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A knock on the door said Steph’s decision time was up. She noted that she was still standing up. Ashley narrowed his eyes at her. She sat down. She was not sure why she sat down. Was it the threat in Ashley’s eyes? Was it the need for self-preservation that clawed at her? Whatever it was, she supposed her decision had been made.

Ashley nodded at Roger who opened the door. Steph could not see Kelvin behind the door due to where she was sitting. However, she could hear the voices clearly enough.

“Have you taken care of business then?”

Roger asked. Steph couldn’t understand how he could keep his voice so steady. It was as if everything around him was perfectly commonplace. She tried to remember what he had said his life had been like before he had come to take part in Kelvin’s crazy games.

“Everything is under control now,”

came Kelvin’s reply.

“And where is the lion?”

“Currently on its way somewhere where it can’t do any further harm here. Probably for the best at present. I’m about to do the same with the bear.”

“I see.”

“Are you going to let us in or not?”

came a different voice. It was Martina’s.

“We saw wolves hovering around on our way here.”

Roger stepped aside. In pushed Kelvin followed by Martina. Steph found herself wholly unprepared for what followed. Despite all that she had already seen, there was something far more disturbing, far colder and far more soul-shattering about what she saw Ashley do.

In one clean fluid movement, he stepped behind Kelvin and put a hand over his mouth. The image that seared itself onto Steph’s memory was not Martina’s gaping mouth as she screamed, it was the way Kelvin’s eyes bulged in realisation and fear. He had no time to bring his arms up in defence as Ashley raised the knife, slicing through his neck. Rich blood gushed from the wound as Kelvin collapsed to his knees clutching at his throat in a pitifully futile attempt to stem the flow. Then he fell forward. Then he stopped moving.

Steph’s stomach churned. She was only dimly aware that Martina had stopped screaming. Her own blood seemed to have left her face as quickly as Kelvin’s had spilt – her face was as white as a sheet.

“Well, that was suitably unpleasant,”

Roger said, grimacing.

Martina’s head snapped around at Roger, then towards the door. Ashley must have been watching because he shut the door behind him and then stood blocking it. Martina looked at Steph, her eyes wild. She took a couple of steps towards her. Steph braced herself.

She noticed Martina glance at the window. Steph turned to face the window too. There was only the truck. Then she heard darting footsteps followed by a tired groan.

Steph turned in time to see Martina springing for the bedroom door, with Ashley striding after her. The door swung open. Martina leapt inside just as Ashley got there to jam a foot in the doorway. But the door never swung shut. Steph assumed Martina was going for the window, but Ashley didn’t have time to enter the room before another scream bounced around the cabin.

Ashley stepped in.

“Ah,” he said.

Frowning, Steph got to her feet and slowly made her way over. By the time she had pushed gently past Ashley, Martina’s scream had given way to a quiet sob. A sob of resignation. She was looking at the bed.

Steph followed her gaze. Then she shut her eyes, hands rubbing across her face hoping that what she saw would be gone when she looked once more. It was still there: Calum’s lifeless body, a pillow where his sleeping head should have been visible.

Leaving Ashley to watch over Martina, Steph slipped back out of the room. She stared at the floor in an attempt to calm her mind just a little. She couldn’t control what she had just seen but she could control what she was seeing now. The floor, at least, was bland. There was nothing to it. It was simple – some wooden planks doing the job of offering people a platform to walk on. Nothing more. Nothing less. There she could make sense of things.

“Why?”

Steph asked, not looking up.

There was a thoughtful pause before Roger sighed and said.

“He knew too much, I suppose.”

Steph heard a heavy slump in front of her. She looked up to see Roger in a chair. He looked different now somehow. His facial expression seemed less warm. It was not necessarily colder, but it had definitely lost some of the friendliness that Steph had associated with him.

“Kelvin put you up to it?”

she asked.

Roger looked up, a pitying smile on his face.

“Not exactly, no. You see, Calum was working for me.”

“You?”

“Yes, me,”

Roger said, a small smile returning to his face.

“There is a lot you don’t know about me. Maybe it is for the best that you don’t. It would be simpler if you just knew me as Kelvin’s competitor.”

Steph looked at the body lying in a pool of blood. Roger followed suit before turning back with a grimace.

“Was his competitor.”

“But… but that doesn’t explain Calum?”

“Ah, I see. Well, there were two reasons for Calum’s death, under the umbrella of knowing too much. Firstly, I had to take him out of the equation because he knew who I was to some extent. That’s not necessarily so bad in and of itself…”

“But you won’t tell me who you are?”

Steph interrupted.

“More for your own protection,”

Roger smiled.

“Anyway, he knew who I was, and for all Kelvin’s flaws, he was as good at finding out who people were as I am… maybe even better at getting information from them. He was very clean when it came to that. Eventually, he would have put two and two together as to who had helped Ashley and Baz – I believe you had the pleasure of meeting Baz before his death – gain entry into the place. The smokescreen Michael provided wouldn’t have lasted long. Of course, this was before I knew that Ashley was going to take care of Kelvin. It certainly was not the plan. A quick in and out was the plan.”

“And the second reason?”

Steph asked, disgusted by her own curiosity.

“He was a loose end,”

Roger replied simply.

This took Steph aback. After the more reasonable first explanation, the second seemed a cop-out.

Roger seemed to read Steph’s thoughts as he then said.

“I wouldn’t worry about him. He was not the best of people. He killed someone himself, did you know? Hit and run on a pregnant lady in the Surrey Hills; why he came here actually. It’s amazing what someone will let slip after too much to drink.”

Behind her, Steph heard Martina being guided into the room by Ashley. She vaguely heard some sort of obscenity being thrown Ashley’s way but wasn’t really paying attention.

“What will you do now?”

she asked, her heart beginning to race at the fear of the answer.

Roger put all his fingers together in front of him.

“I suppose, we take Martina.”

At this, Martina stopped sobbing and thumping Ashley’s chest and 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 someone could 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.”