They followed her up the steps and through a windowless porch. Ben felt like an inmate being transferred to a stately prison. Chloe shifted in closer to him as Sparling’s home opened out before them like a cavern. There was no grand hallway. There were no stairs to be seen anywhere. They stepped directly into the man’s study; a room that seemed to occupy most of the ground floor. The smell of wood smoke was heavy in the air, as was a warm feeling of antiquity. Beneath a wall of books stood Alec Sparling, behind his desk, with two chairs facing him.

Ben had known something was wrong that day on campus. His first impressions never missed their mark. There was something remarkable about Alec Sparling; Ben had felt it when he hesitated by the door. It was a coldness – an apathy towards others, so absolute as to make the man dangerous. It was so obvious now. Little late, Benny Boy.

‘Lara,’ he said, addressing the woman who had just closed the front door behind them, ‘I think it’s best if I talk to Mr French and Ms Coogan alone.’

‘Of course, Doctor,’ she replied before disappearing through the only other door that Ben could see.

‘Please,’ Sparling said, beckoning them to sit and then doing so himself.

He was dressed in his drab ensemble of shirt and slacks. He looked the same as he had the day they had met, but that perplexing smile of his was absent on this occasion. In fact the man’s face upheld no distinguishable emotion. Even the eyes were blank. Only when he peeled back his cuff to check the time was he seen to faintly frown.

‘How did you find me?’ he asked, looking up from under his brow.

‘We have our ways,’ Ben replied.

‘Maybe I have grown careless in my old age. And what is it that you want? Money, such as the sum we agreed upon?’

‘I want to know who the fuck is following us,’ Chloe put in.

‘I fear, Ms Coogan, that’s not so easy to explain.’

‘You’d better try,’ she said. ‘He was outside my home. Do you’ve any idea what that’s like, to have someone staring in your fucking window?’ Here she glanced outside, towards the high brick wall in the distance. ‘No, I don’t suppose you do.’

The tips of Sparling’s fingers were pressed together in thought. ‘You suppose incorrectly, Ms Coogan.’

Ben’s memory recalled the doctor’s eyes as blue, but now they seemed drained of even the weakest tincture. They watched Chloe intently as though she were the only other person in the room.

‘Why did you send us to that place?’ Ben asked, drawing the man’s attention.