‘Christ,’ said Chloe, sitting beside me in the front passenger seat. She was staring off in the direction of the trawler herself. I glanced to the side and saw she was pressing the heels of both hands against her eyes. ‘I think I’m hallucinating from sheer fatigue.’

‘You need to get some proper rest,’ I said, squeezing her hand as I drove.

‘I was thinking,’ said Rozalia from behind us, ‘about what must have happened after Casey chased your predecessor out of Wallace’s place. Casey must have put the fear of God into Wallace.’

‘I was thinking that too,’ I said. ‘Wallace, according to my predecessor, was terrified of Casey.’

‘God damn,’ said Rozalia. ‘They must have killed Nadia. I’m sure of it. They must have known she had suspicions about the other Jerry’s death. They must have.’

‘What about the Patriots themselves?’ I suggested. ‘One of their own agents could have sabotaged the SUV that I was in with her and Oskar . . .’

Rozalia shot me an angry look. ‘You really believe that after what you’ve just read? Who the hell else would Greenbrooke have got to do his dirty work but Wallace and Casey? Who else but those two would have known enough about how the bee-brains work to sabotage the SUV the way they did?’ She started to weep. ‘And when I think of all the times I saw them in the Hotel du Mauna Loa, acting like nothing was wrong, taking me for a fool because I didn’t know what they’d done . . .’

‘I guess you ought to know,’ I said to Chloe. ‘Rozalia and I took a trip back to the alternate where Nadia died. We no longer have any doubt that her death was anything but an accident.’ I filled her in on the details, her hand to her mouth the whole time.

‘We need to find Casey’s transfer stage,’ Chloe said quietly, once I had finished. ‘He can’t have taken it far. The island’s only so big, and there are only so many places to hide something like that.’

‘Hey,’ said Rozalia from behind us, a touch of alarm in her voice. ‘Look.’

The black bulk of Rano Kau rose up ahead on the island’s southernmost tip, the road curving to the west as it followed the coast towards town. I had been so deep in my own thoughts that I had failed to notice the thick pall of smoke rising above the rooftops and carried seawards by the wind.

‘It looks like it’s coming from somewhere near Wallace’s place,’ said Chloe, her voice tight.