Crammed into the back seat with a shivering Bao, the remaining blankets and my backpack, I finally found a drawback with the Aston Martin – the lack of leg room in the rear. Still, if I’ve learned anything in this gap year it’s that minor irritations are just that – minor. Keep the complaining for something worthwhile, like having a pair of furious Rogues coming at you from different directions.

I introduced Rani to Bao, then I touched the still-comatose Tanja on the shoulder. ‘We can’t take her to hospital,’ I said.

Rani was gnawing her lip. ‘I wasn’t going to suggest it. Your house?’

‘Please.’

‘Ring Leon and warn him that we’re bringing home his long-lost sister.’

‘I was thinking of making it a nice surprise.’

‘Don’t you dare.’

Bao spoke up while I found Dad’s number. ‘Please pull over. I can get home from here.’

‘Nope,’ I said. ‘We need to know more about—’ Dad answered and I held up a finger to Bao. ‘Leon? We’re on our way home. Oh, and we’ve got Aunt Tanja in the car with us.’

Yeah, I dropped a bomb on him, one of those that deprive people of the power of speech. Eventually he managed a noise that was something like words, and after trying it again he finally approached coherence: ‘Tanja? You have her?’

‘We do, and we’ll be home soon.’

He wasn’t up to full and complete details, middle of the night and all, so after some assurances and shared expressions of disbelief, I hung up and tried to deal with my own shock all the way home.

When we pulled up, he was standing out the front of the house, a dressing-gown thrown over his flying saucer pyjamas. It could have been worse, especially if it had been one of those hot summer nights.

‘It’s her?’ I asked him anxiously as Rani lifted her out of the car.

Dad peered into the slack face and eased aside a straggly wisp of hair. ‘Oh yes, it’s her.’

Bao almost had to be dragged inside. ‘You have enough to worry about,’ she said.

‘You’re one of us,’ I insisted. ‘And we take care of our own.’

Rani was on the phone, and I took Bao to one of the spare bedrooms. We passed the room where Dad had eased Tanja onto a bed. He had an expression on his face somewhere the other side of incredulity.

He didn’t notice us as we passed, closing the door without taking his eyes off his sister.

‘Bathroom’s across the hall,’ I said to Bao. ‘There should be a spare dressing-gown in the wardrobe.’

We keep plenty of spare dressing-gowns, both here and at the bookshop because, after all, they are the multipurpose garment, perfect for relaxing, serious work or light sporting activity, provided you’re not in public.

A couple of minutes later, I handed a dressing-gowned Bao a fresh towel from the linen press in the hall. She’d chosen a chic sea green DG with ducks on the hem. ‘When you’re dry and warm, we need to talk,’ I said.

She nodded and closed the bathroom door behind her. I picked up her wet and muddy clothes and took them to the laundry.

When I hit start, I stayed in the laundry, listening to the front loader rumble and gush. I needed a little bit of alone time and no one was likely to charge in here to do a bit of handwashing, Dad least of all.

I brooded on my part in the encounter with the bloodthirsty cultists. You know that business about being your own worst critic? Yeah, that. If I was writing a report on myself, it’d say ‘Could do better.’ Handling ghosts was one thing, but when it came to physical stuff Rani was the greatest – and I was letting the side down.

I could beat myself up over this, or I could do something about it, so I pulled out my phone and did some quick online shopping, and even paid for express delivery. The seller was local, so their promised ETA was ‘immediately or sooner’, which possibly involved time travel, I guess.

I massaged my temples. Rani and I had run into Trespassers before and we knew the depravity these people could get up to. Our ghost spotters, though, weren’t used to this sort of thing. We had to take care of Bao and all the others. We owed them, especially the ones who put themselves out like Bao did. She was level-headed, and not just as ghost spotters go. When you think about it, it wouldn’t be that hard to be Levelheaded Champion (Ghost Spotter Division) because so many of them aren’t. Still, in our line of business it helped that Bao wasn’t a panic merchant and she wasn’t a drama monarch.

See what I did there with drama monarch? Please tell me that you did, otherwise this whole thing is going to be hard work.

The washing machine sighed to a stop and I scooped the clothes into the dryer. An hour, tops.

When I came in with the bundle of warm clothes, Bao was sitting on the bed in her dressing-gown. She looked up. ‘I’m leaving for Hong Kong,’ she said.