“I’m Kim. I shouldn’t be here, should I?”

“No.”

“Why are you crying, JC?”

He hadn’t realised he was.

“Are those tears for me, JC? No-one ever shed a tear for me before. No-one ever cared that much. I’ve been so alone since I came to London, despite all the people . . . I wish I’d met you before, JC.”

“Yes,” he said. “I wish I’d met you before, Kim.”

She reached out a hand to him to wipe away the tears on his cheek. But her fingers were already transparent by the time they reached his face; and when he put up a hand to hold hers, his fingers passed right through her ghostly hand. Kim Sterling faded slowly away and was gone, and JC was left standing alone on the edge of the platform, reaching out to no-one. And then Kim reappeared, standing at the end of the platform, next to the tunnel-mouth from which the hell train had appeared. She looked entreatingly at JC, then faded away again. JC turned savagely to Happy and Melody.

“That’s it! She’s the key, the focal point, the start of this haunting! Solve her murder, and we solve this case.”

“Slow down, slow down,” said Melody. “We don’t know anything of the sort. Yes, her murder might be the instigating factor, but . . .”

“But nothing. Grab what you need; we’re going after her.”

“Are you sure about this, JC?” said Happy. “I could feel what you were feeling. And this is very definitely not the time to fall for a pretty face.”

JC glared at Happy. “Stay out of my head!”

“It’s not my fault! In my current, well-medicated state, it’s like you’re shouting the whole contents of your head at the top of your voice, and I do wish you wouldn’t.”

“She’s the key,” JC said stubbornly. “And we are going after her. Right now.”

“Going where?” said Melody.

“We follow her! She’s leading us somewhere.”

“I’m not leaving my machines here, unguarded!” said Melody. “Anything might happen to them!”

“Your machines can look after themselves; you’ve said so often enough,” said JC. “We have to go now; we can’t risk losing her!”

“It’ll all end in tears,” said Happy. But as usual, no-one was listening to him.

JC was already off and running down the platform, heading towards where he’d last seen the ghost. Happy and Melody looked at each other, shrugged pretty much in unison, and went chasing after JC and the ghost of Kim Sterling.