“No problem. Just a routine drive-by.” The man scratched his head and sighed, as if doing so was a great effort. “Our patch just grew a lot bigger when the dam went. The sheriff says we’ve gotta patrol the borders of the old valley, make sure no one’s making off with any souvenirs.”

Bone wondered what souvenirs he might be thinking of. Some mud, perhaps. An occasional dead tree. A rock.

“Me, I’d much rather stay away from the old place. Went under when I was a kid, but I heard stories about Longford made me want to stay away.”

“What stories?” Bone asked, but the officer took no notice. He bent almost double to look in the cruiser window and exchange some words with the sheriff inside. When he stood again, he appeared more at ease.

“Guess you’re Bone.”

Bone blinked in surprise. Jordan wouldn’t have called in the police, surely? Not after what he’d told her. But then it all came together and made sense, and he felt a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach. She hadn’t believed him.

Maybe he should have thrown her one or two living Kin over the years, after all.

“Been asked to check in on you,” the sheriff said, leaning from the window. “Couple of my guys who were keeping watch over this place turned tail, said they saw and heard some weird stuff down on the valley floor. Booming noises, flashing lights... things that looked like people but acted like wild animals.” She scrutinised him up and down. “That wouldn’t have been you, would it?”

“What were you told?” Bone asked, and both cops hardened. They were used to doing the asking, not the answering.

“Thing is, I like being in charge,” the sheriff continued. “Dane here, he likes me being in charge too. It’s why I chose this district, ’cos it’s small and the population’s generally pretty decent. Had a bar fight last year, maybe the year before. Bunch of kids took to fucking in strangers’ gardens for a thrill three years back. Let them, I say, but the law’s the law, and no one wants to see teenagers bumping uglies when you’re serving up dinner, right?”

Bone wasn’t sure if she was asking for a response, so he said nothing.

“Dog,” Dane said.

“Oh yeah,” the sheriff said. “A dog was stolen a couple months ago. See, fuck all happens here, so I don’t like it when there’re strange sounds and things that upset my guys. And I don’t like getting calls from people like your friend Jordan. It upsets my balance and gives me the shits.”

“Sorry to hear that.”

“So you just jump in the back with us, and we’ll head down into the valley to see what’s up.”

“No,” Bone said. “Bad idea.”

“You wanna tell your boss that?”

“Yes,” he said.