Becky was shaken roughly awake by Danny’s urgency. She eyed him blearily, not really taking in what he was saying. ‘What?’

‘The car’s gone,’ he said impatiently. ‘Wake up, Mum.’

‘Uncle Terry probably parked it round the back under the lean-to,’ she muttered, settling back into the pillows. ‘It’d be out of the dust there.’

Danny shook her again, determined to make her take notice of him. ‘I checked there, and over at Granny Gwyn’s. It’s gone, Mum, and I bet I know who took it.’

Rebecca was now wide awake. She threw back the sheet and reached for her thin cotton dressing gown. ‘You mustn’t throw those sorts of accusations about,’ she said distractedly. ‘You can’t possibly know who took it.’

‘Bet I do,’ he said stubbornly. ‘The Baker twins were eyeing it up all afternoon, and Uncle Terry even opened the bonnet so we could all look at the engine.’

‘Every man, woman and child pored over that car yesterday. That’s enough,’ she said sternly.

She hurried down the passage and, despite the very early hour, found the rest of the family staring out of the screen door to the dust-laden garden and street, and the to empty space by the kerb. Terry’s face was tight with fury, her father’s was confused, and her grandmother’s was set in the sort of expression that boded ill to everyone.

‘I’ll get Jake on the two-way,’ Becky said. ‘He’ll soon—’

‘He’s up with Ben on fire-watch,’ said Hugh, running his hands distractedly through his thinning hair. ‘I spoke to him as soon as I saw what had happened, but Ben’s only just gone to sleep after a long night, Django’s nowhere to be found and Jake can’t leave the two-way. The storm last night did a fair bit of damage to some of the outlying stations, with two reports of lightning strikes. They’ve been dealt with, but the situation is too tenuous for him to leave his post.’

‘I never thought I’d see the day when a man’s car can be stolen from right outside his house,’ muttered Terry. ‘Things must have changed drastically since I was last here.’

‘It was that man. It had to be,’ said Sandra, who was still in her lacy nightdress and negligee, her hair pinned up in rollers, her face smothered in some white lotion.

‘What man?’ asked Hugh.

‘A man I saw hiding in the bush on the way here. I knew he was up to no good – he looked furtive.’ She folded her arms and glared as if daring them to contradict her.

Everyone turned to look at Terry, the questions clear in their eyes.