‘Cerberus, the dog with three heads,’ said Trey. ‘Or there’s the Chimera, with the head of a lion, a snake’s head for a tail and a goat’s head coming out of its back. Or the three Furies, the three Norns, the Morrígan, Hecate? The Holy Trinity. Take your pick. Which do you want us to be, Ebenezer?’

‘I don’t know what you are talking about.’

‘Me either,’ said Lewis. ‘You want me to drive on?’

Ed slapped his hand on the top of the dashboard. ‘Let’s do this,’ he said.

The driveway wound along through trees. The weeds and wild flowers had grown up all around and were starting to invade the road from both sides, leaving only a narrow strip to steer down. At the end of the drive was a big old house with smoke rising from one of the chimneys.

‘Don’t look much like hell to me,’ said Kyle. ‘Unless the devil’s inside getting his butler to toast sinners for him.’

‘Toast crumpets more like,’ said Brooke.

Lewis drove up to the front of the house where there was an overgrown parking area. He switched off the engine. Studied the building. It was tall and grand, three floors high, with a wide, square porch held up by six big pillars. It looked to Lewis like a shrunk-down version of Buckingham Palace. The white painted walls were grubby and streaked with dirt and rain.

There were blinds and shutters and net curtains covering all the windows at the front of the house, and no sign of any lights inside, so it was impossible to see if there was anybody in there. Lewis had to admit, though, that if he was hiding out anywhere around here this was the sort of place he’d have chosen. It was solid and well built. A brick wall enclosed the gardens. There were clear lines of sight all around. Only thing was – if he’d been living here he’d have repaired that gate. So what was up?

‘Is it safe, do you reckon?’ asked Ed.

‘Please be careful,’ said Trio. ‘The signal hasn’t changed. Like something following us.’

‘Relax,’ said Brooke. ‘It looks bare civilized. I mean, come on, what sicko is going to light a fire in a fireplace?’

‘Even if it’s kids it doesn’t mean we’ll be welcome.’ Ed undid his seat belt. ‘As Trio says, let’s go careful. Nobody do anything stupid, OK?’

‘Oh, please,’ said Kyle. ‘Let me do something stupid.’

‘Seriously, Kyle. If it is kids, and that’s obviously what I’m hoping, they may have defences, traps.’

‘Why don’t we just go knock on the door?’ said Macca.

‘You all sure about this?’ said Trey. ‘I’ve got a humming in my head and it’s not going away.’