“When you say it like that, it sounds silly,” says Violet. “But what about Mrs Fossil’s arm? You said yourself she’d been bitten. The curve of that bite was right across her forearm and hand. Surely that was done by something big too. Isn’t that evidence?”

“Hmm.” The doctor narrows his eyes. “Let’s say for a moment I do believe. Or let’s say, at least, that I believe it is possible, which is not quite the same thing. Why would such a creature be inside my museum, behind locked doors, at night?”

“It might,” says Violet, meeting his gaze, “if it was looking for something.”

The doctor’s eyebrow slowly creeps up again.

Violet pulls out her book and lays it on the desk in front of her. From where I sit, I can see the word Malamander written across the sea-green cover in faded silver letters.

“When I was given this book by the mermonkey, I thought it was just a story. Just a local legend. But since then, I’ve seen things – twice now – which I can’t explain. And I’ve found things out, too. Like the fact that my dad believed the creature described in this book is real. And if it is real, then what about other things in the book?”

“What other things?” says the doc.

“I think you know.”

Dr Thalassi stares at Violet. Then he puts one hand into his dressing gown pocket and pulls something out. He places it gently on the desk between us. It’s roughly the size and shape of a very large egg, ruby-red in colour, and glows faintly in the light of the lamp.

“The malamander egg,” says Violet, in a whisper.

“Or,” says the doctor, “a piece of harmless red sea glass, found by Mrs Fossil, which just happens to be egg-shaped. Which is a great deal more likely, wouldn’t you agree?”

“But if it’s just that,” I say, “why do you want it?”

The doc smiles. He picks up the paraffin lamp and moves it across his desk. The egg-shaped glass lump, or whatever it is, glows brighter and fiercer as the lamp approaches, then fainter again as it moves away.

Like a winking red star.

“You were trying to lure it here!” Vi cries. “Up in your tower, shining that red light. You were trying to lure the malamander!”

“If,” says the doc, raising a finger, “and it’s still a big ‘if’, the malamander is real, then it bit Mrs Fossil for a reason. Maybe it mistook this piece of red glass for something else, if only for a moment. That is a hypothesis that can only be tested by experiment…”

“But it’s a monster!”

“By experiment,” the doc insists, “to gather evidence.”

“An experiment that just slashed off half of Vi’s face!” I blurt out. “Is that evidence enough for you?”