With Sparling’s money he could finally make some changes. He could stop being so selfish all the time.

‘What are you thinking about?’ Chloe asked.

‘Nothing really,’ he lied, zoning back. ‘Just this place and how strange it is. I didn’t expect it to be so quiet, you know?’

‘There’s not much night life around these parts.’ She chuckled. ‘I’ll give you that.’

‘Did you get to check out that cottage we saw?’

‘Yeah, but I couldn’t get into it. Whoever boarded it up wanted it left alone. Oh, and lest I forget, there were some markings on its walls.’ She reached over to her backpack and pulled out a sketchbook. ‘Feast your eyes on those.’

They were symbols, or so Ben assumed them to be. He saw only shapes and dots like one of Aoife’s finger paintings. Their meaning and significance, if they held any, was lost on him. Chloe watched his reaction and smiled.

‘Same,’ she said. ‘I’ve no idea what they’re about either. But hey, it gives us something to put in Sparling’s report. I’ll look into them when we get back to the city. Who knows, maybe they do mean something. It could be some secret code that explains why everyone here is odd as shit.’

‘Would you not just take photographs?’ Ben asked as he handed back the sketchbook.

‘Oh, I did. I’ve my phone turned off to save the battery. I can’t exactly trust you to guide us home tomorrow, can I? But I always like to draw what I find. It’s more old-school, like you and your gammy tape recorder.’

‘Hey,’ he replied woundedly, ‘that’s a collector’s item.’

Ben hunched forward, scooped the tuna onto his bread slice and carefully arranged the cheese atop it like fresh linen. He held it before the fire, goading his stomach into growling. The first bite was enough to roll the eyes back into his skull. It was devoured in seconds and his hands began assembling another.

Chloe nodded her approval. ‘Do you reckon you and…’ Here she hesitated. ‘What was her name, Tess?’

‘Jessica,’ he corrected her. ‘She doesn’t work on a ranch.’

‘Do you reckon ye can work it out?’

Ben chewed thoughtfully over the question, ‘There’s really nothing to work out,’ he replied, smiling sadly with a mouthful. ‘We’ve absolutely nothing in common, except for Aoife.’

‘Was there ever any talk of, you know, an abortion?’ Chloe asked.

‘No,’ he replied, swallowing hard to keep the tuna from jumping up his throat.

If Ben had had his way, Aoife would never have been born. It made him queasy now to imagine his life had Jess listened to him; how pointless it could have been.

‘What about you,’ Ben asked, ‘any partner on the scene?’

‘No time. Besides, partners only slow me down.’