“So we talk to the friend,” Valkyrie said. “Let’s go.”

They got in the Bentley, drove to the friend’s house and knocked on the door. There was nobody home, so they went back to the Bentley and waited. Skulduggery didn’t move for hours, and Valkyrie fell asleep. Scrutinous sat in the back seat and thought about sharks all night.

Satchel’s friend returned home at ten the next morning. He was a sorcerer but, like Satchel, he wasn’t a very powerful one. He worked nights as a security guard to pay the bills.

“It was a clear day,” he said when Skulduggery asked him how Satchel had died. “The sun was shining. There were no clouds. But Elwood was… panicking. He kept running around, looking up at the sky. He ran into a café, ran right back out again, screaming something about how it didn’t have a ceiling. And then… And then he jerked backwards, flew right off his feet. He was all twisted up, and you could smell burnt hair.”

“He was electrocuted?” Skulduggery asked.

“Yeah. Apparently. The doctors said it was a massive electrical current. But I didn’t see anything, and he was running across the park when it happened. There was nothing electrical around.”

“Did you find a note?” asked Valkyrie.

The man frowned. “What? How did you know about that?”

“Then you did find a note.”

“Yes. Well, we think. A few days after he died, Elwood’s brother found something written on the back of a receipt. It said ‘I’m going to be struck by lightning’.”

Skulduggery nodded. “Did Elwood have any enemies?”

“I… suppose. I mean, doesn’t everyone?”

“Any enemies he had recently made?”

“Oh. Oh, yeah. One. Davit Maybury. They were friends once.”

“What happened?”

“Ah, I don’t know. The usual.”

“I don’t quite believe you,” said Skulduggery.

“Look, Maybury’s a weirdo, OK? He comes out with these weird things, and he looks… odd. He’s got crazy eyes, you know? But Elwood grew up with him, they were childhood friends, and then… Elwood kind of stole Maybury’s girlfriend.”

“Ah.”

“I suppose it was kind of a sucky thing to do. Maybury found it hard to talk to girls, because of his whole weirdness thing, and he finally found one who liked him and Elwood comes in and sweeps her off her feet… You think Maybury had something to do with his death?”

“Perhaps,” Skulduggery said. “Do you know where we could find him? We just want a little chat.”

Davit Maybury’s house was quite nondescript from the outside. Skulduggery knocked a few times, then kicked the door in. It was quite a nondescript house from the inside, too. Skulduggery went first, hand open and fingers splayed.

“The air hasn’t been disturbed for weeks,” he said. “It doesn’t look like anybody’s home.”