She didn’t trust him enough to share the whole truth, but giving him a nugget might prove useful. The concealment saddened her, because not so long ago there had been no secrets between them and he’d felt like family.

‘I thought Ben and the kid would be gone long enough for me to search the place.’

‘Social services wanted to do an unplanned visit to see the boy’s normal conditions. We met Dr Strange and the boy on the lane a few miles from the main road,’ he revealed. ‘Lucky really, otherwise we would have just turned up and found you.’

‘I shouldn’t even be talking to you,’ Harri remarked.

‘Your fight is with Powell, not me.’

‘So are you going to share notes? Like I’ve just done.’

Sabih was saved from answering. The door swung open and Ben entered, putting Harri on edge.

‘Have you two been trading secrets?’ he asked with a dark smile. ‘I hope so. I’ll be able to listen to the concealed recorders later.’

Harri shot Sabih a concerned look.

‘Come on,’ Ben said. ‘Do you think I’d bug my own home? What makes you think I’d even need to? We’re all nothing if not predictable.’ He beamed a broad grin, as though the three of them were old friends. ‘I’m going for a walk while the two busybodies do their mind probe on Elliot. Would you like to get some air, Ms Kealty?’

‘Don’t you need to stay?’ Harri asked.

‘They want to interview Elliot alone. I suppose they don’t want me there giving him signals and threatening him and whatnot,’ Ben replied. ‘Would you like to come? The fresh air might do you good. You can bring the muscle if you don’t feel safe being alone with me any more.’

‘The muscle?’ Sabih scoffed. ‘My name is Detective Sergeant Khan.’

‘I know who you are,’ Ben responded. ‘I never forget a name. Especially not yours.’

Sabih shook his head and shot Harri a quizzical look. She felt exactly the same way. Who was this guy and what was he on?

Ben fixed her with his intense gaze. ‘Well?’

‘OK, Mr Elmys. If this is what you want,’ Harri replied. ‘And no, I don’t need the muscle. I can handle myself just fine.’

Transcript of a video recorded by Ben Elmys Eleven Years Later

This video was discovered in Pilgrims Cave, near Lud’s Church in the Peak District.

BEN ELMYS

Remember the day at Longhaven, Harri? When those two social workers came to check on Elliot? We walked up to the ridge. It was windy. I tried to find patterns in the gorse. Isn’t that so much of life? The search for meaning in the meaningless? But do you know what I’ve realized after all these years? Life is just what happens. There is no divine plan, no script, no moral in the tale. Just a sequence of events that binds each of us to a story without purpose. The cosmic storyteller sets our path, but there is no point to it. We are the universe experiencing itself, reflecting on itself. We are existence. Still we look for meaning, determined to make sense of it all. I didn’t find patterns in the gorse that day, but I did discover one in your eyes.