“For a bit,” said Phil.

Julie squeezed his hand. “Just have to hope it’s long enough. Where we going then? Holly Beck Woods?”

The edge of the woods lay twenty or so yards beyond the end of the row, a long way in this darkness – and then they’d have to ward the things off with flares and torches building a fire from sodden deadfall. “I’ll bet at least one house along here has a fire-pit,” said Ellie. “In which case what we need, fuel and everything, we might find a little closer to home.”

“How do we find out, though?” said Ernie. “Climb down and check every garden shed?”

“Everything tonight’s a gamble.” Ellie dug out her phone.

“Still no signal,” Milly said. “Checked before.”

“It’s the time I’m after. Nearly eleven. When’s sunrise? ’Bout eight?”

“Yeah.”

“Nine hours, then.” And while there was darkness, it would be inhabited. Ellie shook her head. Think too far ahead and she’d be paralysed; Tom Graham had always said too much imagination was bad for a copper: he might, for once, actually have had a point. A muffled bang sounded a few houses away. “Head for the end of the row. All still got your flares, right? When I give the word, light them up. But not before.”

Milly’s eyes were reddened – from the smoke, from mourning Noel however hard she tried not to think of him – but her face was set. “Ready when you are.”

Grunting, Ellie climbed up onto the rooftop beside Riggott’s Folly, trying not to wonder where Stanley Riggott might be now. Milly dragged herself after her. Grunting and puffing, Charlotte and the Robinsons followed, and then Kate Beck.

“Shit,” Kate said, a frightened, wavery edge in her voice: Ellie looked back to see she’d climbed up behind Phil Robinson, but slipped sideways a little. Ernie Stasiolek steadied her and helped right her balance; Kate saw Ellie looking and forced a smile. “It’s okay,” she said. “I’m okay.” She started moving forward; when there was enough space, Ernie climbed up after her.

“All accounted for,” he called.

Milly prodded Ellie in the ribs. “Come on, you. Mush.”

Ellie laughed weakly, then kept pulling herself along the roof. There was another chimney up ahead, still inside the charmed circle of firelight. For now she focused on that. Beyond the rooftops, the pale things made no sound.

Some found traversing the rooftops easier than others. Madeleine was long-limbed and wiry, monkey-nimble in negotiating the chimneys, while poor Milly, with her short legs, found each one a nightmarish and potentially fatal struggle and Kate had to be helped by those on either side of her to make up for her unusable arm.