Page 87

85

Struggling to keep her voice steady, Elin addresses Ronan, gesturing at the image on her lap. “Was this the person you saw Jackson with?”

Leaning over, he examines it. “I’m sorry, it’s hard to say, it was so long ago. Similar, if that helps.” He hesitates. “Do you recognize him?” She nods. Despite the dim light, he casts his gaze around the room. “You really think if he is Jackson’s son, that he’s involved?”

“I’m not sure.” Until now, she was certain that the killer must have a direct connection to the school, what happened there, but Caleb wouldn’t even have been born at the time. His father had plausible motive as an ex-pupil, but not Caleb. What are they missing in terms of motive? “I’m going to wake my colleague. We’ll let you know once we have more information. If you think of anything else—”

“Of course.” Ronan nods, trudging back to his seat.

Once he’s left, Elin tries to rouse Steed. He’s out cold; it takes a minute to stir him.

“What time is it?” He rubs his eyes. “I didn’t mean to go off...”

“Just after five.” She takes him through what Ronan told her. Yawns, poorly suppressed, punctuate every other word and she’s not sure how much he’s absorbed until he abruptly straightens, glances in the direction of the Leger party. “What do you reckon? Get a jump on him before he clocks what’s going on?”

“Good shout.” Picking up their bags, they carefully weave their way between the sleeping bodies to the group.

Elin directs the beam of her flashlight over them. The light picks up Hana first, curled fetal-style. Maya’s asleep beside her, phone still clasped loosely in her hand.

“No Caleb,” Elin murmurs as she gently shakes Hana’s arm. There’s a look of surprise when she sees Elin, her eyes widening. “Sorry to disturb,” she whispers. “But do you know where Caleb is?”

Bleary-eyed, Hana shakes her head. “He was here earlier...” She trails off, picking up on their urgency. “Is something wrong?”

“Yes. I need to speak to him.”

“I’ll wake Maya.” Sitting up, Hana squeezes Maya’s hand, talking quietly in her ear.

Still lying down, Maya looks between them, hair mussed over her face. “He was here when I fell asleep,” she says groggily. “He passed out before I did, I could hear from his breathing.”

“He didn’t wake up in the night, say he was leaving the room?” Elin turns slowly, confused. If Caleb has left, how has he done it? The member of staff on the door had been instructed not to let anyone in or out unless in supervised pairs for restroom breaks and to raise the alarm if no one returned. How could he have gotten past that?

“No...” But Maya stops, face stricken. “Actually, I did hear footsteps, a few hours ago. I didn’t properly wake though, so I don’t know if it was him.”

Elin nods. She doesn’t like this. “Have you noticed anything odd about his behavior over the past few days? Anything out of character?”

Hana shakes her head. “Not really, but I’ve been in my own bubble. He’s been upset, like you saw last night, but apart from that...”

“The same,” Maya affirms.

“He hasn’t mentioned something about any of you? Any disagreements?” Steed asks.

Hana pauses. “Well, not disagreements, exactly, but Caleb’s been pretty vocal about his dislike for Seth. Jo too. I assumed that was just a personal thing, they’d rubbed him up the wrong way.”

Steed bends down. “Is this Caleb’s?” He gestures to the large backpack by Hana’s feet.

Hana nods. “He has a case too,” she says, pointing.

With brutal efficiency, Steed rummages through the backpack first, before unzipping the suitcase. Maya and Hana watch in silence as he riffles through the contents.

“Nothing here,” Steed says a few moments later, zipping it back up. “He doesn’t have any other luggage?”

“No,” Maya murmurs, but her brow furrows. “Actually...” She turns to Hana. “Before we left the villa to come here, you guys met me in my room, didn’t you? Han, you went to do a final check, see if we’d left anything outside.” She pauses. “While you were gone, Caleb and I were talking. I went to the loo, and when I came back, he was fiddling with the zipper on your suitcase. He said it had come undone. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but...”

Elin looks at Steed, raises an eyebrow. Would he really be so brazen? “Do you have an overnight bag with you?”

“Yes, that one,” Hana says, pointing.

Elin thinks it through: Caleb may have assumed that there would be no reason for them to open their cases again until they got to the mainland, particularly if they had overnight bags for the travel back. As good a place as any to stash something.

Steed pulls the case toward him. “You okay if I open it?”

Hana nods.

Reaching for the zippers, Steed tugs them apart, flipping up the lid. For a moment, it looks like Maya’s theory is wrong: all Elin can see is crumpled balls of clothing shoved against one another, no semblance of order.

“There,” Maya says slowly, pointing. “That’s not yours, Han, is it?”

Pushed down on the far side, against her swimwear, is a toiletry bag. Hana shakes her head as Steed reaches for it. “Looks fairly innocuous,” he observes.

“Maybe he just ran out of room in his case,” Maya offers, as if she, too, is struggling to see anything sinister in the mundanity of it.

“So why not just ask me if he could put it there?” Hana frowns. “Why hide it?”

Opening it, Steed rakes through the contents: toothbrush, paste, hair gel.

“Just toiletries,” Maya says, trailing off as Steed fishes something out.

As he holds it aloft, she opens her mouth to speak again, but no words come out.