Jenna crouches so her face is inches from Erica’s. ‘You need help, Renata. What you’re doing – what you’ve done – isn’t right. Putting nail varnish in someone’s luggage, leaving a dead bird outside their door, throwing a rock at them, listening to conversations, bursting into tears, confronting people … You need to see someone when you get back to the UK. Not Tom, a medical professional. Go and see your GP. Tell him how you’ve been feeling and …’ She pauses and draws a sharp breath. She just saw a stretcher, back at the lodge, lit up by a flashlight. She follows the beam as it lands on a couple hugging, half a dozen people standing alone and a dark shape on the ground. Two of them. She squints, trying to make sense of what she’s seeing, then covers her mouth in horror. They’re bodies, lying side by side.

‘What’s happened?’ She looks back at Erica. ‘What’s going on?’

‘You’ve ruined everything. That’s what I came to tell you. Tom and Kate were arguing about you, screaming at each other outside the tent. Everyone inside started complaining, saying they wanted to leave, but I told them not to. I said we weren’t to leave until Tom said the ceremony was over. Some of the others backed me up. We said everyone should stay where they were and stop moaning and crying. But it was ruined. They didn’t want to do it anymore and they pushed past us and left. There was no celebration, no joy, no singing. You ruined it, Jenna, you ruined it all.’

Jenna’s barely listening; she’s watching people congregate around the dark shapes on the ground. A flashlight bounces off a neon strip on someone’s jacket.

‘Erica,’ she asks, unable to tear her eyes away, ‘why are the police here? Why are people lying down?’

‘Because they’re dead.’

Jenna’s heart misses a beat. She swerves around Erica, adrenaline surging through her, ready to run, to help, to do CPR. She’s so focused on the scene of devastation in the distance that she doesn’t notice Erica push back the sleeve of her dressing gown. She doesn’t see the large, weighty rock in her hand. But she feels it, smashing against the base of her skull, catapulting her head forward, knocking her off balance. As she falls, the ground rushes up towards her and the world darkens.

Chapter 50

Now

FRAN