‘They vanished one by one,’ she says. ‘You see it sometimes when a patient wanders from their beds. But they were nowhere to be found. We searched for hours. We checked surveillance footage. No one came in and no one walked out.’

She takes a small sip of water, her hands trembling, her face pixelated.

‘I’ve never seen anything like it. I don’t think anyone has.’

An entire hospital full of empty beds.

The bodies gone. Disappeared.

XII

I close Phineas’s bedroom window each night before I turn in. I know that in the morning Simone will rise before me and open it again to let the air through. She dusts and vacuums his room religiously. She dresses the bed every few days as if she expects him to one day return to it. She tells me she can’t bear for his things to smell stale.

I stand at his window and look at Phil and Helen’s house, aglow in the dark, and remember the night we met them. Simone wore an auburn red dress and we took a hyacinth plant as a gift. I remember walking behind her on the cobbled stone path. It was the first time we’d got dressed up to go anywhere in months. Her cheeks were red from the cold and the snow reflected in her eyes. She was showing, but the bump was neat and from behind it seemed non-existent, a strange trick of the light. I remember wanting her so badly.

‘Why are we here again?’ I asked as we made our way up to the house.

‘They know we’re new to the area so they invited us.’

‘Philip and...’

‘Phil and Helen,’ she said, turning to adjust my tie.

The front door was framed by these giant stone rabbits. They stood proud and alert, their ears elongated, pointing straight upwards. I ran my hand along one, expecting it to be smooth like marble, but the texture was rough. I couldn’t figure out if they were classy or just bizarre. When the door opened I was still fondling one of them. My hand shot back and I smiled like a maniac.

‘You like those?’ Phil asked with a smile. He was classically handsome. He stood broad-shouldered in the doorway and raised a large hand to stroke at his chin. ‘Jury is still out for me. Helen can’t get enough of them, though, and they’re certainly a conversation starter.’

‘They remind me of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.’ Simone smiled, her nose wrinkling.

‘Then that must make me the Mad Hatter,’ Phil said, taking her hand and leading the two of us inside. ‘Won’t you please follow me Through the Looking-Glass?’

Inside, the house opened to a large circular reception area. It was immaculate. Warm light ran along the ceiling and fell like rain across the cream carpeting. A large staircase snaked along the curvature of the far wall. On the upstairs landing guests lingered, touching each other’s arms and laughing.

‘We’ve made a coatroom out of one of the guest rooms,’ Phil said. ‘May I?’ And then he rested his large hands on her shoulders from behind. She thanked him, shrugging off her coat and letting it fall easily into his arms. For a moment I imagined the two of them undressing each other, both eager and hungry to be alone.