I went back into the other room, conscious of leaving wet footprints. If I’d entertained lingering suspicions on entering the house they’d now dissolved. The man was obviously a total wally with his cat and his obsessive tidiness. I couldn’t help smiling to myself as I surveyed the room. Plumped cushions. Straight pictures. Gleaming surfaces. A place for everything and everything in its place. The occupant of this room was what my grandad used to call a Mary Ellen – the sort of man who wears frilly aprons around the house and may be seen in the garden, pegging out clothes. I was getting more complacent by the second till I saw my watch on the sideboard.

It was mine, all right. The one I’d handed over to the Scouser about a million years ago. I’d have known it anywhere. There was a tightening sensation in my chest as I stepped over for a closer look, and when the door slammed I cried out.

He’d come in without my hearing. Crossed the room. Was standing now with his broad back against the door, smiling a different smile. He nodded towards the sideboard. ‘That was – careless of me.’ He chuckled, and it was not a wally’s chuckle. ‘Still, it doesn’t matter does it – not now.’ He looked at me and hissed, ‘Link. Link the Stink. Laughing Boy Two, at last. Whas-samatter, Laughing Boy – cat gotcha tongue?’ He laughed and called towards the kitchen, ‘Hey Sappho – got the kid’s tongue, have you?’

I stared at the guy, paralysed with horror. We’d been right, Gail and Nick and me. This was our man. You only had to look in his eyes to know he was mad. He was totally out of his tree and he had me trapped, like Toya and Ginger and —

‘Oh, yes.’ He’d read my mind. ‘He’s here, the big Liverpudlian, along with the others, and a promising recruit he’s turning out to be, too. Lots of potential. Bags and bags of swank. Would you like to see?’

‘No!’ It came out as a shriek. I pressed myself against the sideboard. ‘I want to go home. Let me go.’

He laughed again, shaking his cropped sandy head. ‘Oh no, lad. No going home. Not anymore. You made me wait a long time, but you’re in the Army now. The Camden Horizontals. Come and meet your comrades.’

‘Let me go!’ I knew it was no use, of course I did, but my brain had packed up. I didn’t seem to be able to say anything else. He’d gone down on one knee and was lifting a corner of the carpet. I measured the distance to the window. If I could reach it – smash a pane, I thought —