This suite is even fancier than the other one. There are vast expanses of carpet and I leave damp footprints. I find Melodie sitting up in bed drinking chamomile tea from a glass teacup. She gets up and hugs me. Dark circles pool on her cheekbones and her mouth sags. I give her my new card.

‘I like it!’ she says, putting it on the nightstand. ‘Thank you so much for coming. Please don’t insist that I take the meds. They will only make it worse.’

I can hear Antonio in the next room, jumping around playing video games. At least he’s staying out of my way. I sit on the edge of the bed.

‘I don’t know who the guy in your dream is,’ I tell her, ‘but I don’t think he’s part of you.’

Her eyes are shadowed. She sips carefully, not looking at me.

‘Neither do I.’

‘What did the doctor think?’

She shrugs. Her voice is dull. ‘It hardly matters. It’s become a crisis. The anxiety meds made me sleep, and then the Creeper tortured me for hours.’

I don’t know what to say. She’s more intelligent than I am, she’s an expert in her field, she’s sitting in a £5,000 per night hotel room. I am dripping on her fancy carpet. Who am I?

‘It’s possible this person is a dreamhacker,’ I tell her. ‘Like me, only not very nice.’

Now she’s looking straight at me. ‘I’m listening.’

‘Can you think of anyone who would have reason to stalk you? An enemy? A rival?’

I feel idiotic saying it. She’d be a difficult person to hate. I ought to be intensely jealous of her . . . but I really like her. It’s hard not to.

‘Not off the top of my head, no. So you’re saying that this guy in my dreams is a real person?’

I make an uncertain shrugging motion. ‘Maybe. But I’m not saying that he – or she – is who they appear to be in your dream. You saw me change form, right?’

She grins suddenly. ‘You were the Hulk. It was great.’

‘So, this person could be someone who can enter dreams like I can, and for some reason they’ve targeted you. What you need to do is think through what he’s actually said to you. Are there any clues? Is there something that he wants? He keeps telling me to get out of the way. But what does he say to you?’

She leans back against a mountain of pillows. Her eyes half-close.

‘That’s just it. He says my life is a waste. I’m not married, I don’t have any children, I’m failing as a soloist, I’m never going to be well-off.’

Her eyes open.