‘In other words, the more you pay, the more essential your operation is seen to be.’

Ellis nodded.

‘Jesus,’ Petra sighed. ‘But why are you telling me this? What’s it got to do with you?’

‘Wait,’ he said, putting up his palms with a graceful, fluid flourish. ‘There’s more.’

Petra waited.

‘He’s currently doing odd jobs for the man who let his sister die. How tragic is that?’

‘Who? What do you mean?’

‘Curtis Worthing, the man who’s buying his family’s studio, is the outgoing CEO of MyHealth. The studio’s changing hands from one family business to another – only there’s a slight difference in, shall we say, capacity.’

‘Oh.’ A thousand questions jostled through her mind – but they were questions she had to ask Vincent himself. First of all, Why the hell would you do that to yourself? ‘Why are you telling me this? What has it got to do with you?’ she asked again.

‘I know that you and Vincent are being targeted by Olivia… I can’t pretend that warning you is a pure, selfless act of public service, but hey…’

‘Olivia Jouval? Of Metamuse? What do you mean, “targeted”? We’re just attending her shows.’

‘Did you ever wonder how you and Vincent came by those tickets? Did you ever wonder why you met Vincent when you did?’

It was an absurd question, but he was looking into her face, apparently waiting for an answer. ‘Luck? Coincidence.’

He snorted out a laugh. ‘Anything you’ve experienced in the past few weeks as luck or coincidence is not luck or coincidence. When he fell at your feet that day—’

‘How do you know that?’

Ellis Brown ignored her question and talked over her. ‘—he told you he’d been distracted by something, didn’t he?’

‘How—’

‘That something was Beccie. He may or may not tell you if you asked him, but he thought he saw Beccie in the street for a second. And that’s because he did. They scouted you two for this task at the same time as they scouted for locations.’

The world seemed to press in around Petra. She glanced around her, wondering which of the scattering of Tuesday-night clients heading to the bar down the block was watching her, whether someone was monitoring the feeds from the CCTV cameras slotted on the street corners.

‘I’m here to tell you to beware of those women. Look into their shows. You may wonder why Metamuse is performing here in Leamington, of all the insignificant towns – it’s not luck or coincidence. If you’re feeling the shows ripple into your real life, know that it’s not just you. Every show ripples into the real world.’

‘Okay, whatever. I don’t know what all that vague nonsense means, and I’m not really that interested.’

Ellis Brown rubbed his chin and then looked at his thumb, where a smear of his thick stage make-up had rubbed off. It was hard to be sure in the gloomy shadows of the street, but the skin beneath it looked grey. ‘Yes, I see that. Maybe you don’t need to understand. What you should know, though, concerns Vincent. I can tell you have a strong connection.’