‘We’re done, Wonk. If you’re in the lobby at oh-nine-hundred tomorrow morning either myself or Jonesy will take you out on patrol.’

He tapped me on the chest.

‘You may want to bulk up a little. The cold can really suck out the reserves.’

I thanked him, told him I’d stuff myself stupid with whatever food was to hand, and he walked off across the lobby towards the elevators.

‘How are you getting on with the big fella?’ asked Lloyd once Fodder had gone.

‘Okay, I think. He kissed me on the ear when we were embracing.’

‘I shouldn’t read anything into it. He does that to everyone. Were there many nightwalkers alive in the basement this morning?’

‘Three. I met up with Aurora down there. Did that happen wholly by chance?’

I was looking for a sign that he’d been rumbled. That he was somehow involved.

‘Why would she plan that?’ he asked, seemingly without the telltale sign I was looking for.

‘I don’t know.’

‘If this is a Toccata/Aurora politics issue, there’s one rule,’ he said. ‘Don’t get caught in the middle. How did you get along with Toccata?’

‘I think she hates me – and no one told me that she and Aurora were the same person.’

‘I thought everyone knew,’ he said. ‘That would explain why you took the clinically insane decision to off-season with Aurora.’

‘You heard about that?’

‘No one’s talking about much else on the Open Network. There’s also a rumour going around that someone was killed in the Pleasure Gardens just now. Is that true?’

I took a deep breath and told Lloyd what had happened out in the snow, behind the museum, every detail. He’d lived the Winter for over thirty seasons, had been there when Ichabod was taken; I wanted to know what he thought.

‘She’s back,’ he said once I’d finished. ‘When they find the body he’ll be missing his little finger. The Gronk does that. Sort of like a trophy. Did you hear a gurgle of child’s laughter just before Lucky Ned was taken?’

I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise again, and told him that, yes, I had.

He nodded sagely.

‘The reason Wintervolk can’t be sensed, hunted, cornered or killed is because they exist only as dreams that have survived beyond the vessel that gave them life. They swirl amongst us, flitting from host to host, then make landfall occasionally to wreak havoc, and once they have done so, depart, back into the collective subconscious.’

‘That’s quite far-fetched.’

‘Maybe. Some say the entity that we know as the Gronk is actually the orphaned nightmare of Gretl, the daughter of Ichabod Block, the one he murdered in her sleep. Gretl Block, Gronk, get it?’

‘That’s pretty tenuous.’