‘I never see them,’ Pierce said. ‘Anyway, they can’t be cross. I’ve had a house fire. A terrifying accident. They’ll have to be sympathetic. There are rules.’

Yes, malign sympathy. There it was, the sensation I had felt in the morning, sitting breathing the exhalations of my own destroyed house. The lure of freedom. But thought of it was cut short by another coughing fit.

‘What were you saying about being followed?’ Pierce asked. ‘Something about the fumes getting into your head …’

I coughed again, and again, trying to dislodge the sack of charcoal briquettes that was crammed in my throat. I could taste blood, a little, and felt as if I were in the late stages of a chest infection. Light-headed, too. Perhaps I should have taken the paramedic’s advice and gone to hospital; perhaps I should go now.

‘It’s gone now, isn’t it?’ I said, unsure of how to approach the topic and fearful of the answers. ‘The column of smoke we followed on Tuesday. It’s gone – you couldn’t see it today?’

‘Today? It had cleared up the day after,’ Pierce said. ‘They put the fire out. Or it put itself out. From the look of the place there was nothing left to burn.’

‘That’s what I thought,’ I said. ‘The thing is – I can still see it.’

‘Still see what?’ Pierce asked. ‘The smoke column?’

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I’ve been able to see it ever since. No matter where I am. At night, even. As if it has been following me around. And getting closer, street by street.’

Pierce didn’t say anything. I had his attention, at least, although it was impossible to read his gaze.

‘It sounds like an invitation,’ he said at last.

Cold though it was, the street air tasted good after the soggy ashtray of Pierce’s flat. I breathed it deep, and was rewarded with another coughing fit. At least my head cleared a little, enough to remind myself that I had nowhere to sleep tonight. But Tamesis could take care of that, and it was not yet late. Pierce was insistent.

‘I’m surprised you haven’t done this already,’ he said, once more alive with volatile energy. ‘Gone to the end of the rainbow, found the pot of gold.’

‘A notoriously futile and misguided activity,’ I said.

‘You said it’s no more than a couple of streets away,’ Pierce said. ‘You must have been tempted? Don’t you want to find out what’s there?’