Bao wanted to leave right away. ‘I can’t take it anymore,’ she said as we went down the hall. ‘And I’m alone here. I have a sister in Hong Kong.’

‘We understand,’ I said when we reached the kitchen. ‘And if Dad was here, he’d tell you to take care of yourself, and he’d thank you for all that you’ve done for the Marins.’

Rani had obviously been speaking to Bec on the phone and she’d hurried around. Now they were sitting at the table, talking in low, concerned voices, but when Bec saw me, she gave me her worried frown. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Considering what we’ve been through tonight, I’m surprising myself how well I’m coping.’

She glanced at Rani, who was now studying her hands, and still chewing that lip. ‘Maybe. Sometimes we’re the worst judge of how we’re coping.’

‘Rani, you told Bec what happened?’

Rani frowned and nodded sharply.

‘More or less,’ a concerned Bec said. ‘More or less.’ She sighed. ‘So if Tanja’s back, where’s she been?’

Top question. ‘When she wakes up, we can ask her.’

It was a sensational question, really. If you disappear while trying to get closer to ghosts, where do you end up? Nowhere fun, would be my guess. I mean, she could have woken up in Tahiti and decided to take her time coming home because it’s a tropical island paradise over there, but I doubted it.

Bao introduced herself to Bec, and I smacked myself on the forehead because I hadn’t done it. ‘Bao’s leaving,’ I piped up.

‘Hong Kong,’ Bao said gravely as she sat at the table. She was one of those people with very good posture. Standing, sitting, didn’t matter, her shoulders were always back, her chin up. It made her look composed, and it may have made her seem arrogant if it wasn’t for the small smile that was her usual expression. None of that was there today, though. Not the posture, not the small smile. ‘It’s not safe here.’

Rani gathered herself. ‘We certainly seem to have upped the danger quotient,’ she agreed.

‘Rani told me about the cockwombles with the knives,’ Bec fumed. ‘Where did they come from?’

I grinned. Cockwombles. A bit of Rani’s British slang creeping into Bec’s active vocabulary. ‘I was hoping you could find out,’ I said over my shoulder as I turned on the coffee machine and made sure of the water level. ‘You up for some archive diving?’

‘You want me to find out about these whackos as well as getting to the bottom of this ghost epidemic? What am I, a miracle worker?’

Bao pursed her lips. ‘You’re calling it an epidemic?’

‘We’ve had a rash of sightings,’ Rani said. ‘Far more than the usual numbers, according to Bec’s statistics.’

‘Ah. I thought so,’ Bao said. ‘What’s causing it?’

‘No idea,’ I said. ‘Latte?’

‘Please.’ Bao inspected her hands in her lap. ‘I’m afraid this news only adds to my desire to leave.’

‘I don’t want to put any pressure on you.’ I ground some coffee beans and loaded the machine. ‘But we need all the help we can get right now.’

Bao glanced up at us. ‘I’ve done what I can. Can I talk to your father?’

‘He’s busy.’ I handed the coffee to her and made myself one. ‘But you can talk to us.’

‘I was going to ask if he would inform my …’ Her voice went somewhere for a moment. ‘I was about to say friends, but I haven’t actually had friends in a long time. Ghost-spotting acquaintances, I suppose.’ She sipped her coffee. ‘We use social media. Highly restricted and private,’ she added. ‘And all our posts are couched in terms that would make an outsider believe that we are participating in a role-playing game.

‘For the last few months I’ve been patrolling more extensively, because of the ghosts, so many of them. The epidemic, you call it.’

‘It’s better than Coast to Coast Ghosts,’ I said, ‘even if that does have a certain ring to it.’

‘I’ve been spending much time on my side of the city. So many worked in these places that ghosts congregate even in normal times. And this seems not to be a normal time.’

‘We have some of our people looking through the archives to see if there’s been anything like this in the past,’ Bec said, clearly multiplying herself into a number of people. I couldn’t disagree. She’s that good.

‘Last night, when those people were skulking around that factory,’ Bao went on, ‘I thought they were simply those who’d made their home in it.’ She studied us carefully. ‘I come across the homeless often, in my explorations.’

All ghost hunters, and other people who are out and about at night, know about those who sleep rough, under bridges, in doorways. They do it hard and if we can keep ghosts away from them, that’s something, at least.

‘I didn’t like the look of them, though,’ Bao continued. ‘So I found a gap in the fence. Then the screaming began. I’m sorry.’ Bao’s face was still, but her eyes were – to use a word that gets overused in our line of work – haunted. ‘But I couldn’t go in. That’s why I rang you.’

‘You did the right thing,’ Rani said.

‘It took us twenty minutes to reach you,’ I said. ‘You mean they tortured those poor people for that long?’

‘They did, and that’s when I was convinced they were Trespassers. For the life of me, though, I can’t work out why they did it.’

‘To lure us,’ I said. ‘They boasted that the whole thing was a trap, designed to catch ghost hunters.’

‘What for?’

Rani was grim. ‘To be part of some necromantic phasmaturgy ritual.’

‘Part of?’ Bec echoed.

‘They wanted to sacrifice us,’ I said. ‘Rani and me. And use our blood.’

‘Oh.’ Bec’s voice was very small. ‘But to what end?’

‘Who knows?’

Aunt Tanja had had plenty of gruesome tales about what some people get up to in our field. There’s nothing so depraved that someone hasn’t thought, ‘I’ll have a crack at that!’ and she used to love telling me stories about that sort of thing. I guess they were meant as warnings, but I also suspected she was fascinated, like the people who can’t get enough of serial killer books.

‘We spoiled things,’ Rani said, ‘by not cooperating. Ruined their ritual, rather.’

‘Did you see that noiseless flash of light, Bao?’ I said. ‘That was the sign of something going wrong rather than something going right, I suspect. Tanja’s reappearance was the result.’

‘Whoa,’ Bec said. ‘This wasn’t an ordinary ghost-hunting expedition.’

‘It was dreadful,’ Rani said. ‘In a number of ways.’

Bec looked at her girlfriend and saw something, because instead of probing relentlessly – a Bec specialty – she backed off and patted Rani’s hand instead.

‘Bao,’ I said, ‘did you know Peggy Twotimes? Egon Spengler? They were the victims.’

Bao closed her eyes and exhaled slowly. ‘Peggy dropped out of ghost-spotting circles a long time ago.’

‘It looked like she’d been sleeping rough,’ I said.

‘Life was never very easy for Peggy,’ Bao said. ‘Poor thing.’

‘And Egon?’

‘Only by name, on social media. He was funny. He made us all laugh.’

‘Let’s see what we can do to avenge them,’ Rani said. No lip biting now.

Bao rose. ‘I must go now.’

‘We’ll give you a lift,’ I said. ‘Right, Rani?’

‘Stay here.’ Bao shook her head. ‘Be with each other. Mend.’

I went with her to the front door and did my best, but she also declined offers of food and money.

‘Please say goodbye to your father for me,’ she said. ‘He’s a good man.’

‘She’s going to be missed,’ I said when I got back to the kitchen. ‘She was the best spotter we had.’

‘It rather tells us something when someone like that is scared out of the business, doesn’t it?’ Rani said.

‘Sometimes, scared is sensible,’ Bec said.

‘Even if it’s tantamount to admitting defeat?’ Rani asked.

‘You bet,’ Bec said. ‘And, by the way, you get extra points for using “tantamount” just like that, and it makes you double adorable.’

Their gentle fist bump was perfect and for a second or two it was like I wasn’t even in the room.

‘I could go another coffee,’ I said. ‘You guys?’

‘How could I resist such a classy offer?’ Rani said.

‘I’ll take that as a yes.’ I gave my beard a careful scratch. ‘Bec? Tea?’

‘I’ll make it.’

‘Still don’t trust me with making tea?’

‘You’re getting better, but your heart still isn’t in it.’

Bec stuck her head into the pantry alongside me. ‘I’m worried about Rani,’ she whispered.

‘She’ll be fine.’

‘What? You’ve never heard of PTSD?’

‘She says she’s been trained for stuff like this.’

‘Doesn’t matter how well she’s been trained, it’s going to hit her hard. We need to take care of her.’

‘Sure. Of course.’

Bec reached in front of me for the tea caddy.

‘You two have something special, you know? Ghost sight and hunting and all that. She must tell you stuff she doesn’t tell me.’

‘What?’

‘You two. You know.’

‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’

‘Just don’t leave me out, okay?’

‘Hello?’ Rani called. ‘Have you two finished your little pantry confab? Like to share?’

I grabbed the new packet of coffee beans. ‘We’re concerned about you.’

‘I see.’ Rani had her arms crossed on her chest. ‘So, if I say I’m totally brilliant and not troubled in any way, you’re going to take that as a serious case of denial and call for emergency help, correct?’

I filled the jug with fresh water and plugged it in. ‘We probably won’t stage a full-on intervention, but we will worry, right, Bec?’

‘And if I tell you that I’m conflicted and upset and troubled, you won’t worry?’

‘We’ll still worry,’ Bec said firmly, ‘but it’ll mean that you’re talking about it, which is supposed to be a good thing. So, you talk, and we’ll listen.’

‘And offer advice? Solutions? The answer to my troubles?’

‘Hell, no.’ I loaded the coffee machine. ‘It’s hard enough trying to come up with answers to my own troubles without trying to find them for someone else.’

I turned away and fiddled around until I could put coffee and tea in front of Rani and Bec. I concentrated on nothing but the aroma, the sensation of the crema on my tongue and that lovely acidic/smoky/bitter flavour that makes coffee so good. I was definitely not thinking about all the blood and screaming. ‘Hey, how’s Max?’ I asked.

Bec leaped on the half-volley and cheerily launched into a detailed rundown of Max’s latest. Cat things, mostly, like sleeping and appearing out of thin air when food was brought out. And being cute, apparently.

When she wound down, a couple of subjective hours later, I was ready. ‘Hey, Bec, how’s this one?’ I pulled out my phone. ‘“Real generosity towards the future lies in giving all to the present.”’

Bec pursed her lips. Points for subtlety, Anton. Since Bec was tossing up about her future, why not a future quote? ‘It sounds like Dickens,’ she ventured.

‘Albert Camus.’

Rani squeezed her hand and Bec nodded. ‘I’m going to have to think about that one.’