‘Yes. He’s been out there a few times, but that’s the closest I’ve ever got to him. As I said, he looks exactly like the photographs of Mrs Barley’s late husband.’ I wasn’t about to divulge that I had long believed the man to be an earthbound spirit.

‘But as far as you know, Mrs Barley had no surviving family?’

Jack spoke up. ‘Not to our knowledge, no. But then again, we knew nothing about the babies. She was a bit of an enigma, to say the least.’

‘It would certainly seem so.’ The man raised an eyebrow. ‘Well, particularly in light of the recent discovery of human remains, I think we can probably stretch to some surveillance of the property. Rest assured that we’re taking this very seriously. We thought we’d hit a wall, but it’s possible that this individual has some knowledge that might help us with our inquiries.’

Jack looked at me, then turned back to the police officer. ‘What – you think he might’ve had something to do with what happened there? But he doesn’t look that old. I mean, unless he’s got a painting in his attic, he would’ve only been a child when those babies were buried.’

The policeman gave him a wry look and I wasn’t sure he’d understood the allusion to The Picture of Dorian Grey.

‘From everything you’ve told us, it seems strange that he’s always been so focused on the area where the skeletons were found, even before their discovery. A bit too much of a coincidence, if you ask me.’

The two officers left with a promise that a couple of constables would be deployed shortly to keep an eye on the house, which seemed to put Jack’s mind at rest. In the meantime, we had been advised not to enter the property until further notice.

I had a horrible feeling that worse revelations were to come. I kept looking out into the garden, wondering exactly what had happened in the Barleys’ home all those years ago. Remembering the photo album, the evident frenzy with which every image of Frank Barley had been destroyed, I wondered whether it had been the work of this doppelganger. But what on earth could have motivated him to act in such a way – and what else might he be capable of?

*

With an unmarked police car containing two bored-looking policemen watching the house, Jack was mollified to an extent, and decided that he would risk going into work after all. Three days had passed without further event. I was restricted in that I had been advised not to leave home without good reason, and certainly not without informing the officers first; plus I couldn’t make any further progress in Rose Cottage. It was beginning to feel claustrophobic.