Something about the way she carried herself made Tom see that she was comfortable in this kind of environment. Emma had said as much when Kate had offered to go to the wreckage of the plane.

“You know about this kind of thing, Kate?”

“I guess so, because of my dad.”

“But isn’t your dad a lawyer?”

In fact, he knew that only because it was her father’s firm that had handled Tom’s affairs for him since the death of his parents. It was odd to think of it now, the little connections he had with people he’d never felt connected with at all.

“Yeah, but he grew up in the woods. So we spend most summers up at a cabin my grandpa built in Maine, and we vacation in places like this. I’m no expert, but I know my way around.”

George said, “You’re more of an expert than the rest of us.”

“Don’t feel like one, not right now.” She glanced back at the shoe.

George turned back to Tom and said, “So you think that’s what happened, the jaguar you saw…”

“Or another one, but it seems likely. I think it might have gone in this direction after I spooked it.”

Despite her familiarity with the wild, or maybe because of it, Kate shuddered. “How horrible.”

George shook his head. “I read about them last week. They attack from behind, kill with a single bite to the back of the neck. I know it’s not much, but at least she wouldn’t have known what was happening.”

“But it’s out there now, tearing her to bits, eating her. It’s just horrible.” Her voice seemed to get more agitated as she spoke, a volatile mix of anger and emotion. “How can we stand here calmly discussing it, and Naomi’s dead?”

“We’ve got no choice, Kate. Stay calm or freak out—that’s not a choice.”

Resigned, she said, “I know, I know that. It’s just…” They fell into silence, the jungle closing around them.

Tom thought back again to Naomi asking if she could go with them when they left, how fragile she’d seemed, how afraid. He wondered whether, at some subconscious level, she’d known something would happen to her here and that was why she’d been so eager to leave with him and the others.

Maybe all of them, at some deep-seated level, buried beyond all their conscious thoughts, knew how and when their deaths would come. It made him want to look into the eyes of each one of them to see if he could detect it. It made him want to look into his own eyes to see if it was there too.