Page 17

Roger woke the pair with a cooked breakfast. Steph didn’t realise how hungry she was until she started eating. Bacon, eggs, sausages, hashbrowns, mushrooms; it all went. This was washed down with some orange juice and a black coffee. A proper ‘wake up!’ coffee. The two said their goodbyes to Roger and set off down the track. Steph noted the numerous paw marks in the dirt.

“How long will it take to get back?”

Steph asked.

“Because I was thinking, I might as well just begin my day from here rather than return to the house.”

Davey looked her way and then forward again.

“Not long. But I can stay with you a little longer if you have anything in mind you want to observe. I have already radioed Michael to let him know why we didn’t come back last night, so I’m sure he’ll pick up my slack for the day. I only really needed to check a few of the cameras anyway.”

Steph was in two minds about insisting there was no need to chaperone her. On the one hand, she could focus more without him there. On the other, she did feel more reassured by his presence. The previous night had shaken her somewhat. Although nothing had happened exactly, she was wary of the danger around her. Things felt broken and that wasn’t good for the wildlife. Some of the behaviour felt more extreme. An extra pair of eyes would be useful.

“We have one stop to make first though,”

Davey added.

“Well, second. The beavers are on the way.”

“I have a lot I need to see to even begin formulating a theory for how things might be going and what I expect to see over the next few weeks. Will these stops take long?”

Davey gave Steph a sideways glance.

“No,”

he said slowly.

“It won’t take long. I just need to pop into one of the other cabins.”

Steph knew her impatience irritated him but that couldn’t be helped. She genuinely did have a lot to see. She had yet to see all the predators or the major prey animals. Forget the fact that there was the added element of human existence within the environment. That would add another hard-to-measure dynamic.

Steph was not sure what she expected to see when she arrived at a part of the river that had been blocked and had subsequently flooded the surrounding area. Broken stumps announced the presence of beavers as much as the small lake drowning the surrounding undergrowth.

Busy heads carved their way across the water until they reached the bank to reveal stocky bodies that would productively collect sticks to take back to the lodge. All in all, their behaviour seemed normal enough for beavers. A bear wandered by at one point and the beavers made themselves scarce, retreating to their home comforts in the lodge. The behaviour was perfectly normal. They seemed wholly unaffected by the odd mishmash of animals around them. If anything, they seemed to be thriving in their new home.

Davey seemed particularly pleased with Steph’s assessment of things.

“They were my idea,” he said.

“What?”

“The beavers. I suggested them to Kelvin and found a suitable place to release them.”

“Oh,”

said Steph.

“Why beavers?”

“I just think they’re funny little things,”

he replied.

“Besides, I heard they have a huge impact on their surroundings and wanted to see for myself.”

“You persuaded Kelvin to get beavers so you could see how many trees they gnawed down?”

“Essentially.”

Steph rolled her eyes.

“Are you not concerned that they might escape downriver?”

“Nah, it’s caged underwater where it flows in and out of the grounds. Big enough to let fish through but not big enough to let the animals get through. Not the ones we are interested in keeping in.”

Steph made a note of this in her notebook. They walked on.

Again, Steph could see the tell-tale signs of wild boar. She also saw in the saturated mud the distinctive outline of bear prints. The sliding of the prints suggested that the animal had been running at speed.

Birds whistled in the trees above. Steph wondered whether they were on a greater alert with the sudden influx of big animals around. Then again, none of them really affected the birds in any way.

Another noise announced the passing of a large bird of prey somewhere above the trees. Davey looked up smiling. Steph waited for him to look down and then raised an eyebrow.

“Golden Eagle!”

Davey smiled.

“One of ours. It’s fascinating when they take down a drone.”

“Drone?”

“Every so often one of the locals will try and fly one over to see things but these guys make quick work of them.”

Steph supposed it was one way of doing things.

“How far to this cabin?”

Steph asked, taking a drink from her flask.

“A couple of minutes,”

Davey replied.

“Just over that little rise.”

Everything about the surrounding land seemed to be about rises and falls. It was irrepressibly undulating. However, this made it exceedingly beautiful, mainly due to the higher peaks in the distance and expanses of trees, but didn’t make it any less tiring to tread . Steph wiped her brow.

They reached the crest of the small rise. Sure enough, there was the cabin, just a couple of hundred yards ahead near a small clump of trees but otherwise in a more open location than Roger’s.

They began descending towards the lonely dwelling. Davey looked left and right, ensuring they were not being followed or watched. Steph had already started to become accustomed to doing the same.

She was curious as to what the man in the hut would be like. What would his story be? Would he be similar to Roger? She fixed her eyes on the cabin. Davey continued to look over his left shoulder, something clearly bothering him.

Steph narrowed her eyes at the cabin, slowing her walk. Something was wrong, but she couldn’t tell what from where they were. She had never even seen the cabin before – but something felt wrong. She held out an arm across Davey.

“What?”

he said, reluctantly turning his head.

“I don’t know,”

Steph replied.

“You don’t know? What?”

Davey’s face displayed his mild irritation at the hold-up, but he didn’t move. Steph thought about her words. She didn’t want to come across as overdramatic or even oversensitive.

“Does everything look right to you down there?”

she asked after a few moments.

Davey began looking intently towards the cabin, craning his neck slightly to try and spot what exactly might not be looking right.

“How so?”

Davey asked, unable to spot what had made Steph uncertain.

“Is the door open?”

“Yeah, so?”

“So he is not outside.”

“What’s your point?”

“Is that wise, considering?”

Davey took a deep breath and then exhaled, puffing out his cheeks.

“Probably not, but I have never found Fergus the most careful of men.”

“But there is a chair on the decking that has been turned over,”

Steph said.

“Again, Fergus is as tidy as he is careful,”

Davey said.

“Probably knocked it over himself when getting out of it… or an animal knocked it over when snooping around and he can’t be arsed to pick it up. Probably the latter.”

Davey continued walking. Steph followed. Still with an uneasy feeling in her stomach, she made sure there were a few yards between herself and Davey. Her heart was beating slightly faster, and some primal voice told her to stay vigilant. Hairs stood up on her neck. Davey began to slow as he approached the cabin. Then he stopped. Steph stopped behind him.

Davey took his tranquillizer rifle from his back and stood holding it, staring at the cabin.

“I said something wasn’t right,”

Steph whispered.

Davey waved a quieting hand in her direction. It took more self-restraint than she’d care to admit not to snap at his dismissiveness. Instead she watched him. Slowly he began to move, lowering the rifle.

The ground was soft near the cabin from the rainfall the night before. It was also scarred with prints. Large prints buried into the ground deep enough to display the power of the animal that made them.

Steph was sweating a little now, yet her mouth was dry. She edged closer to Davey who still silently stalked forward. They were nearly at the decking now. They stopped. They listened. Nothing. Davey edged forward again. Steph reluctantly followed.

As they looked at the decking, it became clear that something had moved across it. Something bleeding.

Davey put one foot on the grooved wooden planks and there was a gut-churning creak. They froze. They listened. Still nothing.

Davey lifted his other foot onto the decking and began to walk towards the open doorway, its door hanging heavily.

“Wait!”

Steph breathed.

“What?”

Davey mouthed in irritation.

“Are you sure it’s safe?”

Davey ignored the question completely and crept inside. Steph didn’t know what to do. If anything, she felt more concerned now that she was outside alone rather than inside.

A sudden voice crashed through the doorway and into the still air.

“Fucking hell!”

Steph bolted to the door. What she could do she didn’t know, but her legs had recklessly carried her there all the same.

“What?”

she gasped.

“What happened?”

In front of her lay Davey, one hand pushing himself up from the floor. Steph wretched.

Davey lay surrounded by blood seeping into the floorboards.

“How did you end up on the floor?”

Steph asked.

“Didn’t you see the… well, how couldn’t you see the blood?”

Davey still didn’t answer. Instead, he leaned against a table, lying his rifle on the top and then lifting a foot up. He examined what was on the bottom and then looked away, closing his eyes.

He then proceeded to scrape the sole of his boot on the table leg whilst saying.

“Forgive me, Fergus.”

“What was that?”

Steph asked as she looked at the pink scum that was now stuck loosely to the table leg.

“That,”

Davey said, shaking his head.

“is what little is left of Fergus.”

“What?”

“It’s why I slipped,”

Davey exhaled between deep breaths.

Steph grimaced.

“Anyway,”

Davey said quite seriously.

“I think we had best close the door.”

“Are you sure?”

Steph replied.

“I mean, the door didn’t do anything for… him.”

She nodded at the mess on the floor.

“I don’t think that his door was broken down if that’s what you mean,”

Davey replied.

“Besides, once one of these creatures has hunted somewhere successfully, they will try again. Any field biologist worth their salt would tell you that.”

Steph ignored the barb and shut the door. She noticed how heavy it was and, although made to look rustic, had heavy metal parts expertly intermingled with the wood. It looked strong. She had not had a chance to examine Roger’s door – why would she have done so anyway – but she found this door looked almost impenetrable. A thought suddenly occurred to her. She looked at the windows.

“How did Kelvin secure the windows?”

she asked.

Davey looked taken aback for a moment. He had been looking around the room and had not expected the question. Nor, Steph suspected, was he prepared for how calmly it was asked, given the circumstances.

“Bulletproof,”

Davey replied, continuing to wander around.

Steph continued to watch him for a moment. She was not sure how much longer he could walk aimlessly around pretending he knew what he was looking for. It was a form of mild shock, she supposed. Even for someone as supposedly calm as Davey, the sight of someone’s limited remains was always going to have some sort of impact on a person. That was not to say that there was no impact on her. There was. She was just able to hide it better due to at least some previous acclimatisation.

“I suppose that Kelvin and the others probably already know about this?”

Steph said another thought crossing her mind.

“What?”

“What happened to Fergus? I expect that people back at the house already know about it?”

“Why would they?”

Davey asked, finally giving up on his nervous pacing and now looking out of the window.

“Well, I assumed there are cameras surrounding each cabin. You have enough of them around the perimeter fencing; it makes sense that you would have them watching over people for safety reasons. More sense than the fence if you had to compare the two.”

“You’d think, wouldn’t you?”

Davey sniffed.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean nobody will know about this yet – it is unlikely at the very least. There are no cameras in here or out there watching the cabin.”

“How come?”

Steph asked, the pitch of her voice rising slightly. Her heart beating a little faster once more.

“Funny thing about people; they don’t really like other people watching their every move.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean the people that agreed to go in the cabins all refused the cameras. Kelvin was pushing for them initially. Claimed it would make things safer – I’m not sure how exactly; most hunts are over before we can even blink. Anyway, everyone refused them, and Kelvin respected their need for privacy. Admired them for not wanting them if anything. Roger was particularly forceful on the issue.”

Steph looked down at the blood again. The fact that it was still wet suggested to her that the kill had been recent enough. She looked out of the window. As she did, she heard Davey’s voice on his walkie-talkie. Davey had been right; nobody had known about what happened.