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Elin

Parque Nacional, Portugal, October 2021

‘ Zeph ?’ Elin’s thoughts scramble, trying to place the name as she runs over their earlier conversation about Kier.

‘The guy she broke up with before Steed’s wedding. The chef.’

‘But that was dead in the water, wasn’t it? You saw the photo of him in New York. I did too. That was months after Kier came to the park.’

‘It was. I took a good look at him, I told you. He was definitely back in New York after she came out here. He’d posted stuff about his life. Friends, other women. Nothing about Kier.’ Isaac shakes his head. ‘Steed said it ended pretty cleanly.’

Her mind is buzzing. Given what they knew, they hadn’t put much credence on the idea that Kier’s past relationships might be significant to her disappearance, but this completely turns that on its head.

Elin studies Zeph’s photograph. A typical passport photo – unsmiling, a slightly greyish pallor due to the harsh lighting. He’s an attractive man, but the look in his eye tells her that he’s well aware of it.

Leafing through the passport, she stops on the stamped pages. ‘Some of these are a bit faded, but it looks like he came and went a few times.’

‘Visiting Kier?’

‘Seems like it.’

‘When was the last one?’

‘September 2020. Nothing since.’

Isaac’s brow furrows. ‘I don’t get why the camp would have his passport.’

She nods. There are explanations as to why Zeph’s passport might be here – he could simply have lost it. But where they’ve found it, in what is most likely the camp’s van, stashed away in a side locker, troubles her.

‘There are only a few ways of looking at it,’ Elin’s throat tightens. ‘Either Zeph’s still out here, in the park somewhere, has lost it, or there’s a reason he’s not come looking for it. Unless he’s in the business of having multiple passports, which is pretty unlikely, it looks like this is where his journey stopped. No way he could travel back to the US without it. Europe, maybe, but—’

Isaac’s mouth twists as if he’s tasted something sour. ‘What if Zeph came out here looking for Kier, like we have, found something, and the camp then decided they wanted rid of him—’

‘It’s possible,’ Elin says heavily.

Swallowing hard, Isaac looks at her. ‘This … it changes everything, doesn’t it?’

‘Yeah.’ It’s not just what it represented – a certainty that the camp is embroiled in Kier’s life – but what they thought they knew about her disappearance. Knowing Zeph has been out here, probably several times, not only changes why Kier might have come in the first place, but what might have happened while she was here.

It unlocks new possibilities on not only who might have been following her, but on the video footage of her van: Kier’s embrace with Ned. If Kier was involved with Ned and Zeph had followed her out here, it opens up a whole raft of theories about what might have gone down.

They stand for a moment, neither of them saying anything, the shadows across the floor of the van drifting as the breeze ruffles the branches of the trees.

‘I know you’re not keen on involving him,’ Isaac says finally, ‘but once we’re back at the Airstream, I think we need to speak to Steed. Find out what else he knows about Zeph and how the relationship ended.’

Elin pictures Steed up at the clearing, the wild look in his eyes.

‘But the state he’s in, if he gets wind we’ve got a theory …’

‘I’ll keep it broad strokes. Maybe say we’re just double-checking everything we have so far. Consolidating notes.’ Isaac meets her gaze. ‘I’m guessing you don’t want to see him?’

She shakes her head. ‘I need to do some digging about Zeph Dosen.’