Father looked back at Albert, and an expression of utter weariness came into his eyes. He sighed. ‘Very well, Albert. I had thought to perhaps give you more time to settle down before we had this conversation, but I see you will not be satisfied. If you will just give me five minutes, I will be back and tell you what you ask.’ Beckoning to Ucho, he walked out of the tent.

Albert turned to look at June, fixing her with a stony glare. ‘You’ve been awfully quiet all this while.’

‘What do you want me to say?’ she said, but he could see from the spots of colour suddenly appearing on her cheeks that she was stung.

‘Perhaps a word to the effect that maybe it isn’t a fantastic idea to kill an innocent man!’

‘Well, unlike you, I prefer to base my judgement on the facts!’

‘Facts? What facts? A bunch of clumsily planted clues, and you call them facts?’

‘As opposed to your hunch on the basis of which you expect us to ignore everything else, because of course, you’re the only one smart enough to see the light while the rest of us are blundering about!’

‘Well, it’s better—’ He stopped himself. ‘Look, I’m sorry. It wasn’t fair of me to jump down your throat like that. But I’m just so positive that you’ve got the wrong guy.’

‘You don’t know it. You think you know it.’

‘But you know it isn’t right!’

‘Do I?’

‘Don’t you? I’m surprised at you, June.’

‘And I’m surprised at you! I would have thought you’d be more worried about Theo than Marcus.’

‘I am! It’s just that—’

‘That what? You’re feeling a sense of loyalty to him? To Marcus? Don’t be a fool, Albert! We’ve spent all morning discussing nothing but Marcus and I’ve learnt a thing or two about him. Things I wish I hadn’t, too.’

‘Like what?’

‘Like you’re being stupid to waste your time on Marcus. You think, if it was you missing, that he would even bother to ask? No, he wouldn’t, not in a million years! Because there’s only one person Marcus has ever cared about, and that’s himself.’

‘That’s not true. You told me he was like Robert’s—’

‘Robert is long gone.’

‘And what about Theo? You can’t say he doesn’t care about her! Why else would he go hunting for her, and protect her?’

‘Why do you refuse to get it? Because she’s Robert’s granddaughter! For Marcus, it’s only about Robert, it’s always been only about Robert. He was devoted to him, yes, Father said the same thing during our meeting. But the fact is there’s nobody else he’s ever cared about, and that’s the truth.’

‘Really? Ever? And you know the story of his life, now?’