I wolfed that breakfast down in about three mouthfuls and was out on the kerb with my kitbag in under ten minutes. Langdon could turn up at any time: I wanted us to be gone before he did. And we were. The cab Xander had organised turned up promptly, we made it to the airport without a hitch, and Joseph was exactly where he’d promised Amelia he’d be, waiting outside the departures terminal. The sight of him with his ironed jeans and his pens in his top pocket and that crisp line cut into his hair threw me back to the start of the trip, before anything had gone seriously wrong. I’d just saved Dad’s briefcase from the incompetent thieves on their clapped-out motorcycle when we met him. Dad had been pleased with me. He’d be more grateful still when I found him and Mum. Something about Joseph’s face, its open smile of recognition when he spotted us, made me feel light on my feet, ready and optimistic. He spirited us through the airport to his charter plane. From where I was sitting in the seat behind him I could see him running through his preflight checks, toggling levers, setting dials, jotting down readings and flipping switches with precise and confident fingers. That buoyed me up too. This guy knew what he was doing. I had a problem to solve, but somehow, with Amelia’s help, I’d work it out.

45.

Marcel picked us up in the same battered pickup we’d used for our safari. I winced at the memory of Innocent’s cheerful face in the cracked wing mirror. Without him, there was room up front for both Amelia and me, a comfier ride than sitting on our packs in the dusty open tray, but I hesitated before climbing in. It didn’t seem right. Amelia had no such qualms; she jumped up next to Marcel without hesitating.

The guide seemed genuinely pleased to see us. The fact we were without Caleb might have had something to do with it, and he chatted away with Amelia as we churned through the traffic. They spoke in French but I got the gist of what they were saying. Marcel wanted to know how Xander was doing. Amelia told him. Then she asked whether anything bad had happened to the silverback in the wake of the tragedy. No, Marcel said. All the rangers knew Innocent would never have wanted that. Everyone understood the accident wasn’t the gorilla’s fault. As far as I could tell, the guide stopped short of saying whether everyone also knew who had actually been to blame.