I mean, we both had airtight alibis for last night.

I knew he would want to get home to his mother.

Oh God! Had anyone called Sandra to tell her?

I was halfway through dialling her mobile before I realised that I couldn’t make that call.

It wasn’t my place. I hoped that she’d been told by a police officer knocking on her door, and not when she turned on the morning news. The lump in my throat throbbed.

Trembling, I dialled Brad’s number.

“Hello?” He sounded panicked.

“Brad, it’s Mel.”

I heard his shaky exhalation over the phone.

“Mel! Thank God! I’ve been freaking out all morning wondering where you were!

I’m over at Savoy Tower – I came to bring you brunch.

There are police everywhere, they have the whole seventeenth floor blocked off …

I’ve had cops hounding me about who I am and what I did last night and who I was with.

They wouldn’t tell me if you were okay, or where you were or anything! ” Brad’s voice quavered.

“It’s okay, Brad. I’m at the hospital – they brought me here because they thought I was hurt, but I’m not.” I took a deep breath, preparing to break the news. “Steve was …”

“I know,” he muttered over the phone. “I’m down in the foyer, and there’s a TV with the news going – it’s all they’re talking about. There are cameras outside. The police asked me to stay until they can sit down and get a statement from me. Have they spoken to you yet?”

“Yeah, they wanted to know what happened since the last time I saw Steve. I told them that you’d been over and that you saw Steve when you left about midnight.”

“They don’t think you had anything to do with it, do they?”

“I don’t think so … hey, when they come to get your statement, can you ask them if I can have my stuff back from the apartment? I’m catching the nine forty flight home tonight. D’you reckon you could ask them to bring it over to the hospital?”

“Sure thing, Mel. Is that the Leopard flight?”

“Yep.”

“I’m on that one too. I guess I’ll see you at the airport. D’you want me to come and pick you up from the hospital?”

“No, that’s okay. I’ll find my own way. Just tell the police that I really need my stuff – I don’t even have my phone and wallet, so it’ll be hard to get on the plane.”

“Okay, Mel. I’m so glad you’re alright. I’ll talk to you again as soon as I can.”

“Thanks, Brad. Bye.”

I closed my eyes for a moment, exhaustion creeping over me.

Bulging eyes.

Gaping mouth.

Blood.

I sat bolt upright, swallowing back a scream.

The nurse popped her head in. “You’ve got a visitor. ”

Joel slumped in, pale under his tan. He collapsed into the chair beside the bed and looked down at his hands. I hid my own shaking ones under the blanket.

“Joel, I’m so sorry,” I whispered.

He looked up and a ghost of his usual smile flitted across his face. My heart lurched, my throat constricting.

I coughed. “Are the police done with you? Did they say you could leave?”

He nodded. “Yeah, they’re done.”

“I booked us tickets home tonight,” I said quietly.

“Thanks, Mel. I just got off the phone with Mum. I have to get home.”

I watched him trace the bloodstain on his shorts with his index finger. I couldn’t think of anything to say that would make him feel better. I don’t think that there was anything I could say.

“The bastard butchered him,” Joel blurted out, the words echoing in the little curtained room.

My breath caught in my throat. “What?” I managed to ask, then wished I hadn’t. I didn’t want to hear in any detail what Joel meant.

“His chest looked like it had been put through a meat grinder.” Joel choked on the words.

I retched, but there was nothing in my stomach to vomit up. It felt like there was nothing left inside of me at all. I was just a big hollow shell. I was lost.

God, please look after Steve, and tell him I’m sorry, and I love him.