Quill laughed in pride at his team. But the laugh turned into a painful cough and he had to drink some water. He waved aside Costain’s questions about his physical state. ‘And I know where to find him. And I’ve got a lead on Mary Arthur.’ Quill had looked at the back of his hand when he’d first understood that he had come back to life, and found nothing written there. So he’d grabbed a piece of paper and swiftly written down Mary Arthur’s number, hoping that, having repeated it so many times to himself, he’d remembered it accurately. Now he showed it to Costain. ‘Can you get me to Wapping? I’m going to make a house call on Russell Vincent. We can catch up on the way.’

*   *   *

As Costain drove at terrifying speed through the night that smelt of smoke, and after he and the sergeant had compared notes, Quill dialled the number he’d gone so far to get and spoke quickly and urgently to a voicemail service. ‘Mary,’ he said, ‘this is Detective Inspector James Quill of the Metropolitan Police. I know you’re going to think this is a trap. Mainly because you’ll have heard I was killed, like so many people who have angered Russell Vincent are being killed tonight. But I … avoided that, and so can you. He isn’t as powerful as he thinks he is. We know you might have seen something impossible, and we know what you were involved in.’ He repeated everything that Spatley had told him. ‘We have specialist knowledge of this field. We really can keep you safe. Be a witness for us. You can bring him down. I’m hoping you will.’

‘Tell her you’ll pay her expenses,’ said Costain. He asked for his phone back once Quill had finished the call, and listened to his messages. ‘The others have found something,’ he said, and he told Quill about where Ross and Sefton were. There was a look of tremendous hurt on his face as he did so, as if he’d been the victim of an enormous practical joke, the truth of which was only slowly dawning on him. ‘The long barrow in your notes, they found it anyway. Did I … did I bring you back, did I do that to Ross for nothing?!’

Quill shook his head. Having heard about Sefton and Ross finding the barrow, and having put two and two together with everything Costain had told him, he felt dangerously certain about a few things now. ‘Thanks,’ he said, ‘for my continued existence being valued at “nothing”, but no. I think we’re now going to be able to finish this tonight.’ He started to give Costain specific instructions.

*   *   *