“Then I’m all for it, you crazy bastard.”

They got out, zipping their coats up against the cold.

“Do we have weapons?” Javier asked.

“Only our wits.”

“So no, then.”

They crossed the street.

“Let’s sneak around back,” said Virgil.

“Good idea,” said Javier. “Put off our horrible deaths by another few minutes.”

“We’re not going to die,” Virgil said, lowering his voice now that they were passing round the side of the house. “If we’re discovered, we’ll just make something up. We’ll improvise.”

“You’re terrible at improvising.”

“Then you’ll improvise.”

“I’ll ask him if he’s found God.”

“Yes,” said Virgil. “Good.”

“Unless you think the mention of God would set him off? Considering who he works for.”

“Okay, we’ll avoid mentioning God. How about if we’re selling something? Like life insurance?”

“Who’s going to buy life insurance from two old bastards like us?”

“We’re not actually selling it, for crying out loud.”

“Still, though … How about if we’re selling encyclopaedias?”

“Fine, whatever.”

“No one buys encyclopaedias anymore,” said a voice right behind them.

Javier yelled and Virgil’s heart almost burst in his chest, and they spun awkwardly as Oscar Moreno walked towards them.

Moreno was all smiles. “People use the internet to find things out these days. Encyclopaedia salesmen would have been a bad cover, gentlemen, even if I didn’t know who you were. Now, you probably hear this all the time, but … but I am such a fan.”

“We know who you are, too,” said Javier. “And if anything happens to us your secret won’t be a secret any longer. There are people who know where we are.”

“I assure you, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You’re a child-killer,” said Virgil.

Moreno’s smile dropped a little. “I would ask you to lower your voice, Mr Abernathy. I wouldn’t go to your house and start flinging insults around, willy-nilly. Yes, I’ve killed children. But not exclusively. I’ve killed all sorts of people over the years.”

“Why me?” Javier asked. “Why’d you take my face?”

Moreno smiled again. “I’ve always loved television. TV trained me, in a way. It showed me how to interact with people, how to form relationships … I studied it. My kind, we’re not a social species, but there was always a part of me that wanted … a connection, I suppose. And now I have it. I have a family, because of you and your wonderful show and all the wonderful shows like it.”

“But why me?”

“I came to Desolation Hill a long time ago,” said Moreno. “I was nobody. I was this thing they called the Narrow Man. I had a simple purpose that I fulfilled. And I fulfilled it for many years. But I was missing something. I was missing an identity.