She consulted the diagram one more time, screwed the twisted copper end of the live cable into the connector and checked the wire’s seating in the jack. She traced the circuit up to the headphone speaker where she’d attached the woven tungsten mesh. She’d taken the overpriced marble Sennheisers from the display cabinet at Needful Things, scoured with guilt. It was the first time she’d ever stolen anything, and no matter how her social justifications kicked in to protect her (nobody would be buying them anyway, the headphones would just be gathering dust, Suki didn’t need the money and would hardly notice) she felt irretrievably corrupted. But the moral compromise was the price she’d have to pay – she would no longer be a spectator.

She double-checked the bypass on the breaker boards and on the console itself. The trick was to make sure the short circuit wouldn’t burn the wiring out too quickly, otherwise all he’d get was a painful zap and maybe some attitude adjustment. You needed to make sure the power stayed on. Wisdom from the internet.

Carefully, she packed the headphones back into their gift box, wrapped it in a plastic carrier bag, stashed it into her sling bag and headed for Brook Street. What she’d do with them when she got there was the missing part of her plan. Olivia Jouval and Rashida Barnes and the entire Metamuse troupe seemed to have vanished without a trace, barely any record that they’d ever been there. What was the point of so elaborately priming her to do this deed for them, but then disappearing at the critical moment? She hadn’t managed to conjure Ellis Brown for advice. Ida hadn’t turned up at the funeral, of course. Petra was on her own. She had no clue whether Worthing would even be coming to the studio today, but action needed to be taken.

Ridding the world of Curtis Worthing would redress evil, she convinced herself on the walk over. Why couldn’t Vincent see this? She would do this for Beccie, for Helena – for everyone who’d been processed by Worthing’s profiteering system and not come out again. She would help lay all their spirits to rest.