Mum was rocking on her heels beside me, looking from Langdon to Dad with her mouth open. The shape of the problem, a locomotive bearing down on me through the mist, was coming into focus.

Amelia got there first. ‘I don’t believe it,’ she said to Dad. ‘Except I do. You were in on the whole thing.’

‘Come again?’ said Xander.

‘Jack’s dad here, together with his brother, had himself and Janine kidnapped on purpose.’

‘But why?’ I still couldn’t fathom it.

‘Money, probably.’ Amelia was right in Dad’s face, sneering up at him. ‘I bet you’ve an interest in Langdon’s mines, haven’t you?’

‘You don’t know what you’re talking about,’ said Dad coldly.

His reserve was supposed to be dismissive, but I could see the lie behind it. So could Mum. With one quick step she arrived in front of Dad and struck him across the face. The slap sounded like the crack of a whipped towel. It stunned Dad. He did nothing in response. Just swayed there for a moment before turning his gaze upon me. He’d never looked at me that way before. No words could have spelled out his hatred as plainly. The air in my lungs turned to ice.

‘Yup,’ said Langdon. ‘We should have kept the lot of them in the jungle. Caleb too. But he had to mess that up with his stupid gorilla baiting. Still, we could simply have rounded them up on their return, as I suggested, even chucked them in the same tank as you.’ He was slurring, drunk, happy to repeat himself. ‘But no, no, no. Your boy was too witless to piece anything together, you insisted. Well, someone pieced it together for him, and he turned Caleb against me while he was at it, and now the whole goddamn operation is blown.’

‘From the very beginning,’ said Mum. ‘The fake storm, the robbery at the airport, the missed meetings. Kidnapping. All of it orchestrated, bought, for one purpose: to undermine me.’

‘You’ll get over it,’ Dad hissed.

‘My own husband,’ whispered Mum.

‘My own father,’ I said.

Mum looked at me funnily when I echoed her like that. Pity filled her face. She moved closer to me, placed both cool hands on the back of my neck, a huge decision weighing in her face. ‘What did you say?’ she said.

‘My own father. I can’t believe he’d do this to you. To us.’

She turned from me to Dad, an utter stillness descending. ‘Nicholas,’ she said, and paused to draw breath.

Amelia, at my side, took hold of my hand. I could feel Xander’s presence in the room too. They were a help. We’d done some good together. I tried to think about that and block out everything else, and I failed. In the near silence, all I could hear was the whine of a mosquito.