“For when the answers matter.”
Her gaze stayed forward, but the pulse in her throat was still running a little high from the elephant. Not panic. Residual current. Adrenaline burning itself down.
Most guests came out rattled.
She came out sharper.
The lodge appeared above the trees ten minutes later, low stone and dark timber against a pale line of sky. Staff moved across the service yard carrying crates from the supply truck. The smell of baking bread drifted from the kitchen vents and caught under the metallic tang of the service yard and engine heat. It was a jarring shift—from the raw scent of survival to the smell of five-star hospitality.
Juliette looked at the buildings, then at the perimeter fencing beyond them, then at the service road running down toward the western gate.
The jeep rolled to a stop in front of the dining terrace.
I cut the engine.
Neither of us moved immediately.
Juliette stepped down first. Red dirt marked the hem of her trousers. A strand of hair had pulled loose from whatever arrangement had held it in place that morning and sat against her cheek in the wind.
She turned back toward me. “Do they always do that?”
“Elephants?”
“Decide whether you’re worth the effort.”
“Often.”
“And people?”
I held her eyes a second too long, looking for the punchline. There wasn't one. She was just waiting for the data.
The driver’s door shut harder than necessary when I climbed out. “Less predictably.”
She watched me a beat longer than she needed to, then nodded once and turned toward the terrace.
Lunch service hadn’t started for the rest of the guests yet. Juliette took the chair with the clearest line of sight to the valley.
I remained standing.
“You don’t have to sit,” she said, unscrewing the water bottle. “But if you hover through lunch, people will assume I’m under investigation.”
“They’d be wrong.”
“Then save your reputation.”
I sat opposite her.
Juliette drank half the bottle in one go, set it down, then opened the notebook again.
“You never switch off, do you?” I said.
She wrote one line before answering. “Do you?”
“No.”
“That’s what I thought.”
The waiter returned with coffee for her and tea for me without asking. Efficient staff. Good memory. Better instincts than most city hotels.
