‘I’m sorry,’ she said, ‘but I don’t want my picture in the papers.’
‘Why on earth not. Unless Sam . . .’
‘It’s nothing to do with Dad. It’s because of my mother.’
‘Are you serious, Vinny? I explained in words a child should understand how vital it is that this find should have all the publicity we can manage. What on earth can your mother object to? Is it some kind of religious hang-up?’
‘No, of course not. But it’s private. I’m sorry.’
‘You’re sorry. Let me tell you, Vinny, that I have put myself out very considerably to accommodate your visit. It was ridiculous of Sam in the first place to suggest taking time off in the middle of a working season. As it was I had to arrange everyone’s schedules to allow you as much time with him as possible. And now when I make a straightforward and harmless request for your co-operation over something of real importance, you tell me first that you’ve got a headache and then that your mother wouldn’t like it.’
He stared at her again and this time she found she had to look away.
‘You seemed to have no objection earlier,’ he said. ‘When I was talking about the arrangements for tomorrow. Well, here’s your father. Let’s see if he can make you see sense.’
Vinny turned. Dad was trudging up the slope. Beyond him some of the others had stopped work and were watching. They were too far off to hear anything, but they could see. When Dr Hamiska erupted he let everyone know.
‘Perhaps you can tell me what this is about, Sam,’ he said. ‘Vinny has come to me with some story about her mother not wanting her photographed.’
‘You’ve got hold of the wrong end of the stick,’ said Dad.
‘You’d better explain.’
Dad blew out an unhappy breath and shook his head.
‘I’m afraid it’s a private matter between Vinny and her mother,’ he said.
‘I find that hard to accept.’
‘Do you imagine Vinny would say she didn’t want to be photographed, knowing you would like her to be, if she didn’t have a very good reason?’
‘If she has a reason she can tell me and I will treat it with full confidentiality. Do you suppose I have nothing better to do with my time than broadcast schoolgirl secrets to the world?’
‘Oh, for heaven’s sake . . . !’
‘I am trying to be reasonable, Sam. It seems to me that it is you and your daughter who are being unreasonable – in fact, deliberately obstructive, as you have tended to be all along.’
‘What on earth are you talking about?’
‘I am talking about the fact that for reasons I can only guess at you have done your best, both overtly and surreptitiously, to undermine and thwart the objects of this expedition.’
‘I still can’t imagine what you’re talking about.’
‘Then I will give you instances. From the first you attempted to persuade your colleagues that we were on a wild-goose chase. You appeared to take your duties so casually that you suggested leaving us for a fortnight to take your daughter on safari. You surveyed this site and reported it of no special interest, and when I recently proposed taking another look at it you did your best to dissuade me. Then, as soon as I made a find of crucial importance, you suggested setting up a fly-camp here so that you could work at it unsupervised. You then proceeded to carry out your excavations, on so-called professional grounds, with such painstaking slowness that . . .’
‘That’s unfair!’ shouted Vinny. The cry had burst out of her. Dad glanced at her and shook his head. Dr Hamiska ignored her.
‘With my own ears,’ he said, ‘I heard you attempting to conceal from me that you had uncovered another hominid fossil. Even now, with your daughter’s help, you are attempting to see that our find is denied the publicity it needs for me to raise the funds to conduct a full-scale excavation of this site next year. Do you need me to point out what the pattern of your behaviour seems to add up to?’
Dad shrugged and half turned away.
‘What conceivable motive . . . ?’ he began, and stopped.
‘I’m afraid your motive is perfectly obvious, Sam. I deeply regret it. But in the meanwhile you are suspended from all further work on this site. I want you to collect your own personal equipment and then not set foot inside the marker-posts. The same must apply to your daughter. You can pack up the fly-camp and return the jeep to the main camp. We will discuss your position after Wishart’s visit.’
‘It needn’t wait till then,’ said Dad. ‘I’m resigning now.’
Dr Hamiska nodded indifferently and turned back to measuring the rock-strata. Vinny grabbed Dad’s arm as she felt herself swaying. He steadied her against his side.
‘I’ll be all right in a mo,’ she whispered. ‘Sorry. OK.’
He kept his hand under her arm and helped her down the slope. She still felt sick, but the world felt steady and solid again. Everyone was watching. Dr Wessler was waiting by Dad’s trench.
‘Had a bit of a bust up, then?’ he said, smiling thin-lipped.
‘I’m off,’ said Dad. ‘Just come and check what I pack, will you? Tell him I’ll have my notes in order for someone to take over by tomorrow midday. Nikki, just watch Vinny pack up, will you? Look through her things. I want witnesses we’re not taking anything off the site. Thanks.’
Vinny had very little to pack. As she straightened and hitched her satchel on to her shoulder she saw Dr Hamiska still at the cliff face, measuring and taking notes, deliberately ignoring the scene below.
‘Got what he wants,’ whispered Nikki. ‘Look how he’s standing.’
‘But he really needs Dad. Everyone says so.’
‘Not any more, maybe.’
‘Ready?’ called Dad. ‘How are you feeling? Let’s have your bag.’
‘I’m all right now.’
They started down the hill.
‘Oh, Dad, I’m sorry,’ said Vinny, as soon as they were out of earshot of the others. ‘It was my fault, I shouldn’t have made a fuss.’
‘No it wasn’t. Though I don’t think he was planning for it to happen just yet, not until after tomorrow, but he saw his chance and took it.’
‘I don’t understand. And Nikki said he’d got what he wanted.’
‘That’s about it. I hadn’t realized. I imagined he kept winding me up because he couldn’t help it.’
‘I still don’t understand. May Anna said you really needed each other. She said he found the fossils and you worked out what they meant and people believed you.’
‘That’s a way of putting it. Even now Joe knows I’m not going to try and persuade anyone that he hasn’t found what he has found. I will confirm that if the geological data work out he’s made what may be the most important early hominid find since Johansson discovered Lucy in 1974. With that he can be confident of raising funds for a full-scale expedition next year. He can pick his helpers, and that means that when it’s over he can have his name at the head of the papers describing the finds, without anyone else on the same footing. If he’d kept me on the team he’d pretty well have been forced to print my name alongside his.’
‘But that’s mean. That’s really mean!’
‘I’m afraid it’s the sort of thing that matters among many scientists. It doesn’t worry me. What does is that now he is going to start putting it around that I had spotted the importance of the site at an early stage and was trying to keep it quiet in the hope that he’d fail to raise the funds for another expedition, and I’d then be able to bring one out myself.’