“I’ll tell you why,” I said furiously enough to overcome the dread that was massing around me like the dark. “Because you didn’t want to risk being found out then, but now you’ve got such a hold over Roy and his mother you feel safe.”

“And will you be explaining to them why I’m supposed to have killed your aunt as well?”

“I didn’t say you had, but now I know you did.”

I wished I could distinguish her expression, but the light switch was beside the door beyond her, and I’d grown nervous of venturing closer to her in the dark. “You haven’t told me why,” she said with grotesque coyness.

“Because you couldn’t stop her destroying the relics you’d made her collect. I think you lost the control you’re so determined to keep and went for her.”

“She oughtn’t to have done it. She knew full well I was just a step short of achieving what I’d set out to achieve.”

I felt as eager as afraid to learn “Which was…”

“My powers that waned when my summoners died. Each time I return to the earth.”

I had a sense that the foundations of reality, or at any rate my notions of it, were under threat. “You don’t mean the people who are buried at those sites.”

“Those, yes. When they’re all gathered I shall be free.”

“To do what?”

“To be myself, as the likes of you are.”

For an instant I felt seduced into sympathising, and then I retorted “Not to kill even more people.”

“Patrick, you’re becoming dull. I wouldn’t have expected Thelma’s nephew to grow up such a monomaniac.”

“Better than the kind of maniac you are.” I was furiously aware that my response might well be taken to exemplify dullness. “You killed my parents, didn’t you,” I said as my lips grew stiff.

“Now, Patrick.” She might have been addressing a dotard. “What evidence do you think you have of that?”

“I don’t need to give you any. We both know the truth. It wasn’t just your mobile number my mother recognised.”

“Do remind me.”

“When you wouldn’t meet us at the restaurant because you were afraid she’d know you or my father would. She saw your picture on Roy’s phone when he rang you.”

“She remarked on it, did she?”

“She began to, and I think you know it. I’m guessing you were there and not letting us see you. That’s one of your powers, isn’t it? The power to sneak about and spy on people.”

“Do try to think clearly. If nobody knew I was there, how could that have stopped her speaking up?”