But as George’s flashlight beam, then Kate’s, caught Chris’s face he seemed full of genuine concern and he was quick to say, “Didn’t you find her?”

It was Kate who answered. “We found her shoe, and we found blood.”

George added, “And we saw where it dragged her off.”

Chris shook his head, upset, perhaps thinking he was responsible in some way because he’d been the last to see her. At the same time, a clamor of voices broke out around the fire, high-pitched and angry and urgent, people who wanted to believe something could still be done, that she couldn’t be lost, this girl whose absence they hadn’t even noticed. Tom thought Joel might intervene in his usual fashion to restore order but he was talking to Nick and Chloe, their voices just a part of the general hubbub.

They walked back into the camp and Kate went to sit next to Emma, the two of them immediately falling into conversation, Kate wiping away tears as she spoke, Emma putting her arm around her.

Tom nodded to Alice and sat next to her, and then she said, “Things were a bit tense after you left.” He looked at her and she smiled. “I just wanted Joel to tell the truth.”

“And did he?”

Her smile broke down, grudgingly. “Yeah, I have to admit, he took the blame. By the way, Jess and Freddie want to come—hope you don’t mind.”

He looked across the fire. He didn’t know them or anything about them, except they’d been an inseparable couple for the last year. They were both slightly odd looking, irregularly featured, but somehow looked good together. At the moment they were holding hands and both gazing down at their intertwined fingers, as though they were able to communicate through that contact alone. He envied them a little, their understated intimacy, their completeness as a couple.

“I don’t mind if they come. It’s not up to me anyway.”

The smile came back and she said, “Any more thoughts on when to leave?”

“I was thinking daybreak, day after tomorrow.”

“Good, I was hoping you’d say that. Three days might be too long.”