‘You’re obsessed with this fucking report.’

Ben spread out his arms. ‘It’s why we’re in this shithole, isn’t it?’

‘Come on,’ she said angrily, ‘I’m hungry and tired, and you’re making me cranky.’

He held up his hands in surrender. ‘My apologies, Ms Coogan.’

Chloe picked up the pace. Ben’s calves ached as he tried to keep by her side. She had obviously dropped her brave front somewhere along the path. It was kinder to keep her distracted than draw attention.

‘Did you find that church you were after?’ he asked, breathless already.

Chloe likely guessed what he was doing and followed his lead.

‘I sure did,’ she replied. ‘It’s in good nick, even though its roof is missing and the old brambles could do with a bit of a trimming. But I’ve been in worse. There’s some weird shit there that I think might interest our boy Sparling.’

‘What kind of weird shit?’

‘Oh, does Mr Historian have a sudden interest in archaeology now?’ she replied, nudging into him as they walked.

‘I do when weird shit is involved.’

‘Well, all of the religious iconography has been desecrated,’ she said. ‘There were carvings of angels on its walls and someone’s taken the time to chip all their faces off. And by the altar I found the arse of a stone cross. It must have been a serious size back in its day, I’d say. That’s also been destroyed.’

‘Jesus,’ Ben said, rubbing his cold palms together.

‘I’m sure if he was there, then he got hacked into pieces too.’

‘So they tore the building apart and then abandoned it?’ he asked.

‘Oh, they didn’t abandon it. Someone still goes there.’

‘That’s not what I was told. The villagers don’t even like to talk about the church. Actually, they don’t really like to talk about anything. Not to me anyway.’

Chloe aimed her torch over the wall. They hadn’t strayed too far from where they first set foot on the path that afternoon, or so Ben thought. He tried to picture the map in his head to fathom their whereabouts, but the dark was too disorientating. It hemmed them in on all sides like a tunnel in the catacombs.

‘I think this is it,’ Chloe announced.

Ben lugged his feet over to the wall. ‘Can’t we just camp anywhere?’

‘Check it out,’ she said, on her tiptoes, reaching an arm around his neck. ‘This is where we’re camping!’