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‘What the hell just happened?’

‘Move!’ Scott yelled. ‘That’s a fer-de-lance – they’re fucking lethal.’

‘Scott, are you OK?’ said Naya, grabbing his arm. ‘It didn’t bite you, did it?’

‘No, I’m all right,’ said Scott, breathless. ‘Just spooked. Naya, you saw it just in time, thank fuck. But we’ve got to be more careful – a single bite from one of those is enough to kill you in minutes.’

‘Oh my God,’ said Naya. ‘I thought there weren’t many dangerous snakes in Costa Rica. Why would Hannah have planned the whole trip out here if there were lethal things waiting...’ She tailed off, blanched; realizing what she’d just said.

‘But Hannah didn’t plan for us to be out here, like this,’ murmured Mira.

‘In her defence, I think dangerous snakes like the fer-de-lance are pretty rare out here,’ said Carly. ‘We were unlucky to come across one.’

A thought occurred to Ben then – one he’d had a bunch of times over the past couple of days since they got here, but never put words to. He turned to Carly. ‘Remind me how you know so much about all this stuff? You know, jungle survival and snakes and all?’ he said.

Carly frowned. ‘I spent some time in the rainforest a few years back – didn’t I mention that before?’

Ben shrugged. ‘I guess so. Maybe.’

‘It wasn’t here in Costa Rica, though – it was in the Amazon.

Very different kind of rainforest – wilder, more dangerous in a lot of ways,’ she said.

Her eyes seemed to lose focus for a moment, as if she’d gone somewhere else.

‘It was where I met my ex too, so it’s got special memories for me, I suppose. ’

Then Ben remembered something else. ‘Didn’t Hannah spend some time in the Amazon? I’m sure I heard her talking about it on a video once.’

Carly looked at him; there was something wary in her eyes. Something suspicious, even. ‘Did she? I don’t remember that.’

‘Yeah, I saw that video,’ said Naya. ‘She said she went there recently, though. Not years ago, like Carly.’

Ben swallowed down the lump that was building in his throat. ‘I must be getting it wrong then.’

His skin felt like it was crawling suddenly, as if that damn snake was gliding across his body, its rough, dry scales skimming the surface of his skin. He shuddered, despite the hot clamminess of the air.

It was the tension within the group; he could feel it, some thing starting to grow, to take shape in their fear and shock. Suspicions; paranoia.

He’d felt it first towards Scott when he’d bolted off, and now he felt it towards Carly – irrationally, by the sounds of it.

He tried to shake off the feeling; he was probably overreacting – and understandably, given everything they’d been through. Carly hadn’t given him any reason to believe she was lying about anything. None of them had, except Scott, but what he’d explained to them seemed to stack up.

‘Please, can we just keep going?’ said Naya. ‘With lethal snakes out here on top of everything else, we really need to find our way back to civilization... and the longer we’re wandering around in this rainforest, the longer it’s going to take the authorities to get out here and find Hannah.’

Her voice came out with a wobble – and then Ben saw it. He saw her look at him, and in her eyes was the same wariness and apprehension he’d seen in Carly’s. She couldn’t hide her distrust.

That was it. He had to say something.

‘Yes, we can keep walking,’ he said. ‘But before we set off again – don’t y’all think it would be good to clear the air?’

Naya was the first to turn to face him, a frown creasing her brow. ‘What do you mean, clear the air ?’

‘Well, things just feel a little frosty between us now, right? It seems like we don’t trust each other any more. I just think we should talk about it.’

Mira shook her head, but she still looked afraid. ‘I’ve never said I don’t trust anyone – I don’t think that at all,’ she said. ‘None of us said that.’

Scott sighed, put down his backpack. ‘But we all feel it, don’t we?’ he said. ‘I know what Ben’s saying. I’ve had... thoughts about some of the people here. I can’t be the only one. Let’s at least be honest about that.’

‘All right then. Let’s get it all out in the open,’ agreed Carly. ‘Because, well – how much do we all know about each other, really? We only met a couple of days ago. We’ve got no idea who each other really is – what anyone here is really capable of.’

There it is. The truth.

They were doubting each other – and Ben had the feeling that most of those misgivings were aimed towards him.

‘Hang on a minute,’ said Mira. ‘I want to know who killed Hannah as much as anyone. But there’s no way any of us could have done it – the timings don’t add up, do they? We all got here at the same time – and we’ve all been together every minute since then.’

‘That’s true,’ said Naya. But she didn’t sound convinced.

Mira kept going: ‘And besides, there are other people who were here at the right time. People who knew Hannah, who were here when she died. There’s Paola and Luisa, even Isabel and Thiago who were all at the house.

And that’s without even considering it was a complete stranger, someone we’ve never even met – like those drug gangs Ben mentioned earlier? That seems a likelier scenario to me.’

No one spoke for a moment. Carly looked thoughtful, then said: ‘You know what, it does seem more logical for it to have been someone else. It makes more sense than the idea of any of us doing this, anyway.’

‘Unless...’ said Naya. She swallowed, looked at the ground, kicked against a rock with her shoe. Then her words came out in a rush. ‘Unless one of us lied about what time they got here – and someone was here earlier.’ She looked up then.

Did she just look at me when she said that?

He needed to defend himself. ‘Is there something you want to say to me, Naya? Are you accusing me of... of what, exactly?’ demanded Ben.

‘Hang on a minute,’ said Naya. ‘I’m not accusing anyone of anything – I’m just saying, it’s possible that one of us turned up here earlier, isn’t it?’ She was looking right at him that time as she said it, Ben was sure.

He’d had about enough of this.

‘And who do you think that might be?’ he said. ‘Because if you ask me, there’s only one of us who’s been acting weird – and that’s the person who ran off by himself into the middle of the jungle earlier today.’ He glared at Scott, who seemed to crumple into himself at the words.

‘No, everyone – you can’t think...’ he said weakly. ‘I know it was stupid, running off like that – but I’ve told you why, haven’t I?’

‘Scott, stop. You don’t have to explain yourself again,’ said Naya. ‘Ben is just trying to stir up trouble, maybe to take the attention off himself .’

His blood pounded in his ears. ‘What the fuck is that supposed to mean?’

‘Come on, Ben, Naya – this isn’t helping,’ said Carly, moving to stand in front of him.

A rush of thoughts sprinted into Ben’s brain.

‘No, I’m sorry – hold up a second, Scott,’ he said.

‘Didn’t you say you’d hitched a lift to Hannah’s place from Playa Blanca?

That’s the nearest village, right? What were you even doing so close to here – and how long had you been there?

’ He felt bad saying it, disloyal somehow, but it was true.

If they were stacking up evidence against everyone, they should at least make it fair.

Before Scott could reply, Ben rushed on: ‘And Naya, you got here later than everyone else – how do we know you weren’t just coming back from the middle of the rainforest?’

‘ Bordel de merde , Ben, that is ridiculous!’ said Naya. ‘How dare you try to—’

‘That’s enough, both of you. We need to think about this rationally,’ interrupted Mira; even weak and exhausted, there was a quiet power to her voice.

‘There’d be one way to settle it for certain.

’ She looked around the group. ‘By getting back to the house, finding our phones. They’ll all have our location history logged on there, as well as our flight details, our email conversations with Hannah – that’ll show exactly where we’ve all been and whether we’re here in good faith, right?

I know mine will show I’ve got nothing to hide. ’

‘Mine neither,’ said Naya and Scott in unison.

‘Nor mine,’ said Carly.

Ben swallowed.

Jesus. What the fuck was he going to do if they all looked at his phone?

‘Well, it’s a good idea, but it’s not much use to us here, is it?’ he said. ‘Look at where we are. It’s late morning already, and it doesn’t feel like we’re any closer to getting back there than we were yesterday.’

‘I know it feels like that now,’ said Scott, ‘but we’re making progress. We’ll be back before long.’

Ben needed to think fast. ‘This idea is nowhere near as foolproof as you’re all making out – any of us could just wipe our recent locations,’ he said desperately, hoping this would be enough to put them off the plan.

There was silence; he risked a glance at Carly, who was nibbling at her lower lip. ‘Yeah. That’s a good point, to be fair,’ she said eventually. ‘But still – it’s probably the best idea we’ve got, isn’t it?’

Naya nodded. ‘I agree – it’s better than nothing. And we can make it fair – we all show each other our phones at the same time, or something. We don’t want anyone to feel that we’re – ah – picking on them, or cornering them unfairly.’

Again, Ben caught Naya looking at him, but it was quick; subtle. He turned his head so she wouldn’t catch the panic in his eyes.

‘Fine,’ said Ben. ‘As soon as we get back to the house, we’ll all show each other our phones so we can prove there’s nothing to hide.’

The others nodded, satisfied.

Ben waited for them to check the map and the sun one more time and start walking again.

He hovered behind them, under the pretence of doing up a shoelace.

And then, when they all had their backs to him, he turned around and bolted through a gap in the trees as fast as his exhausted, grief-stricken body could carry him.