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“To be fair, we thought we had something that would have kept them in line,” Daniel added. “It’s a shame; I was excited about it.”

“About what?” Steph asked, noticing a cabin off to the side of the track. There seemed to be a light on behind the window.

“We tried to bring back an entelodont,” Daniel said, flicking his eyes momentarily towards Steph. “Sort of a giant warthog-type creature – vicious bastards.”

“That was very black market,” Michael put in. Not quite sure how Martina managed to get her hands on something like that and still be able to get DNA from it.

For once, Daniel seemed in agreement.

“Considering the climate of its time and the age of the creature, I can’t see how such a specimen could exist,” Danielsaid, raising his eyebrows. “Even so, I had one to study and now I don’t.”

“What happened to it?” Steph asked.

“The winter took it I assume. It was not really adapted to survive in Scotland in mid-January.”

“Don’t you track them?” Steph asked.

“The big animals we do,” Michael said. “We chip them. Not that the signal is amazing. It never gives us an accurate reading of where they are. Just a rough generalisation. You’d have thought that Kelvin of all people could afford better technology.”

“I suspect he can,” Daniel said.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I think he has made sure that the larger animals cannot be tracked perfectly.”

“Why? That makes no sense! He would have told me why. Did he actually say this to you?”

“No, but Martina said something about it acting as insurance.”

Michael went quiet at this and sank back into his chair. He muttered something about Martina and Kelvin but too quiet for Steph to hear.

They pulled up to the house to find Davey sitting on an upturned log reading a book. Daniel let Michael and Steph out before parking the buggy back into the charging bay he’d got it from. Michael exchanged a few small words with Davey as he walked past him whilst Steph stood and waited. Davey finished the page he was reading, put a feather between the pages and shut the book.

“I heard you went and collected my things!” Steph said, unable to hide the disapproval in her voice.

“I did,” Davey replied.

“You best have not looked through my stuff,” she said, folding her arms.

“Why, do you have something to hide?” Davey replied, leaningforward on the log.

“No!”

“Because,” Davey continued, “if you’re worried about your snooping into the death of the poor little boy being interrupted, you needn’t worry about me. I have no interest in it.”

Steph swallowed. She scratched the ground slightly with her foot.

“So… so you did go through my stuff?”

“No, I spoke to Jackie at the bar. She said you’d been asking questions about it all,” Davey replied, narrowing his eyes.

Steph played with the fabric of her shirt under her folded arms.

“Well, something definitely doesn’t add up. I’m not even sure how the police couldn’t know about what’s going on here. Someone must have put two and two together and worked out that the animal could have come from here.”

Davey smiled, took in a deep breath and then stood up.

“The police did come here,” he said. “However, let’s take a step back; you are assuming a lot of things. Firstly, you are assuming that an animal from here killed the boy. Secondly, you are assuming that the police hadn’t thought to come here. Thirdly…”