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“Already hidden it,” Davey said. “Well, half-hidden it, I assume. Sort of a rushed job probably. I arrived back – I didn’t find any more of poor Daniel – to what looked like an abandoned buggy with a trailer. It was dark by the time I got there and therewere no lights on in the house which I thought odd. I turned them on and saw the blood on the floor and the drag marks.”

“So you followed where you thought the lion had gone?” Steph asked.

“Of course, I bloody didn’t! I went the opposite way around the house. I wasn’t going anywhere near that thing – not that I knew it was there. I was looking for a way in on the other side thinking I could get down to the basement where all the equipment was. Best place to get a handle on things.”

Calum made a noise of agreement in his throat. Martina shot him a filthy look that missed its mark as he continued to stare at the ceiling.

Davey continued, “Next thing I know, these two are tumbling out of a window telling me to turn around… so I did.”

Roger then made a noise suggesting he couldn’t keep quiet any longer. “But why didn’t the lion just eat Thomas? Why bother going into the house? I don’t think Steph’s question has been answered.”

A moment’s silence. It was Steph who broke the brief pause in the story by slowly answering her own question. She suspected a narcissistic part of her subconscious wanted to be the one to answer it in the first place.

“Competition.”

“Competition?” Roger frowned. Martina rolled her eyes and got up, heading for the kitchen area.

“Well, there is competition with the other animals due to the overlapping territory.”

“Surely the cave lion doesn’t really have anything to worry about?” said Roger.

“Well, one of the grizzlies can definitely hold its own against him. But more obvious would be the cave bear,” said Davey.

“Exactly,” Steph shrugged. “The other night when that lion killed Daniel, it lost its kill almost immediately. The wolves too.They lost a kill to the cave bear. I suppose it could mean that one kill does not always feel enough. Usually, a predator won’t make more than one kill at a time. The prey is too fast, too agile or too strong. But us…”

“You’re basically saying that you think the animals are panicking into making numerous kills because they’re worried they won’t get to eat what they kill?” Davey asked.

“Sort of… more that if an opportunity is there, why not take it?”

“Well, I can’t say I’ve seen any of these double kills.”

“No! That’s not what I am saying! I don’t mean animals are roaming around like crazed mass murderers. I mean that if the opportunity arose…”

“They’d become mass murderers,” Martina sniggered.

Steph sighed and sank into her seat. She could tell she wasn’t going to win. She wasn’t even sure what point she was really trying to prove anyway. She decided to go back to Davey.

“So what happened next then? After you stumbled into Martina and Calum?”

“Well, they were screaming and shouting, acting like the cave lion was hot on their tail!”

“It could have been for all we knew,” Calum squeaked.

“Whatever the case, we bolted for the buggy and tried to put some distance between us and the house. Just a bit of breathing space. It was then I found out they had no idea where the lion actually was and that it could have been long gone.”

“Or still there,” Calum added.

“However, they also said they had no idea where you were.”

“So what did you do?” Steph asked.

“Well, they said Michael was with you so I assumed that his first call would be to get you and Kelvin to safety… especially Kelvin.”

“Why Kelvin?”

“He is where the money comes from,” Davey smiled, ignoring Martina shuffling on the sofa arm and looking away momentarily. “I guessed that he was heading to Thomas’s cabin or possibly out to a fence exit judging from some footprints we stumbled across.”

“Well, they were in Thomas’s cabin so good deduction on your part I suppose,” Roger said.