Sarah could not go to the lodge. Each time she thought about the place her mind veered away, suppressing the dreadful darkness that had formed in the centre of her consciousness. Only Anthony had the courage to go there. He had arranged for the removal and burial of Kipchoge and Ole Sunde, after the police were finished with the site. It was Anthony who persuaded Hannah to attend their funerals. She stood stiffly at the graveside, trapped in the straitjacket of her own grief, clutching Sarah by the hand as the simple coffins were lowered into the earth and Anthony made the speeches of praise and gratitude expected and required. But as the last shovels of rich soil were levelled on to the fresh graves, Hannah reached out to the bereaved families, embracing the women and presenting them with gifts of food and money. They pressed her hands and murmured in their soft voices, while the children caught at her skirt and looked up at her in wide-eyed silence, recognising her terrible sadness. The lodge was closed up until Hannah could decide what to do about it. But all of Langani’s dwindling savings lay in the abandoned structure, and already weeds and cobwebs had begun to encroach on the place that had represented Piet’s dream.

The police had no information that might throw light on a motive for the killings, or lead to Simon’s whereabouts. The young Kikuyu seemed to have vanished into the surrounding forest. Police and trackers had followed his trail into the near-impenetrable bush at the base of the ridge, and there all traces had disappeared. He had been clever, Hardy said, in the way that he had used the terrain to cover his passing, moving across the land without leaving any mark. The policeman’s frustration was evident. He had questioned the workforce at Langani and on surrounding farms, but they could not, or would not, give him any leads. Simon had kept to himself, and had never talked to anyone about his background. Enquiries at the mission in Nyeri had resulted in few details. When the police tried to track down the man who had brought Simon to the mission as a small child, they found that the name he had given was false. There were many children who had no knowledge of the people who had brought them to the orphanage. The boy had been a model student, quiet and hard-working, anxious to learn and to advance himself. The priests who had taught him were mystified. Simon Githiri was an enigma.

‘We don’t know that he’s finished, Jeremy,’ Anthony said. ‘He could be waiting, planning more atrocities. Hannah’s terrified that he’ll come back. She doesn’t say it aloud, but it’s in her mind all the time, and in Sarah’s too. As long as he’s free, they’ll have no peace of mind or security.’