“What are you threatening me with now?” I demanded, staring fiercely at the dark. I had no idea how long it took me to grasp that I was confronting only darkness. I shoved myself to my feet and strode to the door, which was shut – unopened for at least two hours. The light confirmed that I was wholly alone in the room, and I went through the rest of the apartment to confirm that it was deserted as well.

Surely the threat had been merely a warning; what else could she do to me? I was as ineffectual and unconvincing as she could wish. I had no evidence of any kind against her – and then I thought of the item she’d given me the first time we met, the rarest of the books that used a painting by my aunt. At once I was sure whose name had been blotted out inside the cover, and it must still be under the erasure. I hurried to the shelves where I kept all the books to do with Thelma, but that book wasn’t where I’d filed it. It was nowhere to be found.

I couldn’t help wondering if Bella was spying on my useless search. When I gave up at last, I felt compelled to listen for any hint of trespassing as I made myself get ready for bed. Once I started pacing through the rooms to persuade myself that the intruder hadn’t returned, I was reduced to muttering “Go to bed. Go to bed.” Even there I found it hard to close my eyes, and harder still to shut my thoughts down. I did my best not to think of Bella, in case this functioned as an involuntary summons. I tried to recall memories that wouldn’t bring her to mind, but thinking of my parents only revived my father’s loss of control when they’d found her with them in the car, and any attempt to remember my years with Julia simply reminded me how thoroughly Bella had ingratiated herself. Any thoughts of Roy led straight to her and my fears for him, and a bid to reminisce about my aunt and uncle found me walking in Third Mile Wood, but now I knew I wasn’t alone with Thelma. Our companion was dodging behind the trees, constantly changing from one side of the path to the other, even though I never saw the presence cross the track. This was the nearest I came to dreaming, which wakened me enough to prompt me to struggle not to think of Bella. Suppose striving to keep her out of my mind simply invited her? As I tried to fend off the possibility I heard a sound outside the bedroom.