Neel came out from the back of the house. “Good trip, Mayor Anderson? Get all the way to the city today?” He undid the straps on the roof rack, freeing up the boxes.

“No.” She glanced at me. “Just camp today. Up to the city next week. Maggie? You all right? Your brother got off OK, if that’s what you want to know.”

“Er, that’s good,” I said, “but I, um, I—”

“Speak up. I haven’t got all day.” She rubbed her arms and looked at the sky. “Cold wind.” She leaned into the jeep. Pointed out some crates to Neel.

She’s right. Speak up, Maggie. Speak up.

“I, um, found some wanderers, Mayor Anderson. I found them, and I, well – I think I’ve put the whole town at risk.”

She looked at me. “You’re telling me a little middler girl found some wanderers?”

Neel and the mayor smirked at each other. He hitched a crate out of the boot and took it round the back of the house.

Mayor Anderson lifted her chin. “Where did you find these wanderers then? You haven’t been out of boundary, have you, Miss Cruise?”

“No! No. I met them in the, um, cemetery. There’s a girl. Her name’s Una and—”

“Look,” she said, “I know what it’s like being a middler. I was one myself. Always making stuff up to get attention.”

Mayor Anderson? A middler?

Suppose she must be, now I thought about it.

“So if this is all make-believe can we stop right now?” She pulled a crate across the back of the jeep. “It’s going to rain any moment and I need to get these inside.” She took something out of the crate. Bananas. Real bananas. Five or six, bunched together. Like claws. She sniffed at them, and put them back.

“I’m not making it up, Mayor Anderson. It’s true. This wanderer, Una, she came to find some food and now I’m worried because—”

“You’re in the way, Maggie.” The mayor pushed me to one side so Neel could get past.

Flash.

Lightning. Elsie’s storm. It lit up the mayor’s face for a split second. Her yellow teeth. Her spidery skin.

“You have to do something,” I said. “I met her dad – he’s dirty, and dangerous, and deceitful. I think the town’s in danger.”

A rumble of thunder trolled across the sky.

The wind flung Mayor Anderson’s hair forwards again. She pushed it out of her eyes. “Look, Maggie, I really don’t have—”

“I can prove I met them,” I said. “Look.”

I took the sheath out from my shorts. Unwrapped the knife.

Flash.

“It’s got butterflies on the handle.” I held it up. “It’s not from Fennis Wick. I took it from Una’s dad. He’s a wanderer, a real one.”

She looked at the knife.