‘I’m so excited to be here,’ Alan says as they walk arm in arm along the paving stones that run the length of the chalets. ‘I literally can’t wait for the sweat lodge experience. I’ve been dreaming about it. I’m even okay with cutting off my hair and my hair is literally my best feature.’ He runs his free hand through his curls. ‘I’ll probably look like Grant Mitchell without it but, honestly, I’m not bothered. Have you picked out a name for your rebirthing?’ He doesn’t wait for her to answer. ‘I’m trying to decide between a couple of names. I really like the name Leaf but I think that suits someone thin and’ – he laughs ruefully – ‘so not me. I thought maybe Maximus and I could be Maxi for short but I’m just asking for trouble with that name, looking like this. You know, Maximus Fatus. Can you imagine the comments I’d get on social media? But if I get the name right I could like, totally reinvent myself. Once my hair’s grown back obviously. But just like, how cool would it be to introduce yourself to someone and they’re like, “Hi, I’m Adrian or whatever,” and I’d be like, “Hi, I’m—”’

He draws breath as Jenna stops walking. ‘Oh, right. Is this your chalet? You’re sharing with Erica, aren’t you? I really like her. I think she knows some of the cast of Made in Chelsea but – oh holy crap, what’s that?’

Finally, he’s noticed what Jenna has been staring at for the last couple of seconds. Lying on the ground, just outside the closed door to her chalet, with its wings outspread and its guts strewn over the paved patio, is a dead bird.

Alan covers his mouth with his hands. ‘The poor thing must have flown into your door and killed itself.’

Jenna’s gaze flicks upwards to the wooden slats of the door, gapped to allow air to circulate into the room. Birds don’t fly into solid closed doors. They fly into glass.

‘That’s not what happened,’ she says.

‘Hey?’

‘Look closer.’

Alan tentatively crouches then gags into his hands and turns away.

Maggots, crawling around in the bird’s burst intestines and wriggling around on the ground. The bird didn’t just die. It’s been dead for a while. And it didn’t put itself outside her door.

Chapter 23

Now

KATE