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“Why were you here, exactly?” Daniel asked Davey.

Davey, who had been turning his head this way and that, stood up a little straighter but did not turn around.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean when you were with Michael when you saw the kill up the tree. Why would you have needed to come here to this point exactly?”

Davey turned around. He didn’t look annoyed, as Steph had expected. Instead, his brow was a little furrowed. Still, he kept his eyes scanning the surroundings.

“Michael wanted to come here,” Davey replied. “Said he had seen the cave lion slink off in this direction before and wanted to know why. He didn’t want to do it when he was by himself and waited until we were both out together.”

Daniel was frowning. Steph could see that Davey, for the first time she had seen in Daniel’s presence, looked uneasy.

“Doesn’t that seem a little odd to you?” Daniel asked, folding his arms.

“In what way?” Davey replied, his voice a pitch too high.

“Surely, you have seen animals go off in all sorts of directions and never thought to follow them before?” Daniel said.

Davey licked his lips but said nothing. Instead, he turned and continued his search. Daniel unfolded his arms and strode after him.

“Well?”

“Well, what?”

“Well, is it not odd that you went off in this direction?”

Davey sighed and turned around.

“In all honesty? Yes. It was odd we went off this way.”

This had clearly not been the answer Daniel was expecting. He’d been assuming a disagreement to the point or Davey beingdefensive. He was lost about what his next move should be having received an admission so easily. Or was it a confirmation rather than an admission? Steph decided now might be the time to voice her own concerns.

“There’s no point us being here anyway,” she said.

The others turned to look at her.

“No?” asked Roger.

“No,” agreed Davey.

Steph turned to look at him. He was looking at her.

“Sorry?”

“That’s the tree; empty!” Davey replied, pointing to a tree to their left with a couple of lower-hanging branches.

“It was never going to be there,” Steph said. “There is no way the cave lion would have dragged a kill so far from where the hunt took place.”

“Maybe not,” Davey conceded.

“Maybe?”

“You’d be surprised by some of what you see here; you must remember that you have only just arrived, relatively speaking. You are just scratching the surface of the place.”

“Maybe, but I think I have a better idea of what lies underneath the surface than you do.”

“Oh, I doubt that,” Davey snorted. “I believe Daniel and I probably know the goings on behind the scenes a little better than you.”