As I suspected, Spoder had sent me links to a number of sites I had already visited, which I skipped. I bookmarked several others, experimentally following a few more links from some of them. He had, for instance, sent me a website of newspaper cuttings about Frejah Harsent: news of a medal she was awarded for long police service, an announced promotion to superintendent, her involvement in a long search for a particular transgressor, her appointment as commissioner, the first woman on Dearth to reach that level of policing. There was a photograph of her as a young woman, another one that was more recent.

I believed she was the key to all the killings, this entanglement of police officers and the murders they were involved with, long ago.

I called Spoder back. It felt like an old-fashioned novelty to keep speaking on the landline.

‘Thanks for what you sent me,’ I said. ‘It’s a sad story.’

‘If anything it gets worse. I’ve been looking in the Hames newspaper archives. When the two sons were adults, aged twenty-four, Jessa died. She was in hospital for a minor operation, but sepsis set in and they couldn’t save her. There were other medical complications. The story appeared briefly in the newspaper, but there were few more details. I’ll send you a link to the archive entry. Lew was still living with his mother in Hames City, and to a certain extent also with his stepfather, Raffe Antterland. It was around this time that Dever went to live and work on Sekonda. According to a newspaper in Corlynne, the town where the carnival is, a young magician had been hired to entertain visitors at the park. They say little about him, but he was already using Willer as a stage name. Raffe was increasingly absent on his travels and Lew was often alone. After Jessa died, Dever did return to Hames to be with his brother, but he never stayed long and his absences grew longer.’

‘So what happened to Raffe Antterland?’ I said.

‘It’s impossible to tell. There’s no more mention of him – he was at Jessa’s funeral, but after that he seems to disappear. The Hames census return, which was taken the following year, shows Lew still living at the house on his own. Dever was by then permanently on Sekonda – I think we both realize he was probably opening his magic theatre at Bonnzo’s Park, or at least getting it ready. But there was nothing about Raffe Antterland. I’ve tried all sorts of census searches on his name – it’s not a common one but there are Antterland families on several islands in the Archipelago. None of them is the right one. No Raffe, or anyone with even a remotely similar name.’

Spoder sometimes amazed me with his thoroughness. ‘How long did it take you to search for all that?’

‘Not long.’

‘Do you suppose Raffe died too?’ I said.