It was in this frame of mind that Edward knocked on the front door of the house on the morning of the twenty-sixth and started to question its inhabitants, only to encounter a stumbling, unsteady skeleton wearing a navy pantsuit and a flowery hat.

Everything from there proceeded to go well and truly to shit.

By the time Mika and Jamie pulled into the barn, just thirty minutes later, they were too late.

Mika got out of the Broomstick seconds before Jamie got out of his own car, her sense of glorious, perfect homecoming short-lived. The unfamiliar, expensive car in the driveway was the first sign that something was wrong.

“Edward’s here already?” she said to Jamie in an undertone, alarmed. “Wasn’t he only supposed to be here this afternoon?”

Jamie’s face was grim. “He probably came early to start us off on the back foot. Trust him.”

As they approached the house, Mika spotted the girls perched side by side on the fence, entirely preoccupied with staring at the small garden shed where Ken stored his tools. At the sound of their footsteps, they turned. Altamira leapt off the fence at once, shrieking “Mika!” and rushing over to her. Rosetta hung back a bit, looking distressed.

And Terracotta said, “Good, you’re here. There’s been a bit of a situation, but we’ve fixed it by locking Edward in the garden shed.”

Mika and Jamie stood frozen for a moment, then looked at each other, then looked back at the girls.

“You did what?” Jamie said at last, very, very calmly. “And where the hell are Ian, Ken, and Lucie?”

“Inside,” said Terracotta. “Panicking. Because of the aforementioned situation. They don’t seem impressed with the notion of locking Edward in the shed as a long-term solution.”

It was at this precise moment that Mika noticed something out of place. Just outside the front door of the house, lying in a jumbled heap, was what looked like a navy pantsuit, a hat with satin roses on it, and bones.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Mika said. “You unburied Lillian, didn’t you?”

“Well, yes,” said Terracotta. “Now before you get cross, we know it wasn’t our most brilliant idea ever, but neither of you were here and we didn’t know what else to do.”

“Anything, Terracotta!” Jamie exploded. “You could have done literally anything other than unburying the corpse we’ve been trying to hide!”

Mika squinted at the pile. “Why is she wearing clothes?”