The three of us perch in a row and Win and I take it in turns to talk, explaining how Crowky left us a message and that this led us to finding the map—her tattoo—and then the crow stealing it. Rose just stares at Mitch as if she might disappear at any moment.

“We can’t let him get the Box,” I say. “Me and Rose, our fears are different now. We don’t know what would come out of it, but it would definitely be much worse than a clown with big feet!”

“Hold up,” says Mitch. “Explain that bit about my tattoo again.”

“One of your tattoos shows where you hid the Box,” I say. “We know because we found a copy of it in your book.” Rose gets the tattoo kit out of the satchel and hands Mitch her book. She starts flicking through it. “You won’t find it in there,” I add, making Win shift uncomfortably. “It . . . fell out and Crowky got his hands on it.”

“And that is why it’s so brilliant that we’ve found you,” says Rose, finally finding her voice. “The picture showed mountains and a big waterfall, but it’s not a proper map. Crowky will be desperately trying to work out where he’s supposed to go, but you can lead us straight there!”

Mitch stares at us with a confused look on her face. “I’m sorry, but I do not know what you are talking about.”

“The map is one of your tattoos,” I say as slowly and clearly as possible, wondering why Mitch is finding this so hard to understand.

“What did it look like?” she says.

“A big drop of water,” says Rose, “with loads of stuff inside it, and, right at the bottom there was this little box and a goldfish.”

“Yep, that’s one of mine,” Mitch says, pushing up the sleeve of her black shirt and pointing at a tattoo on the inside of her left wrist.

Relief rushes through me. “It’s the same!” I say. “Look, the fish’s eye is a cross and the moon is bright yellow. They’re identical.”

“We worked out that you hid the Box at the End,” says Rose, “but that’s as far as we got. Mitch, where exactly did you hide the Box?”

Mitch laughs and slaps Rose on the shoulder. “I haven’t got a clue, Rose, me old mucker!”

Chapter 30

Silence fills the cabin. Rose and I share a look of worry.

“I don’t know what any of my tattoos mean!” Mitch says cheerfully. Then she rolls back into the bath and wriggles around a bit. She pulls herself out and flops on the sofa next to Rose. “Sorry, itchy tail,” she says, flinging her mass of wet hair over our shoulders.