“He looks like he’s capable of anything,” I say. “But one thing is sure: he seems to have a thing about you. And what did he mean by I will be free?”

Violet pulls a blanket over to the chair and wraps herself in it, staring into the window of the wood burner, where a new flame is just flickering into life.

“Violet?” I say, because her silence seems a bit odd. “Surely you must have some idea why he’s chasing you? What did you do?”

She shrugs. “I just bumped into him. Yesterday, when I arrived in town. That’s all.”

Can that really be all? But with someone as freaky as Boathook Man, maybe there are no good reasons for anything.

Violet is watching me from under the blanket. “I came here to find my parents, Herbie,” she says. “But I seem to have found a different mystery instead.”

I rummage about in my clothes box until I find another Lost-and-Founder’s cap.

“Unless the two mysteries are connected somehow,” I say.

Violet frowns at me. “How can they be connected?”

I’m about to reply that of course they must be connected, when there’s a sharp, scratchy sound on the window. We both turn. Something white is pawing at the glass.

“Ah, it’s only Erwin,” I say, getting up to let the cat in. “He often visits. Especially if he’s caught in bad weather.”

“The cat from the Eerie Book Dispensary?” says Violet. Erwin hears her voice and pads over to her. He lets her stroke him for a moment before jumping up onto a shelf above the wood burner and settling down in a pile of lost scarves.

“Where I got the book,” Violet continues, as if to herself. “Where I got the book about the malamander. I only went there because of the card around my neck – the one from my parents, that came from the dispensary. Oh, Herbie, maybe these things are connected.”

Violet reaches across to her drying coat and fishes the slim green book out of the pocket. “But how?”

“The best way to find out what’s in a book is to read it,” says Erwin.

“She hasn’t had a chance yet,” I reply absent-mindedly, brushing the last of the sand from my trousers. “But you’ll have time now, Vi. I need to get some work done, or Mollusc will have me stewed and served up as today’s special. I’ll be back soon, though, to see what you’ve found out.”

Violet is holding the book to her face, her wide eyes staring over it at Erwin. “That … that cat just spoke!”

I glance sharply at Erwin. He peers back through narrow blue eyes, as if challenging me.

I give an awkward shrug. “Maybe your ears are still full of sea mist,” I manage to say. “Everyone knows cats can’t talk.”