Evil bastard, Elliot thought. One day you’ll pay.

Frustrated and angry, Elliot walked back up the alley onto Turl Street. He looked at the churchyard and saw it was empty. Jessica had gone. He would find her and try to explain.

He jogged along the street to the main gate and stepped into the lodge. He nodded at Dean, the night porter, who was watching a TV show in the small office. Elliot walked through the post room, which was lined with hundreds of pigeonholes, and when he glanced at his own, he saw something inside it.

He reached for the solitary envelope and pulled it out to see his name typed on the front. He didn’t need to open it to know who it was from.

He went to the porter’s window and gently tapped on the glass. Dean turned the volume down on his iPad.

‘Sorry to disturb you, Dean, but did you see the man who delivered this?’ Elliot asked.

‘No, sir. Must have come before my shift,’ Dean replied. ‘Sorry, Mr Asha.’

‘Thanks.’

Dean closed the window and returned to his TV show, while Elliot stepped away from the counter and opened the envelope. Inside there was a typewritten message.

If you’d read my letters, you’d know it’s time. The past has caught up with you. Your future is fated.

Beneath the message was one of Ben’s poems.

If it’s in your mind, it’s in your heart

You see it, hear it, own it

That dream again, the one where you’re dying

To be reborn, renewed, refreshed

The other side of night

Returning from elsewhere

To what will be, beginnings, endings

Come to us all, a tree from earth, a seed from sky

Rising

Falling

On and on

That dream

Again

Elliot leaned against the ancient stone wall. He felt nauseous and realized his hands were trembling. This man. This evil man, who’d done so much harm, had now targeted him. Elliot’s mind raced and painful memories collided with frightful imaginings.

Elliot staggered out of the lodge and up Turl Street towards his room on Bear Lane. He felt sick, tired, and alone.

He never did go to Jessica’s room.

Chapter 36

Elliot hadn’t been home for months. He steered his BMW E Series off the main road, and drove down the familiar little lane that led to Ipstones. He knew every nook and turn, having travelled the route twice daily on the school bus. The trees had grown, but not much else had changed in the years since he’d first moved to the village.

He didn’t remember arriving at Ipstones. He just woke up one day and was living with Mrs Hughes. He recalled crying a lot. He’d missed his parents terribly, and the pain had never really left him. There were no graves, his mother’s body had never been found, and his father’s had been taken by the sea, so he never had closure. There were so many unanswered questions, and Elliot puzzled over them constantly. It was a way of being close to them, he supposed. He could never feel their embrace, but he could try to keep them alive in his memory. And the more he thought of them, the more he came to hate Ben Elmys, the man he was convinced had some role in their deaths.