Ben made a beeline for the house two doors down. He was never the kind to go knocking on strangers’ doors after dark but someone had to have seen their stalker running from the scene. There was no dithering on the doorstep. Ben slammed down its knocker as though he’d seen their pursuer close the door behind him. He listened as a chain was slid into place. The door clicked. It peeled open so slightly that the chain’s links weren’t tested. From within, there peered the face of a woman, elderly and understandably apprehensive. Of all the houses, he had to pick this one. He fought the urge to apologise and bid her a good night.

‘What do you want?’ she asked, holding up a phone for him to see. ‘Don’t think that I won’t call the Guards.’

Perhaps that’s what Ben should have done. Wasn’t there a law against staring in people’s windows? There was probably also one that didn’t smile too kindly on terrorising grannies after hours.

‘There’s no need to do that,’ he said, taking a step back. ‘I was wondering if you saw anyone outside. He was standing right there,’ he added, pointing back to the street. ‘He was tall. Dressed all in black. You couldn’t have missed him.’

‘I just saw you,’ she replied, ‘shouting your head off.’

‘Please,’ Ben pressed, ‘did you see him? Or did you see someone running from here? I need to know where he went.’

‘This is a quiet estate and that’s the way we like it. If I hear you outside again, I’ll call the Guards.’ Here she advertised her phone for the second time. ‘I know where you live. I’ve seen your friend with the hair.’

The door closed before Ben could respond. The woman was probably still stood in the same spot, listening for the sound of his retreat. Other houses had awakened. A dog was barking somewhere. The whole street seemed hypersensitive to every noise. Ben couldn’t bring himself to knock on another door. He was surprised that he hadn’t already heard the distant siren of a Garda squad car.

‘Where did he go?’ Chloe asked as he approached her.

‘I don’t know,’ he replied, shaking, his frustration more restless than before.

She looked to him, waiting for more – some explanation for what she had seen – but Ben had no words to comfort her. The truth was that there was nowhere the man could have gone. Dark bodies shifted by their curtains as he stepped inside and locked the door behind him, sliding its chain in place. It had taken him mere seconds to get from the window to the door, and in that time the man had disappeared.

13