‘Help yourself to sugar,’ she said, then perched herself on one of the chairs and started spreading honey on the crumpets. The honey came from a round little pot with ‘Hunny’ written on the side.

‘Do have some,’ she said as she placed a crumpet in front of her granddad. ‘It’s from our own bees.’

I hesitated with my cup of tea halfway to my lips. I lowered the cup back into its saucer and glanced at Hugh, who looked puzzled for a moment and then smiled.

‘Of course,’ he said. ‘Where are my manners? Please eat and drink freely with no obligation etcetera etcetera.’

‘Thank you,’ I said and picked up my teacup again.

‘You guys really do that?’ Mellissa asked her granddad. ‘I thought you made all that stuff up.’ She turned to me. ‘What exactly are you worried would happen?’

‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘But I’m not in a hurry to find out.’

I sipped the tea. It was proper builder’s tea, thank god. I’m all for delicate flavour, but after a stint on the motorway you want something with a bit more bite then Earl Grey.

‘So, tell me, Peter,’ said Hugh. ‘What brings the starling so far from the Smoke?’

I wondered just when I’d become ‘the starling’ and why everyone who was anyone in the supernatural community had such a problem with proper nouns.

‘Do you listen to the news?’ I asked.

‘Ah,’ said Hugh and nodded. ‘The missing children.’

‘What’s that got to do with us?’ asked Mellissa.

I sighed – policing would be so much easier if people didn’t have concerned relatives. The murder rate would be much lower, for one thing.

‘It’s just a routine check,’ I said.

‘On granddad?’ asked Mellissa. I could see her beginning to get angry. ‘What are you saying?’

Hugh smiled at her. ‘It’s quite flattering really – they obviously regard me as strong enough to be a public menace.’

‘But children?’ said Mellissa, and glared at me.

I shrugged. ‘It really is just routine,’ I said. Just the same way we routinely put a victim’s nearest and dearest on the suspects list or grow suspicious of relatives who get all defensive when we make our legitimate inquiries. Is it fair? No. Is it warranted? Who knows. Is it policing? Ask a stupid question.

Lesley always said that I wasn’t suspicious enough to do the job properly, and tasered me in the back to drive the point home. So, yeah, I stay suspicious these days – even when I’m having tea with likable old buffers.

I did have a crumpet, though, because you can take professional paranoia too far.

‘You didn’t notice anything unusual in the last week or so?’ I asked.