She drove him to Gipsy Hill. He drank strong sweet tea from a flask as Lofthouse let him know what had been happening with the others. He let the drink start to warm the terrible cold inside him. His legs kept cramping, and his stomach was tied in knots. Costain and Ross were waiting back at the Portakabin, Lofthouse said. She’d managed to call them and order them to come back in. She wouldn’t say how she’d known where to find Sefton. Whenever they stopped at the lights, she’d toy with that key on her charm bracelet. Sefton finally managed a whisper, because he was so angry at her keeping secrets from them. ‘Five is better than four,’ he whispered, his throat aching. ‘Told that. Meant to be team of five. Like the Continuing Projects Team were. Right now, there’s just three. You could at least make us four.’

She was silent for a long moment. ‘I can’t,’ she said. ‘Not now. You’re just going to have to accept that. If, that is, you want me to keep helping you.’

*   *   *

When Sefton stumbled into the Portakabin, Ross came straight over. ‘Oh my God, Kev,’ she said, ‘I’m so sorry.’

‘We both are,’ said Costain. ‘We had to go; we thought we were onto something.’

Had they really? There was that look on Costain’s face that Sefton knew not to trust. He fell into a seat and Lofthouse asked the others to get him a blanket and a change of clothes and a cup of strong coffee. He wanted a shower, but didn’t feel able to walk over to the nick to get one. Slowly, as he was provided with those things, his voice came back to him and he spoke about where he’d been. Ross added the notes to the concepts column of the Ops Board. Did she seem even more distant than usual? He was so unequipped to tell right now. With his hands shaking, Sefton took out Quill’s notebook, was gratified by their astonished reactions. He read out the last page: ‘Met the suspect in a dream. No clue who. Fell into the figure. Back in time. Longbarrow. Fingerprints on the wall. Dead woman. Locked up. Angry. Dreaming.’

‘Oh, James,’ said Lofthouse, ‘what the fuck?’

‘“Back in time”?’ echoed Costain. ‘Was it him who was locked up?’

‘So Jimmy encountered whatever’s been visiting us in our dreams,’ said Ross, ‘“fell into it,” and … went back in time? Or did he have to get back here in time to do something?’ She made a few attempts at adding new entries to the concepts list, crossing things out a couple of times before she was satisfied.

‘It must be important,’ said Sefton. ‘That’s what I brought back. It was so hard…’ He found he could hardly continue. ‘The secret to all this is in those notes.’