I shrugged. ‘To the horizon. Away.’ My head had been sagging lower and lower since I pictured Whizzy leaving, and now it was down on the kitchen counter, resting on my arms.

Five minutes later, Lily had fetched Mum, and Mum had summoned Dad on video call and left me talking to him on the sofa, wrapped in a blanket. Mum came over every so often to rub my shoulders, but otherwise she left us alone.

‘You had to get away – you got yourself to safety,’ Dad said. ‘You did the right thing to phone the emergencies and come home. I’m proud of you. We both are. You were so brave.’

‘And now you need to rest and get over it,’ Mum said. ‘You’re in shock, Alfie.’

I went back to bed and Mum brought me cereal, tea and toast to eat there. She was right. Sleepiness soon got me and took over.

2.20 p.m.

The rest of today is dragging slowly on. Mum sent Lily to the shop to see what she could find out from asking people there, and she’s come back with this:

1.One wall of Ash House is virtually destroyed by a heat so fierce that experts are coming up from London to examine it.

2.They think one of Mr Clemm’s machines blew up in the heat. (Bet I can guess which one.)

3.The rest of the house has been smoke damaged, but it’s still standing.

4.Nobody knows whether Mr Clemm was in the house or not.

5.No news of Lysander or Julia.

31

Spiralling

20th August, 8.00 p.m.

When Mum opened the curtains this morning, there was Julia, sitting on our garden wall and shaking something invisible off her front paw over and over again. Mum picked her up, brought her inside and gave her a tin of tuna.

That was the only good thing that happened today. As soon as Lily woke, she raced off to Ash House to look for Lysander and came back fifteen minutes later.

‘The police are guarding everything,’ she said. ‘There are ribbons across the gate and around the house. Nobody’s allowed in.’

I was in my pyjamas at the kitchen counter.

‘The police have cordoned it off,’ Mum said. ‘That’s huge.’

What happened next, while I was still in my pyjamas, is almost too unspeakable to write.

When those fire engines screamed towards Ash House, I thought it was the end of things, but I was wrong. It was just the beginning. The next part came when the police knocked on our door again. The same police.

They stayed longer this time. They told us the Ash House fire is suspicious and looks deliberate.

Mum pulled her hair out of its ponytail. ‘That’s terrible news, but what’s it got to do with Alfie?’