“It sounds like Eels is mad enough to try to steal the egg anyway,” I say. “So hopefully the big bully will get himself eaten by the monster, and the rest of us can live happily ever after.”

“I won’t, though, will I?” says Vi, with a sigh. “I still won’t know what happened to my mum and dad.”

I nod. What can I say to that? Then I think of something.

“Let’s go and get those chips.”

I turn and head towards the shop door. But I see that Violet hasn’t moved.

“Herbie, do you remember what Jenny said about my dad’s last visit to the book dispensary?” she says. “The time he brought my mum?”

“Yeah,” I say. “She said he wanted to show the mermonkey to your mother. And that he had his manuscript with him.”

“But there was something else,” says Vi. “Don’t you remember? Jenny said Dad was goofing about with the mermonkey’s hat, trying it on.”

I shrug. Why is that important? But then…

“Hey, wait – what are you doing?” I blurt out, because Violet has just tugged the mermonkey’s top hat right out of its hand! The mermonkey shivers, and a few dead flies fall to the floor. But the creature remains inactive.

Violet raises the crumbling hat with both hands, as if about to put it on, even though there’s no way it would go over her mass of curls. Then she lowers it again, and peers inside.

“Vi, you should put that back,” I say. “Jenny won’t mind us being in her shop, but she will mind very much if we break the mermonkey. You heard what she said about your dad always having to fix it.”

But Violet just peers even closer into the fusty old hat. “I did hear,” she says. “I heard that he even patched up this very hat, though the band inside is loose and the lining is coming out…”

“The whole cronky apparatus must be a hundred years old, at least.” I start hopping from one foot to another, as I watch Violet poking her finger into the lining of the hat. “Vi, please be careful!”

“There seems to be something here,” she says. “Something behind the band…”

And she pulls out a small square of folded paper.

Violet looks at me. Her eyes go wide.

I clutch my cap. “No way!” I say. “Is that…?”

Then we both speak at once. “The missing page!”

Violet shoves the hat back into the mermonkey’s hand and unfolds the paper. Sure enough, it’s a page from a typed manuscript. At the top is a title, like it’s the start of a new chapter.

“The Achilles Spot,” says Violet, reading the title aloud. Then she starts to read the rest: