‘Alice! Alice! Christine!’ It’s Leon, his panicked voice growing louder, echoing through the hotel, the closer he gets.

Christine’s eyes dart to the hallway below. She pulls her arm from within the attic room, and without turning on the light, snaps the door closed, and locks it.

Alice is relieved she hasn’t got to face whatever’s inside, for now at least, but her stomach knots. She’s worried about Leon.

He appears at the foot of the eight-stepped, narrow staircase, bends over breathless, eyes staring up at them, wide and watery. His clothes are muddy and soaked, his jacket dotted with blood.

‘Oh, God, Leon,’ Alice cries.

‘What happened?’ Christine says, as they move together down the staircase towards him, and congregate on the lower landing.

‘Leon?’ Alice puts her arms around him, can feel his heart pounding, his erratic breathing. His forehead shimmers with sweat; his hands are scratched and bleeding.

‘I almost fell from the cliff.’ His voice is raspy. ‘I think the wind pushed me—’

‘You think?’ Alice says.

‘Yes … it’s strong out there.’ He lowers his head. ‘Is anyone else here?’ he asks Christine. ‘Anyone else in the building, on the island?’

‘Mr Patterson’s at the cottage, and Gabriela is in the bar, and there’s Lori, of course, and Dane and Savannah Winslow, but I think they’re in their rooms.’ She’s talking too fast, her cheeks pink. ‘Other than that, it’s just us chickens.’

Leon shakes his head, looking at each of them in turn. ‘I saw something out there. I don’t know, it was ghostlike, somehow.’

Mitch guffaws, the sound inappropriately loud. ‘What? You’re kidding me, right?’

Leon shakes his head, and takes a breath, clearly narked at being doubted. ‘I definitely saw something. Something yellow.’

‘Ghosts aren’t yellow, are they?’ Faith says.

‘There’s no such thing as ghosts, Faith.’ Mitch slaps his hand on his forehead, shakes his head. ‘Sometimes you can be so stupid.’

Alice attempts to meet Faith’s eye, but her friend seems unfazed by Mitch. Her self-worth must be so low to put up with him, and Alice is angry with herself for not seeing that before. Too wrapped up in her own sadness after her father died to see her friend might need her. She will make it up to Faith. She will get her away from this idiot.

‘I didn’t say it was a ghost,’ Leon says. ‘I don’t know what it was, but I definitely saw something out there.’ A pause. ‘Maybe we should check it out.’

‘Wait, I’ll grab Shaggy and Scooby,’ Mitch says with a laugh, ‘and I’ll be right with you.’

‘Stop it, please, Mitch,’ Alice says, as Leon wipes his face with the back of his hand. ‘Can’t you see he’s had an awful experience out there?’

‘Well that’s as may be, but it ain’t no ghost.’