Page 23

She turned back to the others, shaking her head.

She could feel the heat rising through her body, another wave of nausea taking hold.

Not now, baby – please. Give your maman a break.

The stifling humidity, the growing heat of today’s sun, the terror and trauma of yesterday – it was all joining forces with her hormones to force thick, hot bile to rise up in her throat.

She swallowed it back down, took a breath.

‘ Bordel de merde , why would he run off like that?’ she said.

‘Of all the times to disappear... Even if he’s got some extra food he’s been hiding, it’s hardly the worst thing in the world – not after everything we’ve just been through!

’ She looked at the group, saw the confusion registered in their faces, mirroring her own.

‘That was a bloody stupid move,’ said Carly, shaking her head.

‘He’ll never find the way back out of the jungle by himself.

And besides, this is the time to stick together.

The rainforest is a dangerous place at the best of times, but after what happened to Hannah – well, there’s good reason to think there are more lethal things out here than just bloody snakes and spiders. ’

Carly was right: it was insane, what Scott had just done – even more so when they needed him, with his expertise in the wilderness, to help them navigate out of there.

They needed him – she needed him.

Naya gave a grunt of frustration, flung her backpack over her shoulders, turned on her heel and started to walk in the direction of where Scott had just vanished into the jungle. ‘I’m going after him,’ she said.

‘No, Naya, hold on,’ said Ben. ‘Just wait a second – let’s think this through.

’ He paused, cleared his throat; it sounded dry, scratchy.

They were all nearly out of water, and after the amount of fluid they’d all lost, sweating their way through the sticky, humid jungle, they needed to drink something – and soon.

She peered at him: the surface of his skin was greyish, dull and clammy; his lips were dry, with small cracks appearing at their edges.

The area below his eyes was sunken, hollowed out.

The signs of dehydration were settling into his face.

Hers would start to look the same soon, given the humidity of the air and the effort of pushing through dense jungle in the oppressive heat.

We’ve got to get back soon. Perhaps there was a water source they could find on the way, if they got desperate – or could they collect some rainwater somehow? She resolved to keep an eye out.

‘Running away like that by himself, when he must realize how dangerous it is to be wandering around alone,’ Ben was saying.

‘It kinda feels like the behaviour of a person with something to hide, don’t you think?

And I mean, more than just sneaking extra snacks in his bag and hiding them from us.

’ He paused, then added: ‘Maybe there’s something else he doesn’t want us to find out. ’

‘I know what you mean – it does looks suspicious,’ Carly agreed. ‘And did you hear what he said just before he turned and ran?’

‘Yeah,’ said Mira, her face grim. ‘He did say he was sorry. But surely he just meant he was sorry he’d kept some extra food without telling us. I can’t imagine there being anything more to it than that...’

She tailed off, and Naya looked at her closely.

She was on edge, like they all were, but she looked crestfallen; lost, just like she had ever since the mudslide; or was it since they’d found Hannah’s body?

She looked as though she wanted to give up.

There was something disconcerting about seeing someone with Mira’s quiet strength, someone who had survived everything she had, looking so completely beaten.

‘Look, you’re probably right,’ said Carly.

‘I can’t picture him having anything to hide – but all I’ll say is this: if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my job, it’s that people often aren’t who they seem to be on the surface.

’ She waved away a fly buzzing near her face.

‘I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen clients for therapy who would swear blind they were victims of some kind, the ones to feel sorry for, the good ones – they’d suck me in completely and only in the end I’d realize.

..’ She paused; swallowed. ‘Well, I’d realize I was wrong,’ she said softly.

Naya paused, let this sink in. She’d considered the fact that any of them could be hiding something – she barely knew them, after all.

But even if some of them were keeping secrets, holding things back – there was simply no way Scott would be capable of something sinister.

She was getting to know him; she had a sense of him.

Everything about him – his energy, the way he spoke – was gentle. She felt like she could trust him.

But I’m just basing my trust of Scott on intuition , warned a voice inside Naya’s head.

And her intuition had been wrong before, more than once.

Perhaps it was wrong again now; Naya’s relationship history was living proof that she shouldn’t trust herself.

Mathieu had made out that he’d be the perfect partner, the model father.

She’d trusted him, and she’d fallen for it – over and over again, even after she’d caught him in lie after lie.

He was just so good at it; he still was.

And worse than that, even after all his deceptions, she’d still slept with him .

A moment – rather, an entire night – of madness, when he’d actually shown up for the children, done what he’d said he was going to do and more. He always knew how to get to her; the kinds of things she wanted from him. The kinds of things she wanted him to say, too.

How wrong; how stupid. How could the desire for a quick fuck have been enough to pull her back towards him – and now with these consequences?

Was she really that easy to get into bed, that desperate to feel someone’s touch?

She’d been so young when they’d met and married, barely twenty-four when she’d first got pregnant.

Now, at thirty-three, she already felt washed up; an invisible, exhausted mother.

Of course she’d fallen for his whispered compliments, his empty sweet talk.

Naya sighed, rubbed at the spot between her eyes – then moved her other hand instinctively to her stomach, as if to say, Don’t worry , I’ll protect you.

‘Sorry, Carly, but there’s no way we could have got Scott that wrong,’ Mira was saying. ‘And anyway, it doesn’t feel right, leaving him out there on his own – we’re much safer as a group, aren’t we? We need to stick together, like you said.’

At the mention of Scott being out there alone, an image flashed through Naya’s mind: turning to look back at the school playground when she’d dropped Marcus off at school the morning before she left, standing to watch a few minutes longer than usual, with no work to rush off to, only packing to do at home.

Seeing him standing there by himself, dragging his schoolbag along the concrete ground, watching other children form playful huddles; all of them brushing past him, not so much as looking at him.

Her heart ached for him that moment outside the school gates; it ached for him again now – and, she realized, it was aching for Scott too, not able to articulate what he wanted to say, and now alone, afraid, in a hostile place.

‘I’m with Mira,’ Naya blurted out. ‘She’s right – of course we can’t leave him out here.

He’s exhausted, in shock, starting to get dehydrated like the rest of us – he could die out here without water and proper rest. We can’t let that happen, no matter what he might have done – which, in all likelihood, is nothing more than keeping a couple of snacks to himself.

’ She paused, glanced at the others. ‘I’m going after him now before he can get too far away from us. ’

‘Hang on,’ said Ben. His jaw was tense, his eyebrows furrowed, creating a deep crease along the centre of his forehead.

He looked like he was wrestling with something, as though there was something more he wanted to say, but couldn’t quite spit out.

He opened his mouth, then closed it again, repeating this a few times, goldfish-like, before finally saying: ‘Before we go after him – there’s something I need to show you all.

It’ll only take a second, then we’ll go after him.

I should have told you before now, but. ..’

Naya watched as he unzipped a section of his backpack and took out a small piece of paper; no – not paper, she realized. It was a photograph. Why did Ben need to show this to everyone, now of all times?

Ben swallowed. ‘I found this on Hannah’s dead body,’ he said.

There was a stunned silence. He... what?

Ben held the picture up; the rest of them stared at the woman in it, took in her pretty, smiling face.

Naya frowned. ‘But who is she?’ she said.

Ben shrugged. ‘No idea. I was hoping one of you might know.’

Naya looked at Carly and Mira. They were both staring at the picture, wide-eyed. No one spoke.

‘Well, I’ve never seen her before in my life,’ said Naya.

‘Me neither,’ said Carly.

Mira shook her head vigorously. ‘Where did you find it exactly?’ she said.

‘It was in one of her hands, all crumpled up,’ said Ben.

Naya considered this for a moment. ‘Perhaps it’s someone close to her – doesn’t she have a sister?’ she said. ‘There’s a slight resemblance in their faces – maybe it’s her?’

Ben looked stricken for a moment. ‘I mean, I don’t see that exactly, but you’re probably right that it’s someone she is... I mean, was close to.’ He wiped a droplet of something – sweat, or was it tears? – from the side of his right eye. ‘It’s just strange, is all.’

And that’s not the only thing that’s strange.

‘Hang on, Ben – I don’t get it. Why didn’t you just show us the photo at the time, when you found it?

’ Naya asked. ‘Why keep it a secret and only tell us about it now? And you’ve tampered with possible evidence – what if there were fingerprints on there, or something the police could have used to find out what happened to her? ’

Ben shifted on the spot. ‘I know... I’m sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking.

I felt like maybe it could help – if the police can’t find her body or something, the photo might help incriminate the person who killed Hannah, you know?

But then I thought, if—’ He broke off abruptly and Naya wondered what he’d been about to say.

‘Listen, guys, can we discuss this later?’ said Mira, her voice betraying a note of irritation, Naya thought. ‘I really think we need to start looking for Scott, before he gets too far away from us.’

‘You’re right – and I’m sorry for doing this now,’ said Ben, sighing. ‘I just didn’t want to keep it a secret any more, I guess. Let’s start walking, then – he went this way, right? Carly – hand me the knife, I’ll lead the way.’

Looking uncomfortable, Carly gave Ben a curt nod and passed him the knife.

Grasping it in front of him, Ben started to cut a path through the leaves in the direction Scott had run, Naya close at his heels, Carly and Mira behind them.

It was still early in the morning and the sun had only started to peek over the trees in the past few minutes; visible through the foliage were patches of a blue, cloudless sky. No rain today, then, at least.

‘Hey,’ said Ben, pointing to some flattened leaves, a few thin branches that had been snapped and fallen to the ground.

These hints – left for them, helpfully, by the dense jungle, where a human body would have to mark its surroundings when passing through – were enough for them to pursue.

‘See here?’ Ben called behind his shoulder to the others.

‘Look at the bend in these branches and vines – he must have pushed his way through here.’

‘This could be a bad idea,’ came Carly’s voice, from the tail of the line. ‘Ben, are you sure we’ll be able to find our way back after this? We don’t want to end up going around in circles...’

‘I’m sure we’ll find the way,’ Ben reassured her. ‘If Scott’s leaving a trail behind him, then we will too. We’ll be able to follow it when we find him.’

‘ If we find him,’ Carly muttered.

Naya stopped dead, turned to face Carly, met her gaze. ‘We are going to find him.’

She kept the rest of the thought to herself: Or at least, I am – and nothing is going to stop me .