She suddenly sensed someone behind her and glanced back.

Jack stood a few steps away, as if unsure if he should disturb her.

She appreciated his civility, though it irritated her a little, too. Did he think she was that fragile? She nodded to him to join her. She wanted answers, some explanation that would allow her to sleep at night. She hoped he could give it.

He came forward. “I’m sorry for dragging you into this. If I had known-”

“How could you have known?” She turned to study the shoreline as Jack joined her at the rail. A long stretch of silence followed as each tested their footing with the other.

“What do you think happened?” she finally asked. “The explosion. Earlier you had a theory. Something about a dead man’s switch.”

He made a noncommittal sound at the back of his throat. “We’ll need a demolition expert to confirm it. But while you were working here, I inspected the wreckage. Looks like the fuel tank exploded. Maybe triggered by some sort of fail-safe.”

“Your dead man’s switch.”

He nodded. “Someone else knew about that boat. The cargo had to come from somewhere, had to be headed somewhere. After the storm, when no word reached that other party, they must have triggered the fail-safe by radio.”

“To destroy the cargo.”

“And cover things up.”

His words reminded her of her other responsibility. “The animals… how many made it?”

“Unfortunately, the team only had time to ferry off a handful of the animals before the explosion. The parrot, the pair of monkeys, the lamb. They also managed to salvage that clutch of python eggs. But the snake and all the rest were lost.”

“We also have the jaguar cub.”

“That’s right. I hadn’t forgotten. Despite all that happened, there’s another survivor to worry about.”