Somebody had dropped an object, or at any rate something had fallen. I wanted to think one of Thelma’s sketches of me had dropped off its hook, but I felt less than eager to check. Enraged by my reluctance, I flung off the quilt and strode to throw the door wide. The dim corridor was strewn with rectangular items – the portraits that had hung on the wall. I switched on the light and uttered several words I seldom used. All the pictures were still on their hooks. The objects scattered the whole length of the corridor were pages torn out of a book, and the empty binding lay on the carpet outside my bedroom.

Not just the sight of all the litter had provoked my outburst. I’d recognised the archaic handwriting of Lumen Scientiae’s journal. I grabbed the binding and retrieved the pages, only to discover one was missing – the page that gave the names of the writer’s familiar. Its absence might have been an especially sly gibe at my helplessness, since if I showed anyone the book I was bound to be accused of theft and vandalism, unless the culprit had simply taken extra care not to be identified. “Still here, are you?” I said rather more than conversationally as I headed for my desk. “Aren’t you going to make yourself known?”

Only silence replied while I laid the remains of the book in the drawer, having shoved pens and printer cartridges aside, and locked it in. I wanted to believe that Bella had made a mistake at last – that I’d been given evidence I could use if I could only think how. Perhaps sleep would clear my mind, if I was able to sleep, unless I had to think first. I turned off the light in the corridor and hurried to take refuge in the bed from a sudden chill that made me shiver. I slipped under the quilt, and as my head found the pillow a face rose out of the dark to loom over mine. “You came to my bed and so I’ve come to yours, Patrick.”

A convulsive shudder hindered me from recoiling. “Get away,” I protested in a voice that my throat choked almost beyond hearing.

“Don’t you know what you want? I’m here because you called again for me.”