Everything was horrible. Since the moment he’d woken up in the night, and seen all the adults standing about in the kitchen or outside, his mother shouting and Auntie Karen crying harder than he’d ever seen a grown-up cry, things were horrible. His dad was at the police station and no one would tell him why, just that Auntie Karen was saying he’d hurt her, and he didn’t understand why everyone was fussing round Auntie Karen but no one seemed to notice Cassie had her black eye stuff smeared all over her face, like she’d been crying too. Hurt her how? he kept asking. How did Dad hurt Auntie Karen? But no one would tell him. Now his mother was gone too and it was just him and Cassie, and she’d locked herself in her room to tap at her phone, all she ever did these days. He knew she’d got up that night, gone out – he’d felt her stepping over him, trying to be quiet. He knew there were things she wasn’t telling Mum. They were supposed to be having Sunday lunch right now but everything was wrong. He couldn’t even go in his room because his things were all put away still for Bill to stay, his Minecraft bedspread replaced with the boring striped guest one.

He thought about the night before – waking up, hearing everyone shouting. He’d gone on to the landing, and the door to his room had been open. Bill wasn’t in there, and Benji could hear his voice downstairs. Bill’s bag, a sort of canvas one like an adventurer might have, was open on the floor, and Benji just couldn’t resist. There might be anything in there. Guns. Fishing rods. Maps. Mum had made Bill sound a bit like Indiana Jones. So he’d gone in, just for a second. And that was when he’d seen the person.

Looking out the window of his room, into the woods (which sometimes scared him a bit, when he was alone at night, though he’d never have admitted it), he saw there was a man. Benji couldn’t see who it was in the dark, but he was wearing a black jacket, like some kind of raincoat with a hood, and staring up at the house. It was only for a second, and then he disappeared into the trees. Benji didn’t know if he should have told Mum, or if he’d get in trouble for being nosy in Bill’s things. Probably it was someone walking their dog, stopping because they heard the sound of Auntie Karen crying.