‘I’m sorry, Mel,’ I say, over and over. ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry.’

She lifts her hands off the strings. ‘I’m glad you came,’ she says. ‘Why don’t you sit down?’

There is nowhere to sit that I won’t ruin because I leave a trail of river water everywhere I go. I settle on the hearth. Its heat beats on my back. Mel swivels on her stool to face me.

‘Let’s consider our mystery,’ Mel says in her sweet Canadian voice. ‘Who are the victims, and who are the suspects? Of course, I’m the first victim. We’ll get to me in a second. But what about Bernard? Who killed him, and why?’

‘Daphne did,’ I tell Mel’s ghost, or dream-representation, or whatever she is. ‘Daphne killed him because a little bird told her that he’d killed you as part of an experiment. The old dear had been made to sleepwalk herself, so naturally she was outraged.’

Listening to my own delivery, I realise that I’ve fallen into the speech patterns of a character in an Agatha Christie story.

‘Very good.’ Mel inclines her head. ‘And what about Martin Elstree? You thought he was the Creeper who attacked me, am I right?’

I’m nodding. ‘He had a room directly below your room the night you died. At the time, it seemed obvious that he’d hacked in and made you sleepwalk.’

‘True,’ she says. ‘But your evidence was only circumstantial. In fact, Martin was in that hotel room meeting with litigators from BigSky to iron out the IP deal with Little Bird. You know that BigSky don’t use offices. When there are long negotiations to be done, hotel suites are ideal for everyone.’

I say, ‘Someone came after O and someone came after me. In both cases they failed, but only just. When the pigeon led us from O’s house to Elstree’s, it seemed clear that they were working together and he’d turned against her.’

‘They were working together. But he never dreamhacked anyone in his life. He wouldn’t know how.’

‘That’s not how he made it sound,’ I said. ‘He threatened me.’

She’s nodding. ‘He’d been using the dreamhacker bot to attack anyone at BigSky who got in his way. That was how he won the IP fight. And he used it against you, twice. You were right to be afraid of him. But he wasn’t the Creeper.’

‘I know that now, of course.’

‘Of course. What was done is done. It’s almost as if someone has been one step ahead of you at every turn.’

‘At least one step,’ I agree glumly.

‘So. Whodunnit?’ Mel asks. ‘That is what you are determined to comprehend. You understand that the Agency is running the show. Who controls the Agency?’