‘The police will be back in the morning,’ Piet said. ‘Jeremy Hardy wants to go through everything with us. The staff have all been questioned now. He’s still banking on the idea that it was someone with a grudge, or radical political ideas.’

‘This can’t be any of our regular watu,’ Hannah protested. ‘It has to be some madman, passing through. Everyone is afraid. I can feel it. Simon is terrified they’ll come back for another round, and he’s not the only one. I wouldn’t be surprised if he leaves.’

He had been hit across the head as he tried to take a vehicle and go for help. For some time he had lain unconscious, locked into the office. But he had come around, and when the first shot was fired he had used a heavy paperweight to break the glass in the French windows leading out to the verandah. His hands were cut and bleeding and he had twisted his ankle as he ran to the vehicle. Since that treacherous night he had barely spoken a word, and his normally cheerful face was grey with apprehension.

‘Han, I know this is hard,’ Piet said, hunkering down beside his sister. He knew that she was trying to disguise her fear, but he had seen the way she jumped at the slightest noise, how her eyes darted back and forth from the door to the window in the sitting room, how she hung on to the arms of her chair and made sure that she was not sitting with her back to the kitchen entrance. ‘Let’s ring Ma now. It would be good to talk to her.’

‘Look, I’m sorry. We have to get through this, and I’m making a fool of myself,’ she said, ashamed of her weakness. ‘Don’t pay any attention to me. It’s my first night home and I have to get used to the fact that a terrible thing happened, but it won’t ever happen again. I have to find a way to put it out of my mind.’ She stopped, realising that he was trying to tell her something. ‘What did you say?’

‘Han, I haven’t spoken to Ma and Pa since the robbery. I tried twice while you were in Nairobi, but there was no reply from the house, and then I felt it could wait, this bad news. We should tell them now. And ask them if they have any plans to come home.’

She looked at him for a moment, and then she cried out with relief. He was near to tears himself, as he put his arms around her.

‘Yes. It’s what I want above everything else.’ She found a handkerchief and wiped the last tears away. ‘You dial, Piet. Let’s do it now.’

‘We’re going to be fine, you know, Sis.’ Piet’s voice was reassuring. ‘Just fine.’