‘I saw Swagger and his generals take some of that serum back at his hang-out.’ Kate said. ‘Stacy, it didn’t pacify them either. If anything it seemed to make them more hostile.’

‘Maybe I need to perform more tests.’

Kate heard the weariness in Stacy’s voice, the reluctance to believe she could’ve got things so wrong –and what the ramifications of that could be. ‘Maybe,’ she agreed. ‘Stacy, how did you know the message we got was a fake?’

‘I took a call from Jicaque after you left. He wanted to meet up with Tom.’

‘What?’ Suddenly Tom was wide-awake behind her.

‘And only Tom. Midnight, some place off of Times Square.’ Stacy shrugged. ‘I knew one of the messages had to be bogus. The only way to find out which was to come out here and get you.’

‘How do we know we can trust this other Jicaque?’ Kate said bitterly.

‘He said something kind of weird about Tom …’ Stacy clicked her tongue as she tried to remember. ‘Oh yeah –“This time, put on your pants before we meet.”’ She frowned. ‘Make any sense?’

‘It’s him,’ Tom said, struggling forward under his blanket so he could better talk to Stacy. ‘We first met in New Orleans … I’d changed back from the ’wolf and I ducked into some scuzzy old movie theatre to get dressed. He was sitting there –turned out he owned the place – and asked me if I needed any help. I didn’t know it was him till way after … No one else would know that happened.’

Kate nodded. ‘And if my mother had got to him, why would she arrange a message to be left while she was tricking us out to Gun Hill?’ She looked at him. ‘Jesus, Tom. It really could be him. He’s found us.’

‘Or Tom, anyway,’ said Stacy. ‘The message was for Tom to meet him alone at some diner called Vegetarian Kitchen.’

‘I guess that’s a good sign,’ Tom said. ‘Sorry you can’t come.’

‘Maybe he’s scared of my mom – wants nothing to do with her daughter …’ Kate said, trailing off as a horrible thought struck her. ‘Oh God, I just realised. Someone’s got to tell Rico and Jasmine … about Ramone.’

‘Rico’s brother?’ Stacy asked sharply. ‘What about him?’

Kate opened her mouth to tell her, but the words wouldn’t come. It didn’t seem possible that someone as larger-than-life as Ramone could now be gone. She turned to Tom, her eyes misting over. All she could see was the photo of Ramone’s desecrated body.

‘It’s bad news,’ Tom said huskily.

g

The mood was subdued in the car as they drove the rest of the way into the seething heart of New York. Tom was guiltily glad to have got away, and grateful that it was Kate who would be breaking the news about Ramone.