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camp by the DC’s team. Photos. A large notebook with a red plastic cover decorated with drawings. The Book Of Days was printed across the cover. It was the students’ camp journal. He had alreadyread it, but he picked it up again and flicked through, stopping at the last entry, the day of the disappearances,
    24 February. Nathan (Antelopes).
    Stuck in camp. No one gets to move! Anna, Matt, Joe NOWHERE! S is blaming everyone else (surprise surprise). Really BIG argument with B. B wants to call for help on radio – S says he’s making a fuss about nothing! B won (for a change). Good thing he came back with the Buffalos from the hot springs, so there’s more of us and maybe NOW they’ll let us go and look.
    Everyone’s calling! More later . . .
    There wasn’t. After that, The Book Of Days was blank. There was no mention of the disappearance of Ella’s sister.
    He turned back a page to the entry on the day before. Different writer.
    23 February. Tamara (Buffalos).
    We all had to get up in the dark for breakfast at first light and the Buffalos were supposed to be ready to leave for the trip to Lengoi Hot Springs but then Guess Who? got thrown off at the last minute! Miss Strutton picked out Katra and Andy and Phil from the Antelopes to go instead, and they hadn’t got packed, so we hung about, played cards, got bored, got more bored, played more cards. When they were ready eventually it was them and the rest of theBuffalos plus Mr Boyd and Miss Milton and Mr Derby and Tomis, to guide us. Mr Derby’s got to help the driver, David, by driving one of the trucks, so I hope he knows what he’s doing! It’s going to take five or even six hours to get there and it’ll be very bumpy because we aren’t going on any road and we have to cross the river and there’s no bridge or anything so we have to find the right bit or we’ll get stuck in the river sand, and we had to pack lots of extra rope and shovels and sacks and planks in case we need them for pulling us out. I’ll write all about it when we get back.
    There was no record of who had given this to the police. But it must have been a student: this was definitely not for teachers’ eyes. Murothi glanced further back through several pages, and a name stopped him. Anna. The vanished girl. He hadn’t registered the entry before, and was at once annoyed with himself.
    He read it now, with extra care.
    Second night: bat alert in our tent. The way Candy and Janice shrieked you’d have thought it was an attack by lions. Tomis got it out, and in the morning there were bat droppings all over, poor thing must have been terrified. Then C and J fouled up the stream with a bathload of SHAMPOO AND SOAP. Mr Boyd told them to clear it up. Miss Strutton said it was INTERFERENCE WITH HERPLAN FOR THE DAY. So the froth sat there drying in the reeds, filthy and grotesque. Mr Boyd was volcanic! He stomped off to do it himself. Charly went to help. So a few of us gave them a hand. Miss Strutton said it was a BREACH OF INSTRUCTIONS and went round with a face like a squashed tomato. She’s plotting PUNISHMENTS now. For Mr B too.
    Murothi reread it several times. Then he flipped through the pages, looking for any other comments from her. None.
    None from Joe or Matt, either.
    He was getting a picture of something prickly and unsettled that he had not felt so strongly before. But there was nothing tangible, nothing he could grasp as a direction to follow.
    There was another book, black, hardback, written tersely and methodically and always in the same handwriting, called CHOMLAYA LOG. It detailed the members of the Antelopes and Buffalos respectively, their activities and whereabouts each day.
    He checked it for the date of The Book Of Days entry by Tamara – 23 Feb:
    BUFFALOS
    Leaders: Ian Boyd, Helen Milton, Keith Derby.
    Departure 0700.
    Overnight camp at Lengoi Hot Springs. Return due 24/2, 16.00.
    ANTELOPES
    Leaders: Elisa Strutton, Kathleen Hopper, Lawrence Sharp. Remain at Chomlaya