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Roger put all his fingers together in front of him. “I suppose, we take Martina.”

At this, Martina stopped sobbing and thumping Ashley’s chestand turned to glare at Roger. Her look suggested that she had pieced enough together the same way Steph had, although Steph suspected, Martina had a better idea of the motives behind the actions.

“Like I would ever help you!” Martina spat. “People like you are nothing but pieces of shit!”

Roger laughed.

“Takes one to know one I would say.”

He got to his feet and sighed.

“What to do with you though, Steph? I suppose you will be wanting some sort of financial compensation. I am not sure that Kelvin will be able to fulfil his contractual obligations. Then again, I suppose you have a copy of your contract somewhere back at the house.”

She did. Steph vaguely recalled Kelvin giving her a copy to keep. She had flung it into her case of clothes. It hadn’t really seemed important at the time seeing as there were large and interesting animals to document. Now she thought about it, she supposed she did want something financial from all of this. She’d earned it. Also, how would her releasing of information work now that Kelvin was dead? Was it a free-for-all, or was Kelvin the head of some sort of huge company with people ready to step in and take his place? Steph’s stomach churned. She really did know nothing.

“The police will want to interview you as well, I would imagine,” Roger said, itching his wrist before shaking it out and putting his hands behind his back to rock on his heels.

“Won’t they want to see you too?” Steph asked. She heard how stupid it sounded as soon as it left her mouth.

Roger smiled. “Goodness, no! I won’t be here by then. Besides, as I am sure you have worked out by now, you have no idea who I am, so they wouldn’t know who they were looking for even if you did make them aware of my existence. I’m sure someonecould work it out, but they would be someone who worked at dizzying heights. The type of person who has an interest in things being grey and needs people like me in operation anyway. Thus, nothing would happen.”

Roger then headed towards the door before stopping and turning to say, “Not that I am a bad person! It is just that a lot of what I do is hard to complete in an ethical manner, if you understand what I mean.”

Steph blinked at him. He nodded awkwardly to himself and then, satisfied he hadn’t really got anything left to say, nodded at Ashley who ushered Martina towards the door.

“Are you not going to see me to the outer fencing?” Steph found herself calling after Ashley.

“Roger turned once more. He looked at Steph, looked at Ashley, and then back at Steph.

“Is that what you want?

She thought about it. Was it? She thought about the contract in the house.

“Yes. Yes, I think so. I think that… I think it’s time to leave.”

Roger nodded.

“Fair enough. We will drop you outside the fencing. I would love to drop you off at the hotel or somewhere similar, but as I am sure you can appreciate, I am in somewhat of a rush.”

FORTY-EIGHT

They all got in the truck. Martina was muttering under her breath, but Steph couldn’t decipher what she was saying except for the occasional curse. Ashley turned the key in the ignition. Nothing. He did it again. Nothing again.

“What’s going on?” Roger asked, his voice quite balanced. Steph watched Ashley turn his head towards Roger, tilting it slightly. There was an audible sigh from Roger. “Well, go and fix it then!”

“I’m not a mechanic!” Ashley replied.

“Well, neither am I!”

Roger held his ground, staring at Ashley. It seemed as if Ashley was going to show the same stubbornness, but after a couple of seconds, he submitted to the other and got out of the car to open the bonnet.

From where Steph was sitting, she couldn’t see Ashley anymore. Not with the open bonnet blocking the view. She let her eyes move in the direction of Martina sitting next to her. Martina’s eyes kept flicking from the open car bonnet to her door. Her hand hovered over her belt buckle.

Somewhere outside, there was a howl. The animal was still a way off from what Steph could tell, although she had no way of knowing how well the windows were muffling the sound.

It was warm in the truck. Comfortable. Steph became acutely aware of how tired she was in the silence. Her eyelids felt heavy. She let them close.

A loud bang outside broke her momentary rest. The bonnet was shaking in front of her. A few moments passed. The fiddling sound that had notified everyone to Ashley’s presence seemed to have stopped. Steph was not the only one to have noticed.